United States ex rel. Greenberg v. Pulver

1 F. Supp. 909, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1878
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMarch 9, 1932
DocketCr. 2798, 2799
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1 F. Supp. 909 (United States ex rel. Greenberg v. Pulver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States ex rel. Greenberg v. Pulver, 1 F. Supp. 909, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1878 (E.D.N.Y. 1932).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

This is a hearing on a writ of habeas corpus aided by a writ of certiorari.

The relator after a hearing was remanded by a United States commissioner of this district to the custody of the United States marshal of this district to await the order of a judge of this district directing the removal of the relator to the first division of the district of Kansas.

The better practice is to wait until an order of removal has been granted by the judge, and for the relator then to sue out the writ of habeas corpus, but, in this instance, the relator, having applied for the writ immediately after the commissioner had committed him to await the judge’s order of removal, the resistance on the part of the government to the relator’s discharge will be considered equivalent to a motion for a warrant for the removal of the accused to the other district, which the District Judge alone is authorized to issue, under section 1014 of the Revised Statutes, now title 18, section 591, U. S. Code (18 USCA § 591). United States v. Power (C. C. A.) 279 F. 735.

In April, 1930, the grand jury in the First Division of the District of Kansas found and presented an indictment charging a conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States, and named in said indictment as one of the defendants one “J. B. Greenberg, whose Christian name is to the Grand Jury unknown, alias Edward Jaybee.”

No question appears to have been raised before the commissioner as to probable cause, and none was raised before this court on the argument on the writ; therefore probable cause is shown by the indictment, a copy of which is in evidence.

The sole question raised' is that of the identity of the relator with the person indicted.

The government contends that the relator is the person whom the grand jury of the First Division of the District of Kansas in-dieted in the said indictment under the name of “J. B. Greenberg, whose Christian name is to the Grand Jury unknown, alias Edward Jaybee.”

This is challenged by the relator, who tendered the issue of identity both before the commissioner and before this court upon the hearing of the writ.

The burden rests upon the government to clearly and satisfactorily establish the identity of the relator as the defendant in-dieted hy the grand jury. In re Burkhardt (D. C.) 33 F. 25, 26; United States ex rel. Povlin v. Hecht (C. C. A.) 48 F.(2d) 90; United States ex rel. Mouquin v. Hecht (C. C. A.) 22 F.(2d) 264, 265.

The commissioner saw and heard the witnesses, and his finding of fact, if supported by competent evidence, is not reviewable on this hearing. Rumely v. McCarthy, 250 U. S. 283, 39 S. Ct. 483, 63 L. Ed. 983, affirming (D. C.) 256 F. 565.

We are not concerned at this time with the question of who committed the crime, our only concern is whether the relator is the person whom the grand jury meant to indict.

The meaning of the grand jury/ is to be ascertained from the words they used, and in case of doubt it may be found by looking at the circumstances under which they were uttered.

These circumstances were the evidence before the grand jury when they found the indictment, and, if doubt arises, they are to be understood as indicating the person described in the testimony.

If it be shown that the witnesses in their testimony before the grand jury described the person arrested, he is the person indicted. United States ex rel. Mouquin v. Hecht, supra.

It was competent for the government to show the person described by the witnesses to the grand jury. United States ex rel. Mouquin v. Hecht, supra.

In its efforts to make such proof, the government was unduly restrained by some of the commissioner’s rulings, which were erroneous.

In the case at bar, it clearly appears on the face of the indictment, particularly in- the alleged overt acts Nos. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, that the person whom the grand jury meant to-, and did, indict was the J. B. Green-berg, whose Christian name was to the grand jury unknown, alias Edward Jaybee, who with Samuel Rubin, Harry J. Mandell, alias Ralph Lewis, alias Charles Harris, under the defendants’ trade-name of Pioneer Sales Company, carried on business at the place of [911]*911business of the De Luxe Packing Company, at 1129 Myrtle avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.

If there be sufficient evidence to show that the relator with the others named, or either of them, carried on business during the times alleged in the indictment at the place aforesaid, under the trade-name of Pioneer Sales Company, then the relator is the person whom the said grand jury meant to in-diet, and an order for his removal should be granted.

The case as presented on behalf of the government was somewhat confusing, and should have been made clearer, but little, if any, confusion will arise if attention be directed to the question of whether the relator was, at the times and places set forth in the said indictment, with the others named or either of them, carrying on business under the trade-name of Pioneer Sales Company;

On the hearing before the commissioner in the first instance, the proceedings were pressed upon a clearly mistaken identification by Martin J. MeGoff, a prohibition agent attached to the Department of Justice, of one Charles Tannenbaum, as the person whom the said grand jury meant to indict as J. B. Greenberg, alias Edward Jaybee.

The said Agent MeGoff testified before the said grand jury which found and presented the indictment in question, and he made the arrest herein.

On the hearing before the commissioner, Agent MeGoff testified that he was acquainted with the said Edward Jaybee by sight, and that he arrested the defendant J. B. Green-berg, alias Edward Jaybee, on a warrant at 983 Eulton street, Brooklyn, N. Y., in J. B. Greenberg’s drug store, and the man who signed the bail bond in his presence was the one he arrested, and that man has been clearly shown to be the relator, but the said Agent MeGoff, on the hearing before the commissioner, positively identified the said Charles Tannenbaum as such J. B. Greenberg, alias Edward Jaybee, and said that he could not be mistaken; but he was also just as positive that said Charles Tannenbaum was the person arrested by him as Edward Jaybee, which was the only name by which he knew him, and also insisted that said Charles Tannenbaum was the person arrested by him as Edward Jaybee, even after it was called to his attention that the witness Crews, who secured the bond for the relator after his arrest, had testified; that the relator, and not Charles Tannenbaum, was the person admitted to bail in the presence of said Agent MeGoff.

The evidence clearly shows that thei relator, and not Charles Tannenbaum, was the person who was arrested by Agent MeGoff.

There is nothing in the record to show what resemblance there was between the relator and said Charles Tannenbaum, but the said Charles Tannenbaum did testify that he had been taken for J. B. Greenberg maybe once or twice, and it is not for me'to make any assumption, but the commissioner saw both the relator and Charles Tannenbaum.

David R.

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Bluebook (online)
1 F. Supp. 909, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-greenberg-v-pulver-nyed-1932.