United States v. Cutolo

861 F. Supp. 1142, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12319, 1994 WL 478794
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedAugust 5, 1994
DocketCR 93-1230
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 861 F. Supp. 1142 (United States v. Cutolo) 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 v. Cutolo, 861 F. Supp. 1142, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12319, 1994 WL 478794 (E.D.N.Y. 1994).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NICKERSON, District Judge:

Defendants William Cutolo, Vincent De-Martino, Gabriel Scianna, Michael Spataro, Joseph Russo, Frank Iannaci, and Frank Campanella have been indicted for conspiracy to murder in order to gain entrance to and maintain and increase their positions in an enterprise engaged in racketeering activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959, and for using and carrying firearms in relation to crimes of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924. Cutolo is also charged with murder under 18 *1145 U.S.C. § 1959. Defendants have made various motions.

I

The indictment alleges, in substance, the following. The defendants are members and associates of the Colombo Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, an enterprise affecting interstate commerce and engaged in racketeering activity. By June of 1991 the Colombo Family had split into two warring factions, each headed by a person desiring to become the Boss of the Family. One faction supported Victor Orena, the Acting Boss of the Family, and the other supported Alphonse Pérsico, son of the Boss of the Family. The defendants are allegedly members of the Orena faction.

The indictment contains five counts. The first two counts charge Cutolo with the murder of and with conspiracy to murder James Angellino in November 1988, for the purpose of gaining entrance to and maintaining and increasing Cutolo’s position in the Colombo Family.

The third count says that in June 1991 all the defendants conspired to murder members of the Pérsico faction in order to gain entrance to and maintain and increase their positions in the Colombo Family.

The fourth and fifth counts charge the defendants with using and carrying firearms during and in relation to the crimes charged in the first three counts.

II

All the defendants move to dismiss Counts One through Three on the ground that 18 U.S.C. § 1959 is unconstitutionally vague on its face and as applied.

Section 1959 provides, in pertinent part: Whoever, ... for the purpose of gaining entrance to or maintaining or increasing position in an enterprise engaged in racketeering activity, murders, ... or conspires to do so, shall be punished [as set forth].

The statute is “void for vagueness” only if it fails to define the criminal offense “with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” United States v. Jackson, 968 F.2d 158, 161 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 664, 121 L.Ed.2d 589 (1992).

The court considers whether § 1959 is vague as applied here, but not whether it is vague on its face. “Vagueness challenges to statutes that do not involve First Amendment interests are examined in light of the facts of the ease at hand.” Id. Section 1959 does not impinge on First Amendment interests.

Defendants say that the reference to “an enterprise engaged in racketeering activity” in § 1959 renders the statute unconstitutional because a defendant cannot determine what that language means. Their first argument is that enterprises do not engage in racketeering activities, people do. Second, they say that in any event the statute does not provide sufficient guidance to determine whether an enterprise has in fact engaged in racketeering activity.

A. Can an enterprise engage in racketeering activity?

Referring to easelaw under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq., the defendants argue that § 1959’s requirement that “an enterprise engage[ ] in racketeering activity” is incomprehensible. They point to rulings of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals holding that it is a misconstruction of the RICO statute to look for an enterprise’s racketeering acts instead of an individual’s racketeering acts. United States v. Bonanno Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, 879 F.2d 20, 27-30 (2d Cir.1989) (organized crime family not a “person” subject to suit under RICO); United States v. Persico, 832 F.2d 705, 714 (2d Cir.1987) (“The focus of section 1962(c) is on the individual patterns of racketeering engaged in by a defendant, rather than the collective activities of the members of the enterprise.”), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1022, 108 S.Ct. 1995, 100 L.Ed.2d 227 (1988); see also United States v. Private Sanitation Indus. Ass’n, 793 F.Supp. 1114, 1128 (E.D.N.Y.1992).

*1146 These decisions are not pertinent. RICO does not reach the collective activities of an enterprise. “Section 1962(c) declares it illegal for a person—not for an enterprise—to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity,” Private Sanitation, 793 F.Supp. at 1128 (original emphasis), although the activities of the enterprise in which the person participates must affect commerce.

In contrast Section 1959 is directed toward specified crimes committed by persons on behalf of a RICO racketeering enterprise. United States v. Concepcion, 983 F.2d 369, 380-81 (2d Cir.1992), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 163, 126 L.Ed.2d 124 (1993). But by its terms the section also requires the government to prove not only that the activities engaged in by the enterprise affect interstate commerce, as in RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1959(b)(2), but that at least some of those activities are “racketeering activity” as defined in § 1961. 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a).

B. Has the enterprise engaged in racketeering activity?

The defendants, citing RICO, say that a defendant cannot determine when an enterprise has “engaged in racketeering activity.” The argument is that while § 1961(1) of RICO defines “racketeering activity” to include the commission of a long list of crimes, federal and state, § 1959 does not spell out how many crimes must be committed and by whom to satisfy that section’s prerequisite that the “enterprise” be “engaged” in such activity.

An enterprise, here a group of individuals associated in fact, can only act through its members, associates, or employees. There should be no difficulty in determining whether predicate crimes committed by such persons were on behalf of the enterprise.

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Bluebook (online)
861 F. Supp. 1142, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12319, 1994 WL 478794, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-cutolo-nyed-1994.