State v. Defraites

449 So. 2d 540
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 29, 1984
DocketKA-1213
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 449 So. 2d 540 (State v. Defraites) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Defraites, 449 So. 2d 540 (La. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

449 So.2d 540 (1984)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Henry DEFRAITES.

No. KA-1213.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

March 29, 1984.
Rehearing Denied April 25, 1984.
Writ Denied June 15, 1984.

*541 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara B. Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., William R. Campbell, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.

Arthur A. Lemann III, Lemann, O'Hara & Miles, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.

Before BARRY, AUGUSTINE and CIACCIO, JJ.

BARRY, Judge.

The defendant was convicted of public bribery in Orleans Parish, LSA-R.S. 14:118, and now argues double jeopardy and reurges his motions to quash and for a new trial based on improper venue.

FACTS

On May 7, 1980 the defendant was stopped in New Orleans by Officer John Morse and questioned regarding the sale of fake jewelry. The defendant was taken to the police station for questioning where he allegedly offered Morse $400 to avoid being arrested.

On May 14th the defendant and Morse had a pre-arranged meeting in Jefferson Parish. According to Morse, the defendant gave him $400.00 and they discussed the F.B.I.'s investigation of the jewelry scam.

On June 26th the defendant and Morse again met in Jefferson Parish and Morse claims the defendant offered him "... a couple of hundred dollars ..." for a copy of the F.B.I. report on its jewelry investigation. The defendant denied making the offer or asking for a copy of the report. After that meeting Morse contacted the F.B.I. and arranged for a bogus report.

On October 21st Morse told the defendant by telephone that he had the report and they met that afternoon in New Orleans. The telephone conversation and meeting were secretly recorded and several police officers watched from surveillance points. Morse gave the defendant an envelope that contained the F.B.I. "report" and Morse said the defendant told him to retrieve $250.00 from inside a book that was behind the driver's seat of defendant's pick-up *542 truck. Defendant claims the book did not contain money but was related to a poster he had given to Morse. The State argues the taped conversation reveals that Morse asked, "This, the money?", while the defendant maintains he said, "This, the book?".

After leaving the truck, Morse fanned a handful of currency which was a signal to make the arrest. The defendant says Morse took the money from his own pocket, not from the book. Police officers searched Morse prior to his meeting the defendant and all of the money was removed from his pockets.

The defendant was also charged with public bribery in Jefferson Parish and acquitted before his instant conviction.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY

Defendant's first assignment of error focuses on the similarities and factual overlays between the Jefferson and Orleans charges. Essentially, defendant contends he was tried in Jefferson Parish for both alleged bribes—the $400 on May 14th and the offer on October 21st—and this constitutes double jeopardy.

R.S. 14:118 defines public bribery:

Public bribery is the giving or offering to give, directly or indirectly, anything of apparent present or prospective value to any of the following persons, with the intent to influence his conduct in relation to his position, employment, or duty:
(1) Public officer or public employee;...

Tracking this statutory language, the Jefferson bill of information charged that defendant:

[O]n or about the FOURTEENTH day of MAY in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred EIGHTY with force and arms, in the Parish aforesaid [Jefferson] and within the jurisdiction of the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court of Louisiana, in and for the Parish aforesaid, violated R.S. 14:118 by giving and offering to give $400.00 in U.S. currency to Detective John R. Morse, an officer of the New Orleans Police Department, with the intent to influence the conduct of the said John R. Morse in relation to his position, employment and duty,.... (Our emphasis)

The short form indictment in Orleans charged that defendant:

[O]n the twenty-first of October in the year of our Lord, one thousand, nine hundred EIGHTY in the Parish of Orleans aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans did wilfully [sic] and unlawfully commit public bribery by giving or offering to give, directly or indirectly, the sum of two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) to one JOHN MORSE, a policeman employed by the New Orleans Police Department, with the intent of influencing the conduct of the said JOHN MORSE with regards to his position and duty as a police officer of the New Orleans Police Department,.... (our emphasis)

Thus, the information and indictment differ as to dates, locations, and amounts of money. Nonetheless, defendant contends it is unclear whether the acquittal on the Jefferson charge concerned only the alleged $400 payoff or also encompassed a bribery offer during the May 14th meeting. Defendant argues that, because the Jefferson charge does not specify the "object" of the bribe, i.e., his "non-arrest" or the F.B.I. report, and because Officer Morse testified at the Jefferson trial that defendant inquired about the F.B.I. report during their May 14th meeting, the Jefferson trial judge may have found defendant did not pay $400 or offer a bribe for the F.B.I. report. Therefore, defendant contends the Jefferson acquittal should have barred his subsequent prosecution in Orleans for the October 21st payoff involving the same object— the F.B.I. report.

Defendant's argument rests on several suppositions: (1) that the crime of public bribery is a "continuous offense" as used in C.Cr.P. Art. 596 prohibiting consecutive prosecutions for different acts constituting a single offense; (2) that the crime of public *543 bribery is complete upon the making of an offer to give something of value to influence official conduct and "any subsequent giving is merely evidence of the already completed crime"; and (3) that if the "same evidence" test is applied to determine double jeopardy, the acquittal in Jefferson precludes prosecution in Orleans.

C.Cr.P. Art. 596 provides that:
Double jeopardy exists in a second trial only when the charge in that trial is:
(1) Identical with or a different grade of the same offense for which the defendant was in jeopardy in the first trial, whether or not a responsive verdict could have been rendered in the first trial as to the charge in the second trial; or
(2) Based on a part of a continuous offense for which offense the defendant was in jeopardy in the first trial.

Defendant argues that public bribery is either a "continuous offense" or is completed when an offer to bribe is made, regardless of whether the bribe is paid later. Thus, prosecution in Orleans for the October 21st payoff should be barred because of the prior prosecution in Jefferson for the alleged offer. We note, however, that R.S. 14:118 condemns two distinct acts, the "offering to give" and the "giving" of a bribe, either or both of which constitute violations. In State v. Hebert, 402 So.2d 675, 677 (La.1981), the court declared:

As we read the statute it proscribes both the giving and the offering to give without a provision that the offer and the taking shall together constitute a single offense.

In

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Bluebook (online)
449 So. 2d 540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-defraites-lactapp-1984.