United States v. Cowart

118 F. Supp. 903, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4558
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedFebruary 8, 1954
DocketCr. 1648-53
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 118 F. Supp. 903 (United States v. Cowart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Cowart, 118 F. Supp. 903, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4558 (D.D.C. 1954).

Opinion

MORRIS, District Judge.

The present indictment, which is attacked by several motions of the defendant, upon which hearing was had and memorandum briefs submitted, charges in substance that the defendant, who was an employee of the Department of Agriculture of the United States, did knowingly and wilfully make false and fraudulent statements of representations in a matter within the jurisdiction of said Department of Agriculture, said matter being an investigation of whether or not the defendant held a financial interest in the Baton Rouge Warehouses, Inc., of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was rendering and was about to render services for *905 said warehouse corporation, which said investigation was being conducted under the supervision of William H. Duggan, Chief of Compliance and Investigation Production and Marketing Administration, Department of Agriculture. The alleged false statement, made on or about October 17, 1950, within the District of Columbia, is set forth in the indictment, and in substance denies that the defendant owned any part of said “warehouse,” which statement of the defendant is alleged to be false and fraudulent in that the defendant was then and there the owner of capital stock of Baton Rouge Warehouses, Inc., Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and later received the proceeds of the sale of said stock, all of which was well known to the defendant at the time he wrote the letter containing the statement referred to.

The motion of the defendant to quash and dismiss the indictment asserts that the same does not charge an offense against the laws of the United States, and that the indictment is ambiguous and uncertain, merely stating the conclusions of the pleader. These grounds were not seriously urged in argument in support of motion, and I cannot agree that the indictment is defective in these respects.

In paragraphs 3 and 4, it is asserted that the indictment does not state that the alleged false and fraudulent statements and representations were of a material nature, and neither does it state in what respect said alleged false statements of the defendant were pertinent or material. These grounds were argued very thoroughly, and much reliance was placed upon the case of Rolland v. United States, 5 Cir., 200 F.2d 678. The holding in that case is that, with respect to an indictment for the violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which is the same section involved in the instant case, it is necessary to the validity of the indictment that the alleged false statements be stated in haec verba to be material, or that facts be stated which show them to be material. It, of course, also holds that the proof must sustain such allegations in order to justify a conviction. I have no quarrel with this principle, but I am satisfied that the allegations of the indictment here show that the alleged false statements are material to a proper exercise of the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture and the choice of personnel with which to administer and exercise such jurisdiction. I, therefore, cannot sustain the motion in respect of the two grounds last stated.

Paragraph 5 insists that, by the present indictment, the defendant is being put in jeopardy for the second time in connection with the same offense. It is asserted that the defendant was tried and acquitted on the same offense in the United States District Court at Alexandria, Virginia, before the Honorable Albert B. Bryan, Judge thereof; that the same alleged false and fraudulent statement was offered in evidence at that trial, and the same William H. Duggan testified at said trial, and the facts in the instant case are founded and built upon the facts in the case which was tried in said court in Alexandria, Virginia, and the defendant having been acquitted therein cannot be put upon trial again upon the indictment here under consideration. This is clearly an assertion of a plea of autrefois acquit, or double jeopardy, prohibited by the Constitution, Amend. 5. Obviously there is no double jeopardy here involved, as the charge upon which the defendant was tried, and which resulted in a judgment of acquitr tal by Judge Bryan, was a violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 281, in that the defendant received compensation from the said Baton Rouge Warehouses, Inc., for services rendered by the defendant before the Department of Agriculture, while here the charge is for a different offense, namely, the making of a false and fraudulent statement in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, to the effect that he had no interest in said Baton Rouge Warehouses, Inc. The authorities are too well settled to require discussion that the defense of double jeopardy is applicable only where the same offense is charged. In argument and memorandum briefs *906 submitted in the instant matter, however, it is ably and ingenuously urged with much vigor that under the doctrine of res judicata, imported in part from the civil law to the field of criminal law, an issue which has been litigated and determined in favor of the defendant in a court of competent jurisdiction between the- same parties may not be again litigated by them in another criminal proceeding. It is urged that, in the ease in which judgment of acquittal was rendered by Judge Bryan, proof was offered that the defendant did have an interest in the said Baton Rouge Warehouses, Inc., and that, in order to sustain the present indictment, it would be necessary to offer proof of that alleged fact. The argument runs that by the plea of not guilty entered in the case decided by Judge Bryan, the ownership of any interest in the said Baton Rouge Warehouses, Inc., was put in issue, and by a judgment of acquittal every issue in that case was decided in favor of the defendant, which thereby precludes that issue from again being litigated. The doctrine of res judicata in criminal cases, recognized in the case of United States v. Oppenheimer, 242 U.S. 85, 37 S.Ct. 68, 61 L.Ed. 161, and more particularly dealt with in Sealfon v. United States, 332 U. S. 575, 68 S.Ct. 237, 92 L.Ed. 180, and applied in United States v. De Angelo, 3 Cir., 138 F.2d 466, and in United States v. Carlisi, D.C.E.D.N.Y., 32 F.Supp. 479, contemplates that, to bar the litigation of an issue, the same issue must have been determined favorably to the defendant, expressly or by necessary implication, in a previous proceeding between the same parties. In the Sealfon case, supra [332 U.S. 575, 68 S.Ct. 239], it is stated:

'“Thus the only question in this case is whether the jury’s verdict in the conspiracy trial was a determination favorable to petitioner of the facts essential to conviction of the .substantive offense. This depends upon the facts adduced at each trial and the instructions under which the jury arrived at its verdict at the first trial.”

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Bluebook (online)
118 F. Supp. 903, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-cowart-dcd-1954.