Tami Sawyer

A Bend couple serving time in federal prison for fraud have appealed their convictions, alleging their planned defense and an expert witness were improperly excluded as evidence.

Former Bend Police Capt. Kevin Sawyer and his wife, former Bend real estate broker Tami Sawyer, were sentenced to prison in April after pleading guilty to crimes associated with defrauding more than 20 people out of more than $4 million. Kevin Sawyer pleaded guilty to one count of providing false statements to a financial institution and is serving 27 months, expecting to be released in April 2015. Tami Sawyer pleaded guilty to all 21 counts against her, including fraud, conspiracy and money laundering, and is serving nine years in prison, expecting to be released in February 2021. They were also ordered to pay more than $5.8 million in restitution.

According to an opening brief filed by the Sawyers’ attorneys Sept. 11, the Sawyers had planned to present evidence that showed Tami Sawyer “was running — albeit nominally in different companies — a ‘real business with a real track record of accomplishment and a reasonable expectation of continuing success,’ and not a scheme to defraud.”

During a pretrial hearing the day the Sawyers were due to stand trial in January in Eugene, Chief District Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court of Oregon excluded the Sawyers’ expert witness, a certified public accountant. Aiken also determined that the Sawyers’ defense, that they had assets available to repay their investors, didn’t matter, and ordered that line of defense could not be used in trial.

The opening brief in the appeal states the CPA, Cathryn Matthews, would have offered expert testimony about how Tami Sawyer’s many businesses ran as a unit. Matthews prepared a report that is included in the appeal brief, which concludes “legitimate investment activity was taking place within The Sawyer Five entities during the period under examination.”

The federal government began investigating the Sawyers’ real estate dealings in early 2009. In a federal grand jury indictment issued in October 2010, the government alleged that between 2004 and 2009 the couple had solicited more than 20 people to invest more than $7 million for real estate projects in Oregon and Indiana. The Sawyers instead used the money to pay earlier investors, make car and credit card payments, and build and furnish their vacation home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

In their appeal, the Sawyers allege they didn’t intentionally seek to defraud their investors and that the net fair market value of the couple’s properties and companies exceeded the amount of money they owed their investors. The appeal suggests that Aiken was too stringent in the limitation of the Sawyers’ defense, and had the Sawyers been able to present their evidence, the jury could have properly assessed their state of mind and intent.

“…(D)efendants sought to introduce circumstantial evidence supporting an inference that they never intended to cheat or deceive clients,” the brief states. “The evidence was admissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Constitution mandated that defendants be permitted to introduce it. This Court must, therefore, reverse the trial court’s rulings and vacate defendants’ convictions.”

The federal government must file its brief opposing the appeal by Oct. 11.