Three years ago, a federal jury found former Baltimore City police officer Samuel Ocasio guilty of conspiracy and extortion for his role in an extensive kickback scheme involving police corruption, bribery, and a shady auto repair shop.
Ocasio appealed his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, which heard the case last fall. Ocasio never denied that he had been involved in the kickback scheme–in which the cops funneled cars that had been in accidents to a particular garage, which paid them a few hundred dollars for each referral–but instead argued that it didn’t technically count as a conspiracy under the definition of the law. (For a brain-busting explanation of the argument that teases out the differences between extortion, conspiracy, and kickback schemes, check out this blog post.)
Yesterday, the nation’s highest court upheld the lower court’s ruling, which means that Ocasio’s conviction stands.
Good stuff.