United States v. Essex

275 F. Supp. 393, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8615
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedNovember 3, 1967
DocketNo. 12458
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 275 F. Supp. 393 (United States v. Essex) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Essex, 275 F. Supp. 393, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8615 (E.D. Tenn. 1967).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

FRANK W. WILSON, District Judge.

This is a proceeding under the provisions of the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act (18 U.S.C. § 5031 et seq.) wherein the defendant is charged with having committed an act of juvenile de[394]*394linqueney and being a juvenile delinquent, in having allegedly committed a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503. Originally, the grand jury had returned an indictment against defendant for the alleged violation, but when it appeared that defendant was a juvenile and consented to trial as such, the indictment was withdrawn and the information herein filed. The information was filed April 21, 1967, and according to the consent of defendant filed herein, she was then 17 years of age, having been born October 9, 1949. A hearing was held in chambers, upon the request of the parties and with the consent of the defendant, upon August 31 and September 1, 1967, whereupon evidence was presented and argument made on behalf of the respective parties. At the outset of the hearing, a motion was made on behalf of the defendant to dismiss the information. During the course of the hearing, certain objections arose concerning the admissibility of evidence. These, together with the case itself, were taken under advisement by the Court, and are for decision.

I. Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss

At the outset of the hearing, counsel for defendant orally moved to dismiss the information. This motion was thereafter reduced to writing, and rests upon the following grounds: (1) that the information fails to charge an offense cognizable under 18 U.S.C. § 1503 and (2) that the information has improperly laid venue in the Eastern District of Tennessee.

The information, insofar as it charges a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503 in this District, reads as follows:

* * * (the defendant) did on or about the first day of September, 1965, in the Eastern District of Tennessee, Southern Division, corruptly endeavor to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice in the United States District Court for said District, in that she wilfully caused to be filed an affidavit subscribed by her in support of a motion for new trial in the case of United States v. James R. Hoffa et al [D.C., 268 F.Supp. 732] (Criminal No. 11,989) in which affidavit she claimed to have had sexual intercourse with the following five petit jurors during the trial of United States v. James R. Hoffa, et al while said jurors were sequestered on the tenth floor of the Read House Hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee: William Link; John Curbow; Ed Case; John A. Kilgore, and L. R. Burrows, which claims were false and known by her to be false when made, in violation of Section 1503, Title 18 United States Code (sic), contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States of America.”

The Court will take up the arguments of defendant in the order presented.

Defendant first contends that, if any crime was committed, under the allegations of the information it was that of perjury, and not obstruction of justice under Section 1503. Defendant argues that the thrust of the statute is against violence, intimidation or corruption brought to bear upon witnesses, jurors or court officials, and not to the filing of false affidavits, and that the principle of ejusdem generis prevents the application of the statute in this case.

Section 1503 provides as follows:

“Whover corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, endeavors to influence, intimidate, or impede any witness, in any court of the United States or before any United States commissioner or other committing magistrate, or any grand or petit juror, or officer in or of any court of the United States, or officer who may be serving at any examination or other proceeding before any United States commissioner or other committing magistrate, in the discharge of his duty, or injures any party or witness in his person or property on account of his attending or having attended such court or examination before such officer, commissioner, or other committing magistrate, or on account of his testifying or having [395]*395testified to any matter pending therein, or injures any such grand or petit juror in his person or property on account of any verdict or indictment assented to by him, or on account of his being or having been such juror, or injures any such officer, commissioner, or other committing magistrate in his person or property on account of the performance of his official duties, or corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”

The defendant contends that the general language at the end of this section, “ * * * or corruptly * * * influences, obstructs or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice * * ” embraces only acts of a similar nature as those set out earlier in the section. The government, on the other hand, contends that the general language is broad enough to include within its proscription the activity of the defendant as alleged in the information.

Defendant cites certain cases as authority for her contention in this respect. Haili v. United States (C.A. 9, 1958) 260 F.2d 744, 745, was a case wherein the defendant was convicted of a violation of Section 1503 for having associated with a probationer in knowing violation of the orders of the probation officer. The conviction was reversed on the ground that Section 1503 was not broad enough to cover defendant’s conduct, the Court applying principle of ejusdem generis so that “the general words which follow the specific words in the enumeration of prohibited acts in the section here involved must be construed to embrace only acts similar in nature to those acts enumerated by the preceding specific words * * * ” While the result in that case may have been correct, the Court is of the opinion that the language quoted from the opinion goes against the grain of most of the decisions construing Section 1503 and its predecessors, as will be further noted below. Catrino v. United States (C.A. 9, 1949), 176 F.2d 884, concerned a prosecution for both subornation of perjury and obstruction of justice in the same indictment. Defendant was accused of having procured one Renmaker to commit perjury in the course of defendant’s earlier trial for selling whiskey to a minor Indian. Defendant was acquitted of the first charge and convicted of the second. The Court held that defendant had violated the obstruction of justice statute when he “ ‘endeavored’ to procure” false testimony as a step in the accomplishment of the offense of subornation of perjury. United States v. Bufalino (C.A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
275 F. Supp. 393, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-essex-tned-1967.