United States v. Crumpler

636 F. Supp. 396, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24395
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedJune 10, 1986
DocketH Cr 83-36
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 636 F. Supp. 396 (United States v. Crumpler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Crumpler, 636 F. Supp. 396, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24395 (N.D. Ind. 1986).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ALLEN SHARP, Chief Judge.

I.

A.

The double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal.

In this case the original indictment was filed on July 7,1983 and the full indictment is marked Appendix A * and is attached hereto and incorporated herein.

On June 7,1985 a superseding indictment was filed in this case in five counts charging only Benjamin Legón Crumpler and is attached as Appendix B.* (It was conceded in open court by counsel for Crumpler that Counts IV and V of the superseding indictment filed on June 7, 1985 in this case were not subject to dismissal on double jeopardy grounds.)

The defendant, Benjamin Legón Crumpler, was also charged in an indictment filed in the Central District of Florida at Tampa on July 26, 1984 and is attached as Appendix C.* There was a superseding indictment to correct only typographical errors in Tampa of which this court is familiar and that indictment is attached hereto, marked Appendix D,* for purposes of clarity-

This court held an extensive evidentiary hearing in this case at the explicit request of the defendant, which hearing was held on February 10, 11, 12 and 13, 1986, and a *398 full and complete transcript of the same has been prepared and filed totaling 681 pages, which transcript has been carefully examined by the court and has been available to both counsel for the government and counsel for the defendant. In addition to which this court, at the express request of defense counsel, heard final oral arguments on the 25th day of April, 1986, which oral arguments lasted approximately one and one-half hours.

The salient fact in this case that creates the double jeopardy argument of the defendant is this defendant’s acquittal of the superseding indictment in Florida on May 21, 1985. He now argues here that the double jeopardy clause prohibits the prosecution of Counts I, II and III of the superseding indictment filed in this case.

A facial examination of the indictment upon which this defendant was acquitted in Florida and the indictment upon which he is currently charged in this district fails to reflect a double jeopardy preclusion.

In spite of this court’s repeated requests and admonition both the defendant Crumpler and the United States of America, for reasons best known to each of them, declined to put before this court a transcript of the evidence in the case tried in Tampa, Florida. It is this court’s belief that such failure must be primarily charged to the defendant since the defendant had the burden of proof on the double jeopardy issue in the hearing before this court. Nonetheless its absence presents serious problems to the proper disposition of this double jeopardy issue at this time.

Given this record with its apparent deficiencies this court must attempt to sort through the facts presented to determine whether in fact the present prosecution is for the same offense for which this defendant was acquitted in Tampa, Florida. The difficulty inheres in the nature of the offense and not in any conceptual problems with the double jeopardy clause. The application of the double jeopardy clause is clear and the kind of conceptual problems that are reflected most recently in United States v. Jefferson, 782 F.2d 697, (7th Cir.1986) are not here present. The problem inheres in the factual nature of conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise offenses. The court must make an extensive dissection of the factual record in this case before proceeding to the necessary conclusion under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Defendant was earlier charged in an indictment by the Southern District of Indiana in the mid-seventies. He fled the country and remained a fugitive until his arrest June 1, 1984.

On July 7, 1983, a United States Grand Jury, sitting in the Northern District of Indiana returned an indictment (hereinafter Indiana Indictment) against Benjamin Legón Crumpler (hereafter defendant). Forty other defendants were indicted as well. 1 Defendant was charged in Count Three with a violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952(a), 963, conspiring to import marijuana and cocaine into the United States, and in Count Four with a violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 846, conspiring to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute marijuana and cocaine. The dates on the original Indiana indictment read as follows: “Beginning during the early summer of 1977, the exact date being unknown to the Grand Jury, and continuing thereafter up to or about January 20, 1983, in the Northern District of Indiana and elsewhere.” A superseding indictment was returned against the defendant on June 7, 1985, charging him in five counts: Count 1 charges him with a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848, operating a Continuing Criminal Enterprise (hereafter CCE); Count 2 with a violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952(a), 963; Count 3 with a violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846; Count 4 with a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 843(b) and 18 U.S.C. § 2; Count 5 with a violation of 18 *399 U.S.C. §§ 1952, 2. The dates alleged in the superseding indictment read as follows: “From in or about March, 1978, and continuing thereafter up to and including in or about January, 1981, the exact dates being unknown to the Grand Jury, in the Northern District of Indiana and elsewhere.” On June 11, 1985 defendant was arraigned on the superseding indictment and pled not guilty to all counts.

The defendant had also been indicted on July 26, 1984 by the Middle District of Florida (hereafter Tampa indictment) wherein he was charged with a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848, CCE, as well as 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846, 952, 963 and 18 U.S.C. § 2. Defendant was acquitted of all charges there on May 21, 1985.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
636 F. Supp. 396, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-crumpler-innd-1986.