Kamanosuke Yuge v. United States

127 F.2d 683, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3949
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 19, 1942
DocketNo. 9600
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 127 F.2d 683 (Kamanosuke Yuge v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kamanosuke Yuge v. United States, 127 F.2d 683, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3949 (9th Cir. 1942).

Opinion

STEPHENS, Circuit Judge.

Eleven persons were indicted in one instrument containing two counts. Count I charged all eleven with having kidnapped Hideichi Yamatoda on or about the 23d day of December, 1938, in California, and having transported him into the Republic of Mexico. Count II charged all eleven with having conspired to kidnap the said Yamatoda in California and to transport him into the Republic of Mexico, 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 408a-408c.

All eleven indicted persons were arrested and upon arraignment all pleaded not guilty to both counts of the indictment. All, excepting one, were present and ready for trial by judge and jury when the trial commenced.

[685]*685The names of those indicted, together with the disposition of the case as to each in the District Court, are as follows: We have italicized the parties appellant.

guilty on Count II disagreement on Count I sentenced KamanosuTce Yuga—

guilty on both Counts sentenced Betsuzo Otar—

guilty on both Counts sentenced Kazuji Bonoda—

Richard Iwao Yoshidar- guilty on Count II disagreement on Count I sentenced

acquitted on both counts Tokogiro Nakashima—

acquitted on both counts court’s direction Frank Ugawa—

acquitted on both Counts court’s direction Frank Asanuma—

not tried A witness in the case, Tokio Tagawa is a brother of this defendant. In the opinion where this witness is referred to we shall use his whole name, Mitsui Tagawa—

guilty on Count I disagreement on Count II Roul Mat&us—

dismissal as to both Counts Louis W. Henry—

disagreement as to both Counts J. Sterling Oswalt—

There is wide divergence in the testimony and yet there is a main thread of admitted fact running throughout the re-recitals of the several witnesses. In one way or another, innocently ór blamefully, each defendant is a character in the factual story.

Yamatoda, it appears, was the “Boss” of a Japanese social or gambling club in “Little Tokio”, Los Angeles, and he owned a film exchange business sometimes called the Japanese Film Exchange. He appears to have been conveyed by automobile from Los Angeles to- Indio, California, thence to El Centro, California, where he was imprisoned in the county jail and later in the city jail of that city for some hours. Thereafter he was conveyed by automobile across the Mexican Border to a point near Mexicali, Mexico. There is an abundance of evidence upon which the jury could have found as it did do and we herein recite it in brief. The whole affair is lurid and melodramatic, but we cannot say that any of it is so improbable as to be beyond credence, for the reason that the admitted and undisputed facts sustain intact the main thread of the unusual happenings.

The story begins with the testimony of Federal Narcotic Agent John J. Orth as to a conversation in New York City in the summer of 1937, Yuge, Ugawa and Tagawa being present. The testimony as to this conversation and the assignment of error in relation to its admission in evidence will not be considered for the reason that it was stricken from the record and the jury was properly instructed to disregard it.

The first evidentiary event appears to be a meeting in September of 1938 in the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel, with Orth, Major Manning and Inspector Gillenhammer of the Federal Narcotic Bureau, Yuge, Ota, Sonoda, Ugawa, defendant Tagawa and his brother Tokio all being present. There is testimony that at this meeting Tagawa said he had obtained Yamatoda’s arrest in San Francisco and that he could help the officers in their investigation of Yamatoda for suspected violations of the narcotic law, and that he suggested that he perhaps could take over the Tokio Club in Los Angeles and thereby better assist the officers.

Thereafter Orth kept more or less in touch with Yuge, Ota, Sonoda, Ugawa and Tagawa until October 12, 1938, on which date he went to the apartment house wherein these men lived (excepting Tagawa) and there talked with Yuge, Sonoda and defendant Henry, a Los Angeles police officer.

The testimony then moves us up to the evening of September 25, 1938, and to East First Street [formerly Japanese Town], Los Angeles. It appears that Yamatoda went to the Tokio Club and there told Tagawa that he understood he wished to talk to him. About half an hour later Yamatoda with a friend left the Club to walk to the Film Exchange a block away and suddenly observed Police Officer Henry, gun in hand and with Police Officer Dixon, some white men and Ota, Sonoda and Tagawa, running across the street toward them. The officers handcuffed Yamatoda and some others and took them to the city jail. Thereafter the police with Ota, Sonoda and Tagawa went to the Tokio Club taking Yamatoda and his friends Nomura and Nakada with them, but found the doors locked.

The next day Yuge, Ota, Sonoda and Tokio Tagawa went to the Film Exchange where employees of Yamatoda told them officers were coming and that they had better go. Officers Henry and Dixon entered, talked with the employees and left in Henry’s car with Ota, Sonoda and Tokio Tagawa.

Three months elapse and the scene is shifted to El Centro, the county seat of [686]*686Imperial County within a few miles from the Mexican border and about 200 miles from Los Angeles. On December 21, 1938, Oswalt, at the time the Chief of Police of El Centro, secured the signature of Yoshida to an- affidavit charging Yamatoda with a gambling offense. There is evidence that Yoshida said he wanted to put Yamatoda “behind the bars” because Yamatoda had tried to put him there. Upon the affidavit referred to, a warrant of arrest was issued by a Justice of the Peace. Armed with this warrant, Oswalt, with Deputy Sheriff Crousen, started by automobile from El Centro, picked up two Japanese near El Centro whom Oswalt said would help locate Yamatoda and drove on to Los Angeles.

The next day they met Officers Henry and Dixon at the Los Angeles city jail together with the two Japanese picked up in El Centro. That evening Oswalt told Crousen that Yamatoda had been located and later Oswalt, Dixon and Henry went to Yamatoda’s home where the El Centro warrant of arrest was served upon him. Yamatoda and a white prisoner were handcuffed together and put in the back seat of an automobile. Henry was in the driver’s seat and Oswalt and Crousen were in the front seat with him as they drove to Pomona, about 30 miles from Los Angeles toward El Centro. At Pomona Henry joined Dixon in another car that had followed from Los Angeles. The Oswalt car then was driven on to Indio, about half way between Los Angeles and El Centro, with its remaining passengers. Before they arrived in Indio Yamatoda says he asked to be let loose but that Oswalt accused Yamatoda of double-crossing him and said “I can put you in jail or I can throw you out in the desert”.

At Indio the Oswalt party was met by Yuge, Yoshida with his employee Arriola, and another police officer of El Centro. Oswalt had telephoned Yoshida in El Centro to meet him in Indio. After the meeting, Yuge, Yoshida, Yamatoda and Oswalt started for El Centro in Yoshida’s car and the others came on later in Oswalt’s car after some repairs had been made to it. Ota and Ugawa were waiting at the El Centro Tokio Club when Oswalt and company arrived early in the morning.

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127 F.2d 683, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3949, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kamanosuke-yuge-v-united-states-ca9-1942.