United States v. Leon Jenkins

902 F.2d 459, 1990 WL 51277
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 14, 1990
Docket89-1532
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 902 F.2d 459 (United States v. Leon Jenkins) 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. Leon Jenkins, 902 F.2d 459, 1990 WL 51277 (6th Cir. 1990).

Opinion

RYAN, Circuit Judge.

This case is concerned with application of the double jeopardy provision of the fifth amendment of the federal Constitution to the retrial of criminal charges on which the jury was deadlocked in the first trial. There are two principal issues:

1) Whether the doctrine of collateral es-toppel, as incorporated in the fifth amendment bar against double jeopardy, precludes retrying the defendant upon criminal charges that resulted in a hung jury at a prior trial, where the wrongful conduct that is the basis for the unresolved charges was likewise the basis for separate charges of which the defendant was acquitted; and
2) Whether the district court abused its discretion in declaring a mistrial on the unresolved charges.

Our answer to both questions is no and, therefore, we shall affirm the district court’s judgment denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss the unresolved charges.

I.

Leon Jenkins is a judge of the 36th District Court of the state of Michigan. The jurisdiction of the 36th District Court includes the adjudication of civil and criminal traffic matters and some misdemeanor violations occurring in the City of Detroit.

In 1984, Sabah Dickow, a Detroit grocery store owner, informed the FBI that a 36th District Court judge was dismissing traffic tickets in exchange for money. The FBI began an undercover investigation. They installed electronic surveillance equipment in Dickow’s store and, from 1984 until 1986, recorded several conversations between defendant and Dickow regarding the exchange of money or property for the dismissal or other favorable treatment of traffic and other misdemeanor matters.

Following the FBI investigation, Judge Jenkins was charged in a ten-count indictment as follows:

Count I: Conspiracy to conduct Thirty-Sixth District Court business through a pattern of state law bribery (RICO conspiracy) 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d).
Count II: Conducting Thirty-Sixth District Court business through a pattern of state law bribery (substantive RICO) 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c).
Counts III-VI: Extortion in violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951.
Counts VII-X: Mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1341.

The case proceeded to trial and, at the close of the government’s case, Count I, the RICO conspiracy charge, was dismissed at the government’s behest, and Counts VII through X, the mail fraud charges, were severed for separate disposition. That left for jury decision only Count II, the substantive RICO charge, and Counts III through VI, the four Hobbs Act extortion charges.

Count II, the RICO charge, 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), listed ten separate violations of the state bribery laws, M.C.L. §§ 750.117, 750.118, as predicate offenses. Each predicate offense alleges a separate occasion on which Judge Jenkins corruptly accepted money or property in exchange for favorable disposition of pending court business. Counts III through VI, the Hobbs Act extortion counts, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, are based upon the same acts of bribery alleged in six *462 of the ten predicate bribery offenses to the RICO charge.

In the course of a six-week trial, the government sought to prove that Judge Jenkins requested and received money, jewelry, a handgun, groceries, and other property in exchange for the dismissal and “clearing” of traffic violations and other misdemeanor charges pending in the 36th District Court in Detroit. After eight days of deliberation, the jury acquitted the defendant of the four Hobbs Act extortion charges but could not reach agreement on the RICO charge. The district court accepted the not guilty verdict on the Hobbs Act counts and declared a mistrial on the RICO count.

The defendant then moved to dismiss the mistried RICO count, claiming the government is collaterally estopped under the double jeopardy provision of the fifth amendment from reprosecuting him on the RICO charge because the predicate acts of bribery comprising the RICO allegations are the same acts of bribery of which he was acquitted under the Hobbs Act counts. 1 He also contended that the district court abused its discretion in declaring a mistrial on the RICO charge, over his objection.

In rejecting the defendant’s collateral es-toppel argument, the district court relied primarily upon an assessment of its instructions to the jury. The court concluded that the collateral estoppel theory of double jeopardy does not preclude retrying the defendant on the RICO charges in this case because the Hobbs Act extortion charges contain an element, “inducement,” not contained in the state law bribery offenses charged as the predicate acts in the RICO count and, given the court’s alternative instructions on the meaning of “inducement,” it is impossible to say whether the jurors decided that Judge Jenkins did not “induce” the bribes in violation of the Hobbs Act, or was not bribed at all. If it were the former, the district court reasoned, double jeopardy, through collateral estoppel, would not bar retrial of the RICO charge. If it were the latter it would. But, since the district court was unable to determine which course the jury followed, it held that retrial was not barred. We agree with the district court’s conclusion but not with its reasoning.

The district court also rejected the claim of improper mistrial on the ground that the trial transcript showed that the defendant concurred in the mistrial ruling, and on the further ground that, in all events, the jury, after eight days of deliberation, was hopelessly deadlocked. We agree.

II. Collateral Estoppel

We turn first to the collateral estoppel claim, the more complex and difficult of the two questions presented. The issue may be restated a bit more precisely as follows:

Whether, on the particular facts of this case, acquittal of Hobbs Act extortion charges, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, precludes retrial of a RICO charge, 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), previously prosecuted which alleges essentially the same acts of bribery as comprised the Hobbs Act charges but which, because of jury deadlock, is unresolved.

Collateral estoppel is included within the scope of the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment. Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 445-46, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 1195-96, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970).

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Bluebook (online)
902 F.2d 459, 1990 WL 51277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-leon-jenkins-ca6-1990.