Dispensary Lawyer Wins New Trial on Honest Services Fraud Counts

A Massachusetts lawyer found guilty of trying to bribe the City of Medford police chief in connection with the licensing of a recreational marijuana dispensary won, in part, an appeal to undo his convictions on Wednesday.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated Sean O’Donovan’s honest-services fraud convictions, saying the district court shouldn’t have admitted the only evidence that established the jurisdictional element for each of those counts. It affirmed, however, O’Donovan’s federal programs bribery conviction.

An FBI examiner’s testimony, on which the government rested its proof that iMessages—a type of text message transmitted through the internet ...