No Abuse of Discretion to Deny Request for Attorney's Fees Under Hyde Amendment

U.S. v. Lain, 2011 WL 1798017 (5/12/11) (Kan.) (Published) - It was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to refuse to award the defendant attorney's fees under the Hyde Amendment on the grounds that the government's criminal charges against him were "vexatious, frivolous or in bad faith." The jury acquitted him of a charge of willfully transferring a gun interstate without using a licensed firearm dealer. The prosecutor's animosity towards the defendant did not show the prosecution was selective or vindictive. And there was sufficient evidence to justify the government pursuing the charge given the defendant's dishonest acquisition of the gun. A defendant can willfully violate a law without knowing about the law, as long as he intentionally undertakes an act he knows to be wrongful. The government's superseding charge of possessing a firearm while under indictment, even though the indictment in question had already been dismissed, was the result of sloppy work, not bad faith.