People v. Biane
Annotate this CaseJeffrey Burum and James Erwin were charged with aiding and abetting the receipt of bribes by members of a County Board of Supervisors and with conspiring with the supervisors to have them accept the bribes. The People's theory was that Burum, the payor of the bribes, and Erwin, who acted as Burum's agent, used threats and coercion to encourage the Supervisors to accept the illegal payments. Defendants demurred to all of the counts against them. The trial court sustained the demurrers in part. The court of appeals affirmed in part, concluding (1) the payor of a bribe, as a matter of law, cannot aid and abet the receipt of the same bribe or conspire to commit that offense; and (2) the payor's agent stood in the payor's shoes. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) the status of being the offeror or payor of a bribe does not disqualify that person, as a matter of law, from complicity in the offense of receiving the bribe; and (2) being the offeror or payor of a bribe does not disqualify that person, as a matter of law, from culpability for participating in a conspiracy to accept that same bribe.
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