Sally Jean Rood v. United States

340 F.2d 506, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 6810
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 21, 1965
Docket17677_1
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 340 F.2d 506 (Sally Jean Rood v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sally Jean Rood v. United States, 340 F.2d 506, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 6810 (8th Cir. 1965).

Opinion

MEHAFFY, Circuit Judge.

Sally Jean Rood, defendant-appellant, was tried to a jury and convicted of transferring a counterfeit obligation of the United States with intention that the same be passed as a true and genuine obligation in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 473. 1 Defendant was sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment.

The defendant initially questions the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury verdict. This question is not properly before this Court as no motion for acquittal was made at the close of all the evidence. Upon completion of the prosecution’s evidence, defendant did move for a judgment of acquittal which was overruled by the District Court. Thereupon defendant introduced evidence on behalf of her defense but failed to renew the motion for acquittal at the ■close of all the evidence. Failure to reassert the motion challenging the sufficiency of the evidence at the conclusion •of all the evidence was tantamount to a waiver or abandonment by defendant of this question of law, precluding its consideration by this Court via an appeal. Picciurro v. United States, 250 F.2d 585, 589-590 (8th Cir. 1958). Accord: Edwards v. United States, 333 F.2d 588 (8th Cir. 1964); Rosenbloom v. United States, 259 F.2d 500 (8th Cir. 1958), cert. denied 358 U.S. 929, 79 S.Ct. 315, 3 L.Ed.2d 302 (1959); Cofer v. United States, 256 F.2d 221 (8th Cir. 1958), cert. denied 358 U.S. 840, 79 S.Ct. 65, 3 L.Ed.2d 75 (1958); McDonough v. United States, 248 F.2d 725 (8th Cir. 1957); Mitchell v. United States, 208 F.2d 854 (8th Cir. 1954), cert. denied 347 U.S. 1012, 74 S.Ct. 863, 98 L.Ed. 1135 (1954); Lucas v. United States, 325 F.2d 867 (9th Cir. 1963); Hughes v. United States, 320 F.2d 459 (10th Cir. 1963), cert. denied 375 U.S. 966, 84 S.Ct. 483, 11 L.Ed.2d 415 (1964).

Notwithstanding the above rule, we have carefully reviewed the entire transcript of the testimony to determine whether plain error exists under Fed.R. Crim.P. 52(b). Defendant, in her brief, has accurately summarized the evidence as follows:

“On Tuesday, March 26, 1963, the defendant made a purchase at the Tom Me Ann (sic) Shoe Store in the Glenwood Shopping Center in North Minneapolis from Mr. Worth Schmeda. While paying for this purchase Mr. Schmeda observed a ‘faded’ $20 bill in the possession of the defendant. Thereafter on March 27 the defendant made a purchase at the ‘V’ Store in the same shopping center. She paid for this purchase with a $20 bill which bill was immediately placed in a deposit and sent to the bank. The bookkeeper at the ‘V’ Store recalled receiving a telephone call relative to the counterfeit $20 bill from the store manager who was at the bank with the deposit. She recalled the bill being placed in the deposit and the description of the defendant as having given her the bill which she later placed in the particular deposit which she identified. Thereafter the bookkeeper and a sales clerk left the ‘V’ Store and circulated to the other stores in the center the information relative to the $20 bill.
“Upon entering the Tom McAnn Shoe Store Mr. Schmeda recalled the incident of the previous evening and *508 related his description of the defendant and his view of the ‘faded’ $20 bill. Mrs. Rood denied having the $20 bill on March 26 and admitted that she had used a $20 bill in the purchase at the ‘V’ Store on March 27. However, it was her testimony that she obtained the $20 bill by cashing a $20 check at a super market in the early morning hours of March 27.
“Subsequently on the evening of March 27,1963, Mrs. Rood was again observed at the Henry’s Hamburger stand on Plymouth Avenue in North Minneapolis near the Glenwood Shopping Center. She attempted to pay for her purchase at the hamburger stand with a $20 bill but the manager and clerk at the hamburger stand refused to accept the bill indicating they had no change for it. Thereafter a man in line behind Mrs. Rood at the hamburger stand agreed to change the bill. This man, Donald Dillon, the next morning purchased a money order at a nearby hardware store and thereafter the hardware store deposited these funds and discovered that as part of the payment received from Mr. Dillon for the money order purchased that morning was a counterfeit $20 bill.
“Mrs. Rood admitted that she had been at the hamburger stand and testified that although through the course of the day March 27 she had spent most of the $20 bill that she admitted cashing at the ‘V’ Store that she could not recall where she obtained the second $20 bill, the bill charged in the indictment.”

The conviction was based on defendant’s knowingly passing a countei*feit twenty dollar bill to Donald Dillon at Henry’s Hamburger Stand. Additionally, the evidence clearly indicates that defendant passed another counterfeit twenty dollar bill on the same morning at the “V” Store and was observed at the shoe store the preceding day in possession of an apparently spurious twenty dollar bill. All of this occurring during an approximate twenty-four hour period coupled with defendant’s unsatisfactory explanation of these incidents and her inability to account for the source of the bogus twenty dollar bill she passed to Mr. Dillon constituted substantial, competent evidence justifying the jury’s conclusion of guilt.

Thus, as to the evidence, no plain error exists which would warrant invoking Rule 52(b). See Kreinbring v. United States, 216 F.2d 671, 674 (8th Cir. 1954).

The defendant finally contends that the District Court erred in denying her post-trial motion in arrest of judgment on the ground that the indictment failed to allege an offense against the United States because it neglected to aver knowledge ox* intent to defraud on the part of defendant.

The indictment was cast in the language of the statute, 18 U.S.C.A. § 473, supra footnote 1. It averred that defendant “did exchange, transfer and deliver a counterfeited obligation of the United States with intent that the same be passed and used as a true and genuine obligation of the United States.” Defendant concedes that the indictment would be invulnerable if it had contained the words “knowingly” or “intent to defi’aud.”

The District Court stated in its memorandum overruling defendant’s post-trial motion:

“Obviously, if one passes a counterfeit bill with the intent that the-same be passed and used as a true and genuine obligation of the United States, the passer, if he or she has that intent, necessarily must have-knowledge of the counterfeit character of the security. In other words, the intent required by the statute necessarily implies knowledge that the bill is spurious.”

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Bluebook (online)
340 F.2d 506, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 6810, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sally-jean-rood-v-united-states-ca8-1965.