United States v. Charles Schrenzel

462 F.2d 765
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 28, 1972
Docket71-1268
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 462 F.2d 765 (United States v. Charles Schrenzel) 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
United States v. Charles Schrenzel, 462 F.2d 765 (8th Cir. 1972).

Opinions

VAN PELT, Senior District Judge.

Appellant Charles Schrenzel, a pharmacist, was convicted by a jury on all four counts of an indictment charging him with the illegal sale of stimulant drugs. The four-count indictment charged appellant with violation of 21 U.S.C. § 331 (q) (2) in “wilfully, knowingly and unlawfully” selling and delivering in St. Louis County, within the Eastern District of Missouri, a certain number of capsules or tablets of “a stimulant drug within the meaning of Section 321 (v) (2), Title 21, United States Code.” Each count alleged a different date. Count 1 charged a sale January 26, 1971, of 400 capsules, more or less, of a combination of d- and dl-amphetamine sulphate. Counts 2, 3, and 4 each alleged a sale of methamphetamine hydrochloride on January 18, 16, and 14, 1971 respectively. The January 18th sale was 200 tablets, more or less, while the January 16th and 14th sales were each of 100 tablets, more or less. The defendant was found guilty on each count. Judge Webster sentenced him to a total of ten years.

On this appeal, Schrenzel raises eleven points ranging from a claim that the government failed to make a submissible case to an assertion that the defendant was entitled to a copy of the presentence investigation report. We have examined each contention and find all wanting in merit. We briefly comment on each.

Appellant claims that the government failed to make a submissible case as to the specific allegations of each count of the indictment. Defendant was employed as a pharmacist in the Teich Pharmacy in Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri. William Clark, special agent with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, testified that he had made each of the four illegal purchases of drugs from the defendant. Clark’s testimony established that he had no prescription for the drugs and that the defendant knew the sales were illegal. This testimony was substantiated by Darrell Ruediger, a police officer from the Narcotics Section of the St. Louis, Missouri police department, who testified that he was with Agent Clark on two of the four dates that sales were made by the defendant. The government also called Ferris Van Sickle, a government chemist, who analyzed all the government’s drug exhibits.

Count 1 of the indictment, as above explained, charged the defendant with the unlawful sale of 400 capsules, more or less, containing a combination of d- and dl-amphetamine sulphate. Such a drug is a “depressant or stimulant drug” under 21 U.S.C. § 321 (v) (2), which was in effect at the time of the alleged sales but has since been repealed. The government chemist testified that the capsules in the government’s Exhibit 4, which relates to Count 1, contained d- and dl-amphetamine, commercially known as Biphetamine, which is a mixture of the optical isomers of amphetamine. The chemist’s testimony made no mention of sulphate. Count 1, as above noted, included sulphate in its description of the drug charged. The defendant claims that this is a fatal variance and thus the claim that' the government has failed to prove its case on Count 1. We believe the variance was harmless error under Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Certainly a court cannot permit a defendant to be tried on charges which are not made in the indictment against him. Ex parte Bain, 121 U.S. 1, 13, 7 5. Ct. 781, 30 L.Ed. 849 (1887). However, the “true inquiry ... is not .whether there has been a variance in proof, but whether there has been such a variance as to ‘affect the substantial rights’ of the accused.” Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 82, 55 S.Ct. 629, 630, 79 L.Ed. 1314 (1935).

[770]*770The applicable definition of a “depressant or stimulant drug,” found in 21 U.S.C. § 321(v) (2), states: “The term ‘depressant or stimulant drug’ means . . . (2) Any drug which contains any quantity of (A) amphetamine or any of its optical isomers; (B) any salt of amphetamine or any salt of an optical isomer of amphetamine; or (C) any substance which the Secretary, after investigation, has found to be, and by regulation designated as, habit forming because of its stimulant effect on the central nervous system . . . ” 79 Stat. 227. The drug in Exhibit 4, as described by the government chemist was included in the statutory definition under subsection (A). In addition, the trial court instructed the jury that a “depressant or stimulant drug” included amphetamine or any of its optical isomers, in addition to salts of amphetamine. Because the drug identified by the government chemist at trial was included in the definition of stimulant drugs given in the statute and the trial court’s instruction clearly pointed this out to the jury, the failure to include testimony as to whether it was a salt was harmless error.

Appellant makes substantially the same argument with regard to Counts 2, 3, and 4 of the indictment, which charged the unlawful sales of methamphetamine hydrochloride. The government chemist’s conclusion was that Exhibits 1, 2, and 3, contained dl-metham-phetamine hydrochloride, commercially known as Desoxyn. Appellant contends that the failure to include the “dl-” prefix in the indictment was fatal error.

The regulations promulgated to implement subsection (C) of section 321 (v) (2), quoted above, state in part:

“The Director has investigated and designates all drugs, unless exempted by regualtions in this part, containing any amount of the following substances as having potential for abuse and habit-forming because of their stimulant effect on the nervous system: d-, dl-, Methamphetamine and their salts.” 21 C.F.R. § 320.3(b) (January 1, 1970)

The trial court included the regulation in its instructions to the jury. Thus, the substance described by the government pharmacist as contained in Exhibits 1, 2, and 3 was included under the above regulation as a stimulant drug within the meaning of the statute, and the failure to include the “dl-” prefix was a harmless variance. We point out that even the manufacturer of the drug, Desoxyn, did not include the “dl-” prefix on the label of the drug.

Appellant’s reliance on Stirone v. United States, 361 U.S. 212, 80 S.Ct. 270, 4 L.Ed.2d 252 (1960), is misplaced. In that case the Supreme Court held there was a fatal variance between the indictment and the proof, where the indictment charged interference with the importation of sand into Pennsylvania while the evidence showed interference with the exportation of steel products from Pennsylvania, in addition to importation of sand into Pennsylvania. The trial judge had instructed the jury that it could base a conviction on interference with either importation or exportation.

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Bluebook (online)
462 F.2d 765, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-charles-schrenzel-ca8-1972.