Brady v. United States

41 F.2d 449, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2805
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJune 6, 1930
DocketNos. 4227, 4242
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 41 F.2d 449 (Brady v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brady v. United States, 41 F.2d 449, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2805 (7th Cir. 1930).

Opinion

PAGE, Circuit Judge.

No. 4227 is the appeal of Brady and No. 4242 is the appeal of De Keyzer and Van Heck, all tried together and convicted under three counts of an indictment alleging a conspiracy to (a) maintain a nuisance, (b) sell intoxicating liquor, and (c) possess intoxicating liquor, in violation of the National Prohibition Act (27 USCA).

Brady, in 1925, owning a saloon property at 213 West Third street, Kewanee, Ill., that had been vacant most of the time since Kewanee went diy in 1914, leased the premises of De Keyzer. In 1926, while De KeyzePs lease was in force, the place was raided, and De Keyzer pleaded guilty to an information of three counts charging him, under the National Prohibition Aet, with the possession and sale of liquor, 'and, in the third count, with maintaining a nuisance at 211 West Third street, Kewanee. This indictment followed a raid on August 1,1927.

Brady is urging many errors. The first one is the same as the sole error relied on by De Keyzer and Van Heck, namely, that it was error to admit in evidence the record of De KeyzePs conviction in 1926. The objections urged were overruled, but no exceptions were reserved to the court’s rulings. The government’s theory was, and is, that the conspiracy consisted of acts and things done from the making of the lease to De Keyzer in February, 1925, to the surrender of the premises to Brady in 1927, and that the plea of guilty, alleged to be one of the overt acts under this indictment, was one step in the conspiracy to perpetuate an unlawful business. The ease is argued on the theory that the charge on which De Keyzer was convicted was the same as the charge here. The difference is that the things there charged against De Keyzer as substantive offenses are here merely incidents, which, together with many others, go to make up the conspiracy. It is frequently disclosed that one of the ways of escaping punishment for violations of the National Prohibition Aet is for the accused to suddenly transfer his place of business to a stranger, or a servant, so that the real parties in interest disappear and remain under cover. Whether the plea of guilty, under which De Keyzer was convicted, and the subsequent bill of sale from De Keyzer to Van Heck, were parts of a plan to accomplish the purpose of the conspiracy charged was a question for the jury.

It is urged that there is a variance shown because the third count of the information located the nuisance charged therein at 211 West Third street, and the third overt aet following each count of the indictment here gives the same location, whereas the proof here shows that the sales, etc., were made at 213 West Third street. There is no question but that all the violations took place at what the evidence shows was 213 West Third street, and that De Keyzer pleaded guilty to an offense that in fact was committed at number 213. The aet of 1926 was but one incident in the many that made up the conspiracy, if' one is shown, and the specific place where committed was immaterial. The allegations of the overt acts are under a videlieit, and need not be proven as laid. No one was surprised or misled, and it does not appear how harm could have come from the alleged variance.

[451]*451The District Attorney is charged with unfair tactics in the cross-examination of witnesses and impropriety in his address to the jury. It appears that it was necessary, because of the attitude of some witnesses, to adopt some unusual methods in cross-examination. After carefully reading the evidence, we do not find the District Attorney subject to any criticism in that regard.

Brady brought in men of high business standing, who testified that his reputation as a law-abiding citizen was good. Complaint is made that no more than five such witnesses were allowed, and also of alleged improper cross-examination of those witnesses. We think the limitation and the cross-examination wore not objectionable. Such matters usually are within the sound discretion of the court, and no abuse of discretion appears.

Error is assigned on the court’s treatment of government’s witness Henning, who seems to have exhausted the patience of the court. He was sent to jail until his mind cleared up, and he was ready to tell the truth. Later in the day, he returned to court, asked, and was permitted to testify further. On the following day, Brady’s counsel called Henning to the stand for further cross-examination. He was not cross-examined, but was asked to and did relate to the jury what transpired on his way to the jail, while he was there, and on his way back to court. The urge is that the other witnesses were, in effect, terrorized by the court’s action. What the court did was after the jury had retired from the room. Brady, deliberately, for his own purposes, put the whole matter before the jury in open court. It does not appear that any witness who thereafter testified heard anything that was said or done. It is not complained that Henning testified, after he came hack from jail, to anything except the truth. His experience seemed to have benefited him, and defendants were not prejudiced.

We see nothing improper in the District Attorney’s address to the jury. In any event, after each objection, the court told the jury, in substance, that they would understand that counsel was only expressing his own views of what the evidence showed. No exception was preserved.

The main contention before ns is that there, is no evidence against Brady. There is no evidence that Brady, personally, sold or possessed or drank unlawful liquor in the soft drink parlor, and he denies knowledge of any such sale or possession. It is not denied that he had -a home in Chicago, and much of the time was away from Kewanee. In the De Keyzer lease was the provision: “It is further agreed by both parties that there shall he no intoxicating liquor sold on the premises with their consent.”

Brady had conducted a saloon in the premises at 213 West Third street for many years. After 1914, the property was vacant for seven or eight years, but for a time before the lease to De Keyzer, a restaurant was operated there, and later a soft-drink parlor. The building faced north, was 22 feet wide and 130-odd feet long. Brady had operated a bottling works in the rear 32 feet of the basement, first and second floors, and on February 23, 1925, he leased that part to De Keyzer and another. Flom the lease to De Keyzer, on the same day, of the remainder of the basement and first floor, Brady reserved for his use a space for an office, located somewhere in the front part of the first floor and separated from the rest of the room by a low partition. Some of the witnesses said it could be entered from the street, or by going behind the bar. There were tables in the room, at which people played cards, read, talked, drank, and ate. The old saloon bar and back bar were there, as were also the usual saloon fixtures and equipment. A dumb waiter was back of the bar and was operated between the first and second floors to carry food and drink to a gambling room on the second floor.

April 30, 1925, about sixty days after De Keyzer’s tenancy began, a prohibition agent bought liquor there, and in July, 1926, a raid was made on the place by the federal prohibition officers. On the question as to whether there was liquor found on that day, there is evidence both ways. A safe in the office, belonging to Brady, was sealed by the prohibition officers.

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Bluebook (online)
41 F.2d 449, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2805, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brady-v-united-states-ca7-1930.