United States v. Edgar Jones, Mose Meade, German Stumbo, Kenneth Rowland and Teddy Kinney

766 F.2d 994, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20465
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJuly 11, 1985
Docket84-5474, 84-5511, 84-5523, 84-5524 and 84-5525
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 766 F.2d 994 (United States v. Edgar Jones, Mose Meade, German Stumbo, Kenneth Rowland and Teddy Kinney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Edgar Jones, Mose Meade, German Stumbo, Kenneth Rowland and Teddy Kinney, 766 F.2d 994, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20465 (6th Cir. 1985).

Opinion

TIMBERS, Senior Circuit Judge.

Edgar Jones, Mose Meade, German Stumbo, Kenneth Rowland and Teddy Kinney appeal from judgments of conviction entered May 29, 1984 in the Eastern District of Kentucky, G. Wix Unthank, District Judge.

All appellants were convicted after a jury trial of one count of conspiracy to obstruct interstate commerce.by force and violence and of one count of extortion resulting in such obstruction, in violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951 (1982) (the Act). The extortion conviction arose from the bombing of mining equipment belonging to the Ray-Mac Coal Co. (Ray-Mac), a competitor of Jones. Stumbo also was convicted of destruction of property by use of explosives, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(i) (1982). Meade also was convicted of a second count of extortion, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951, arising from the destruction of a coal tipple by arson.

All appellants were sentenced to consecutive terms of three years imprisonment on the conspiracy and the first extortion count; the court ordered, as to all appellants, that the sentences on the extortion count be suspended and appellants be placed on probation for two years. In addition, Meade and Stumbo were sentenced to consecutive terms of imprisonment of three years and eighteen months, respectively, on their additional convictions of destruction of property and extortion, respectively; the court ordered that the additional sentences imposed on Meade and Stumbo be suspended and that they be placed on probation for a period of two years. In short, the net sentence of imprisonment imposed on each appellant was three years. All appellants are free on bond pending appeal.

*997 I.

We summarize only those facts believed necessary to an understanding of our rulings on the legal issues raised on this appeal.

Jones was the part owner and president of the JRM Coal Co. (JRM), a company that marketed coal that was mined by a group of contract mine operators. Stumbo was one of these operators, as were accomplices Phillip and Pearl Booth, who entered into plea agreements in return for their testimony at trial. All of the operators in JRM’s network had labor contracts with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).

In early 1982, JRM had a long-term contract to sell coal to South Carolina Electric and Gas Co. (South Carolina Electric). A force majeure clause in the contract relieved JRM of its obligation, in the event of a labor dispute or strike, to provide 7500 tons of coal per week. In mid-February 1982, JRM faced a depletion of coal available for shipment. Jones became concerned that Ray-Mac, a non-union operator, would take advantage of JRM’s shortage and attempt to sell to South Carolina Electric at reduced prices. Jones enlisted UMWA local officials, including appellant Kinney, to stage a strike that would shut down Ray-Mac by preventing access to Ray-Mac’s mine. The strike at JRM’s affiliated mines also would allow JRM to invoke the force majeure clause and prevent noncompliance with the terms of its contract with South Carolina Electric.

JRM agreed during the strike to pay the wages of the miners employed by the contract mine operators. Booth and the other JRM affiliates told their miners to go on strike, explaining that it was necessary to protect the contract and preserve their jobs. The miners went on strike. A representative of the district office of the UMWA arrived and told the miners to return to work because the strike was illegal, but the miners remained off the job.

JRM financed the purchase of a large number of weapons by the Booths, who then provided the weapons to the strikers. Jones provided a ease of whiskey to keep the strikers “fired up”. The strikers set up picket lines in front of Ray-Mac’s mine to prevent the non-union workers from reporting to work. Ray-Mac then organized an armed convoy to transport its workers safely past the picket line. On February 16, 1982, as the convoy attempted to enter the mine, one of the strikers produced a pistol and fired at the driver of the first truck. The driver was not injured. Other strikers began firing at the convoy and fire was returned from armed escorts of the convoy. Phillip Booth and another striker were injured.

During the next two days, Stumbo, Rowland and Kinney went into the hills overlooking the Ray-Mac site. From this vantage point, they were able to shoot at Ray-Mac equipment with the intent of disabling. it. This tactic proved ineffectual. It was decided that, to put Ray-Mac out of business, they would have to blow up Ray-Mac’s equipment. Jones enlisted Stumbo and another, Panhandle Moore, also known as the “timber rats”, to destroy equipment with the use of explosives. The two men filled an inner tube and a basketball with dynamite and attached fuses. The basketball was attached to a bulldozer. The inner tube was placed on a mining auger. The basketball failed to explode, but the auger was heavily damaged by the dynamite in the inner tube.

In mid-February 1982, Ray-Mac’s affiliated company, Coal-Mac Sales, Inc., leased a tipple for use at the Ray-Mac site. Jones was concerned that the tipple would allow Ray-Mac to save two dollars a ton on trucking costs. Panhandle Moore was enlisted, along with Meade and another, to burn the tipple. This operation was carried out successfully.

II.

On appeal, appellants urge what we believe to be two principal claims of error.

First, they argue that the district court erred in denying their motion, made while the trial was in progress, for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether there was *998 prejudicial impropriety in the swearing, by the grand jury foreman, of a federal investigative agent as an “agent of the grand jury”. With respect to this claim, appellants also argue that the court erred in denying their motion to dismiss the indictment.

Second, appellants challenge the court’s jury charge on their Enmons defense. United States v. Enmons, 410 U.S. 396 (1973).

While other subordinate claims of error are raised, we shall devote this opinion, as counsel did at oral argument before us, chiefly to the two principal claims of error stated above.

(A) Swearing of Agent McAllister as an “Agent of the Grand Jury”.

Dennis McAllister, an agent of the United States Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was the “case agent” who supervised the investigation of the events that led to the indictment and conviction of appellants. McAllister first became involved in the investigation on February 21, 1982 in response to a report on the bombing of the coal auger at the Ray-Mac site. It was he who discovered the unexploded bomb that had been attached to the bulldozer at the site. From that day forward, McAllister led the investigation and coordinated the use of undercover agents who infiltrated the group of striking miners believed responsible for the violence.

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Bluebook (online)
766 F.2d 994, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-edgar-jones-mose-meade-german-stumbo-kenneth-rowland-ca6-1985.