United States v. David

168 F. Supp. 269
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedFebruary 7, 1958
DocketCr. No. 21511
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 168 F. Supp. 269 (United States v. David) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. David, 168 F. Supp. 269 (N.D. Ohio 1958).

Opinion

WEICK, District Judge.

The defendant stands convicted on two counts of an indictment charging him with wilful evasion of income taxes for the years 1948 and 1949.

He has filed his motion for judgment of acquittal, or in the alternative, for a new trial.

Complaint is first made that during the trial the Court permitted the Government attorney to distribute to the jury photostatic copies of stipulated net worth computations for the years 1947, 1948 and 1949, the original of which, except as to items of cash in dispute, had already been received in evidence as Joint Exhibit “1A”. The purpose was to permit the jury to intelligently follow the testimony of the witness Keller as to his computations without being confused over a lot of figures.

No objection to this procedure was made at the time by defendant’s counsel. After the photostats had been handed the jury defendant’s counsel then objected and the Court instructed the jury that they were merely photostats of an exhibit already received in evidence by stipulation of the parties, except as to said cash items which represented what the Government contended. The Court further-instructed the jury that the photostats were for explanatory and illustrative purposes.

The jury could not see the figures on. the admitted Exhibit “1A”. It is not understandable how defendant could be prejudiced by permitting the jury to follow the witness’ testimony by permitting them to use a photostatic copy of the exhibit which the parties had jointly offered in evidence, particularly since the-Court explained the purpose and that the-cash items represented only what the Government contended he had on hand.. Holland v. United States, 348 U.S. 121, 75 S.Ct. 127, 99 L.Ed. 150. During the-course of Mr. Keller’s testimony the figures were explained in detail and the exhibit was later received in evidence as. Gov’t Ex. 17 for explanatory and illustrative purposes.

It is next contended that the Court erred in refusing to order the Government to produce a transcribed unsigned statement of the defendant, Frank David, when the witness Keller was on the stand.

Jencks v. United States, 1957, 353 U.S. 657, 77 S.Ct. 1007, 1 L.Ed.2d 1103, and' Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 3500 are cited as authority.

The statute (Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 3500) was in force at the time of trial; [271]*271and, therefore, governs. Lohman v. United States, 6 Cir., 1958, 251 F.2d 951.

Under this statute, the Government would be required to produce the statement of the witness Keller at the end of his direct examination. Defendant was granted permission to interrogate the witness Keller and he established that the witness had made a written report of his investigation of the case which report the Government produced and handed to defense counsel for their examination and inspection. Defendant did not offer this report in evidence.

Defendant claims that, under this statute, the Court should, in addition, have ordered production of the transcribed unsigned statement of the defendant David taken on September 25, 1950.

The statute will bear no such interpretation as it requires only the production of the statement of a witness of the Government who has completed his direct examination. It does not require production of the statement of any other person.

The Court would have no right to extend the operation of the statute beyond what its plain language requires.

In any event, the point is without merit because the statement was later given to defendant’s attorney during the cross-examination of defendant and it was received in evidence as Gov’t Exhibit 21.

On Page 28 of defendant’s brief is contained the following:

“The statement was admitted as Gov’t Exhibit 21 over the objection of defendant’s counsel.”

The record does not support this claim, ¡but on the contrary shows that defense counsel consented to the admission of the •exhibit in evidence.

In his reply brief, defendant further charges as error the admission in evidence, over his objection, of the statement of the witness Spilker. The record does not support this claim, but shows that the statement originally was received in evidence as a Joint Exhibit “1-c”, without objection, and the numbering was later changed to Gov’t Exhibit “1-c”.

When it was offered by the Government attorney, he addressed defense counsel “If you have no objection.”

Defense counsel made no objection. Later when the exhibit was remarked Gov’t Exhibit “1-c” defense counsel stated: “other than that, we don’t object to it.” This referred to some pencil marks on the exhibit which were removed.

It is further contended that the Court erred in not admitting testimony of the witnesses Spilker and Correll concerning their conversations with the defendant.

These conversations were hearsay evidence and, therefore, inadmissible, but notwithstanding this fact the record will show that most of the conversations related to defendant’s alleged recovery of about $12,300 from Mae Wise and were in fact admitted in evidence without objection.

Furthermore, defendant took the witness stand and gave direct testimony on this subject.

We now come to the consideration of defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal.

The rule applicable in this case was laid down by the Court of Appeals in Ross v. United States, 6 Cir., 1952,197 F.2d 660 and requires the Court to consider the evidence in the most favorable light to the Government. There must, however, be substantial evidence to support the verdict of the jury.

The Government’s case was based solely on the “net worth” method of computation to prove the claimed understatements for the years 1948 and 1949.

The parties agreed to all the items on the defendant’s net worth statements for the years 1943 to 1949, inclusive, except cash on hand and living expenses for the years 1943 to 1947, inclusive.

There were substantial increases in defendant’s net worth during the indictment years not reflected in the income shown on his income tax returns.

[272]*272The question for determination by the jury was whether these increases in net worth resulted from taxable income received by the defendant during the years in question as claimed by the Government or from use of cash on hand which he had accumulated prior thereto.

As is usual in cases involving net worth computations, defendant claimed he had a large amount of cash on hand which the Government did not take into account.

It was the contention of the Government that defendant had cash on hand as of December 31, 1947 in the amount of $17,500, $18,634.72 on December 31,1948 and $15,957 on December 31,1949.

Defendant, on the other hand, claimed that he had cash on hand of $28,000 to $30,000 on December 31, 1947.

After the tax investigation started in this case, defendants attorney Chas. K.

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Related

United States v. Gibson
486 F. Supp. 1230 (S.D. Ohio, 1980)
United States v. Wapnick
202 F. Supp. 712 (E.D. New York, 1962)
Frank David v. United States
264 F.2d 248 (Sixth Circuit, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
168 F. Supp. 269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-david-ohnd-1958.