United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit No. 19‐3388 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff‐Appellee,

v.

ETHEL SHELTON, Defendant‐Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division. No. 2:14‐cr‐00129‐JVB‐JEM‐2 — Joseph S. Van Bokkelen, Judge.

ARGUED NOVEMBER 13, 2020 — DECIDED MAY 14, 2021

Before FLAUM, ROVNER, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges. ROVNER, Circuit Judge. Demoted, disparaged, and deprived of a free government car, Stafford Garbutt decided that he could no longer tolerate what he believed to be criminal conduct by his boss and co‐workers, conduct that he himself had been engaging in for more than ten years. After his anonymous letters to a local newspaper and to the United 2 No. 19‐3388 States Attorney’s office accusing his former friend and boss of official misconduct failed to garner any response, he ap‐ proached the United States Attorney’s office in person with his story. That office directed him to the FBI, where he began a partnership with an agent who eventually directed him to conduct warrantless searches of his co‐workers’ offices. Garbutt’s actions ultimately ensnared not only his intended target, Calumet Township Trustee Mary Elgin, but also Elgin’s administrative assistant, Ethel Shelton, the defendant here. After Elgin took a plea deal, a jury convicted Ethel Shelton of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud related to her actions as an em‐ ployee of the Calumet Township Trustee’s Office. Shelton learned mid‐trial that the FBI agent had directed Garbutt to conduct warrantless searches of her office. Although the district court tried to mitigate any damage by allowing Shelton to move post‐trial for relief, the court ultimately denied her motion. We reverse and remand. I. Mary Elgin first ran for the post of Trustee of Calumet Township in 2002. The Trustee’s Office was charged with helping people in the community in need of assistance in areas such as jobs, food, housing, and the like. Elgin had previously been a union official in the United Steelworkers of America, and she met Stafford Garbutt at an international convention for the union in 1980. Garbutt, who holds dual citizenship in Belize and the United States, was impressed with Elgin and began to help her with campaigns for union leadership posts. When Elgin decided to run for the position of Trustee of Calumet Township in 2002, she contacted Garbutt and asked No. 19‐3388 3 him to help. Garbutt, who was living in Belize at the time and working as an assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister of that country, agreed to help and immediately drafted a program for her election. He moved from Belize (where he had a wife and daughter) into Elgin’s home in Gary, Indiana, where he remained for several months. He created a political action committee for her, developed newsletters and flyers, and worked on all aspects of her campaign. That campaign marked the first of Elgin’s three successful bids for the position of Trustee, a post she held for twelve years. Garbutt conceded at trial that he had an intimate relationship with Elgin (although he denied it was sexual in nature), and admitted that they traveled and socialized together. After Elgin’s first successful campaign for Trustee, she hired Garbutt to work at the Trustee’s Office and allowed him to write his own job descrip‐ tion and essentially name his own salary. The Trustee’s Office was organized with Elgin at the top, and several deputies reporting to her, including a chief deputy who acted as the principal administrator for the Office. The deputies supervised the various department