United States v. Hanlin

29 F.R.D. 481, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6051
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedJanuary 23, 1962
DocketNo. 21142
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 29 F.R.D. 481 (United States v. Hanlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Hanlin, 29 F.R.D. 481, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6051 (W.D. Mo. 1962).

Opinion

GIBSON, District Judge.

Defendants have been indicted by a Grand Jury for violations of Sections 1341 and 371, Title 18, U.S.C. in an indictment of some 28 counts. The indictment charges defendants jointly and severally with scheming “to defraud purchasers and prospective purchasers of certain vending machines sold by Hanlin Manufacturing Company or Midwest Manufacturing Company, and to obtain money and property from such persons by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, well knowing at the time that the pretenses, representations and promises would be falsely and fraudulently made.” Counts 1 through 27 of the indictment each charge defendants, through one or the other of the above-mentioned companies, of mailing a different letter through the United States mails in furtherance of their alleged fraudulent scheme. Count 28 charges defendants with conspiring in the mailing of the letters involved in the previous 27 counts.

Defendants Thornton, Ooley, Krueger, and Garrison now file various motions for relief both jointly and severally.

1. Defendants, Ooley and Garrison, move to quash the indictment and for discharge on pleas of autrefois acquit and res judicata.

They claim that they were indicted for mail fraud in St. Louis, in the Eastern District of Missouri for the same months and years as the ones charged in the indictment returned in this Court and that, therefore, this is double jeopardy. They claim that all separate acts in a mail fraud case are parts of the same crime. Therefore, even though the present indictment charges different incidents from those charged in the St. Louis indictment, it is the same offense, and they have been acquitted of it. Defendants, Ooley and Garrison, cite no cases to support their view.

The Government contends that the St. Louis indictment charged defendants with selling vending machines through [484]*484the mail by fraud to certain persons and that although the same general type of offense is charged in the instant indictment, the persons allegedly sold to were different, and the defendants used different companies in making such alleged sales. Therefore, it is a separate offense, (citing United States v. Gilbert, D.C., 31 F.Supp. 195). The case of United States v. Brimsdon, D.C., 23 F.Supp. 510, clearly holds that in conspiracies, where different victims are involved, there are separate offenses. In the Brimsdon case, defendants were charged with a conspiracy to injure and oppress citizens of the United States who were voters in the Fifth Precinct of the Twelfth Ward of Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, in the free exercise and enjoyment of their right and privilege to vote for a candidate for Congress at the general election of November 3, 1936. One defendant had previously been indicted and convicted for similarly injuring and oppressing voters in the Fifteenth Precinct of the same Ward. This defendant contended that this previous acquittal amounted to former jeopardy and he pleaded autrefois convict. In rejecting this contention, the Court said:

“In Miller v. United States [9 Cir., 4 F.2d 288] it was ruled that a ' charge of conspiracy to unlawfully remove spirits from a bonded warehouse included a charge of conspiracy to unlawfully transport spirits from a bonded warehouse, if the removal and transportation involved • the same spirits. It was a case in which one conspiracy necessarily included the other. A conspiracy to injure John Doe cannot possibly include a conspiracy to injure Richard Roe, although the two conspiracies may coexist and although one of the parties to each of the conspiracies may also be a party to other similar conspiracies.”

Defendants, Ooley’s and Garrison’s motion to quash and for discharge is, therefore, overruled.

2. Defendant Krueger also moves to quash the indictment and for discharge on his plea of autrefois acquit and res judicata.

This motion may be regarded along with defendants, Ooley and Garrison’s, motions to the same effect. In addition to the arguments of Ooley and Garrison, Krueger cites the case of United States v. McGee, D.C., 117 F.Supp. 27, to the effect that a “former prosecution is not a bar to a prosecution for a different felony, but, a single conspiracy cannot be split up for the prosecution for conspiracy to commit one or a less number of the same offenses.” However, it should be noted that the McGee case involved a conspiracy which involved several separate overt acts to procure loans from the same victim. The distinction seems justified, based on the Brimsdon case (supra), that there can be several different crimes of conspiracy where there was more than one victim, even where the acts charged are similar and take place over the same general period of time as those charged in a previous indictment. Defendant Krueger’s motion to quash and for discharge is overruled.

3. Defendants, Krueger and Thornton, move to dismiss the counts which pertain to each of them respectively. They contend that it should not be allowed that each individual mailing be regarded and charged as a crime if it furthers a scheme or artifice to defraud, and the allegations of acts done by defendants were merely legal conclusions; that count 28, the conspiracy count, “is nothing more than reiterating what was previously set out in the first 27 counts and is, therefore, duplicitous * * * ” and that “the seven overt acts described in the indictment are acts of one Joe Hanlin and are not attributable to” defendants Krueger and Thornton. Defendants cite no authority for their viewpoint.

The Government contends that each individual mailing is a separate offense, citing Bogel v. United States, 139 F.2d 153; United States ex rel. Bernstein v. [485]*485Hill, 3 Cir., 71 F.2d 159. These cases clearly hold this. In addition, the Bogel case holds that the naming of the individual counts in a conspiracy count does not make the conspiracy count duplicitous.

In regard to the defendants’ contention that counts name one Joe Hanlin and are not attributable to them, see Chambers v. United States, 8 Cir., 237 F. 513, and United States v. Bender, 2 Cir., 60 F.2d 56. These cases hold that where a joint crime is charged, such as a conspiracy, the acts of each in perpetrating the scheme may be charged against the others, as they are in effect, partners in the perpetration of the crime. Defendants, Krueger and Thornton’s, motion to dismiss is overruled.

Defendant Krueger has filed what he denominates as a “Supplemental Motion to Dismiss.” He alleges that he was tried previously in the Eastern District of Missouri on a similar charge and that the facts which led to the instant indictment were then known to the Government and he could have been tried for them then, and that, therefore, the United States is guilty of oppressive delay which constitutes a denial to a speedy trial under the provisions of the Sixth Amendment. Defendant Krueger cites no authority for his position.

The Government, by way of reply, contends that the action is brought well within the statutory limit of five years. It is difficult to see how defendant, Krueger, is being deprived of a speedy trial. The instant indictment was returned in October of 1961.

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Bluebook (online)
29 F.R.D. 481, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6051, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-hanlin-mowd-1962.