Court Reverses Encino’s Man Conviction

A federal appeals court Thursday reversed the conviction of an Encino man on mail fraud charges, saying the trial judge pushed him into pleading guilty in a deal with prosecutors.

U. S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian had sentenced Mark Roy Anderson, 38, to seven years in prison in 1991 after Anderson pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud in a tax-shelter scheme, officials said.

Anderson had, in three years, conned about 1,500 investors out of nearly $50 million by promising them tax benefits in return for money invested with him to restore historic buildings, prosecutors said. He was ordered to pay $6.7 million to the victims.

Anderson, who headed Marlin Properties, was indicted on 30 counts of mail fraud in connection with the scheme on May 6, 1991, and originally pleaded innocent, said Loretta S. Shartsis, his attorney. Tevrizian set a trial date for May 14, saying he wanted to “try the case in a few days,” Shartsis said.

The judge then noted that Anderson had been talking with the U. S. attorney’s office about a plea bargain. The judge said he did not believe in plea bargains, commenting that the court was not like the TV game show “Let’s Make a Deal,” Shartsis said. Anderson then switched his plea to guilty.

Anderson later filed an appeal on the grounds that he should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea because Tevrizian improperly pressured him.

A three-member panel of the 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals concurred.

Judge Betty B. Fletcher, who wrote for the panel, stated that the hearing, in fact, “bore some resemblance to an episode from ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ ” because Tevrizian appeared to force Anderson’s plea.

The timing of Anderson’s change of heart showed that Tevrizian’s action was a “substantial factor” in Anderson’s decision, Fletcher wrote. “It is difficult to understand how Anderson could not feel pressured by the court’s now-or-never tactics,” she wrote.

Shartsis explained that although state judges may take part in such discussion, it is “absolutely impermissible for a federal judge to participate in the plea-bargaining process.”

Representatives from the U. S. attorney’s office refused to comment on the case, saying they had not examined the decision yet.

Anderson, who has already served two years at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Boron and an Arizona holding facility, now may try for another plea bargain in the case or face another trial, Shartsis said.