United States v. Phil Pinelli, David Pinelli, Robert Sheehan, Martin Mosko, Thomas Gottone, William Burbidge, and Aaron Mosko

890 F.2d 1461, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 18881
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedDecember 12, 1989
Docket87-2511, 87-2513, 87-2565, 87-2582, 87-2610, 87-2616 and 87-2678
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 890 F.2d 1461 (United States v. Phil Pinelli, David Pinelli, Robert Sheehan, Martin Mosko, Thomas Gottone, William Burbidge, and Aaron Mosko) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Phil Pinelli, David Pinelli, Robert Sheehan, Martin Mosko, Thomas Gottone, William Burbidge, and Aaron Mosko, 890 F.2d 1461, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 18881 (10th Cir. 1989).

Opinions

PHILLIPS, District Judge, sitting by designation.

This gambling prosecution stems from a thirty-five (35) count indictment returned by a federal grand jury sitting in Colorado on February 5, 1986. The indictment charged fourteen defendants, including the seven appellants here, with violating several federal criminal statutes. The pertinent statutes on appeal are 18 U.S.C. § 1955 (operating an illegal gambling business in violation of the laws of Colorado, involving five or more persons, with gross wagers in excess of $2,000 on any single day), 18 U.S.C. § 1952 (interstate use of a telephone to facilitate the gambling business); 26 U.S.C. § 7201 (income tax evasion), 26 U.S.C. § 7262 (failure to pay gambling occupation tax), and 26 U.S.C. § 7203 (failure to file requisite tax forms).

Four defendants entered pleas of guilty prior to trial. Three defendants were acquitted on all charges by the jury. The remaining seven defendants, appellants here, suffered convictions on the counts depicted in the chart below:

CHARGES AND COUNTS OF CONVICTION

18 U.S.C. § 1955 18 U.S.C. § 1952 26 U.S.C. § 7201 26 U.S.C. § 7262 26 U.S.C. § 72031

Aaron Mosko Ct. 1 Cts. 2,3 Cts. 8,9 Ct. 10

Phil Pinelli Ct. 1 Cts. 6,7 Cts. 11,12 Ct. 13

David Pinelli Ct. 1 Ct. 15 Ct. 14

William Burbidge Ct. 1 Ct. 18 Cts. 16,17

Martin Mosko Ct. 28

Thomas Gottone Ct. 1 Ct. 27

Robert Sheehan Ct. 1

Appellants have raised numerous issues on appeal. The principal issues involve: (1) challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence by various appellants; (2) constitutional challenges to 18 U.S.C. § 1955 and the applicable Colorado gambling statutes; (3) the trial court’s denial of a mistrial motion arising out of the inadvertent submission of non-evidentiary materials to the jury during deliberations; (4) the admission of expert gambling testimony offered by the government; (5) the trial court’s denial of appellants’ motions to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of a court-authorized wiretap; and (6) the trial court’s denial of severance motions made by two defen[1465]*1465dants at the close of the government’s case. We find that there was abundant evidence from which a reasonable jury could find the defendants guilty of the offenses for which they were convicted, and further find no reversible error in the record of this case. Accordingly, we affirm the convictions of all seven appellants.

I. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

In a challenge based upon the sufficiency of the evidence, we must affirm the judgment of conviction if there is record evidence which would allow a rational trier-of-fact to find the appellants guilty of the crimes charged in the indictment. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 324, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2791, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Moreover, this Court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942); United States v. Hooks, 780 F.2d 1526, 1529-31 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1128, 106 S.Ct. 1657, 90 L.Ed.2d 199 (1986). Viewed in that light, we conclude that the evidence, both direct and circumstantial, satisfies the test.

The government’s evidence at trial focused on appellants’ gambling activities from September through December, 1984. The evidence consisted of the testimony of thirty-six (36) witnesses, including numerous bettor witnesses, the introduction of several hundred tape recordings of telephone conversations intercepted pursuant to court-authorized electronic surveillance, documentary evidence seized pursuant to search warrants executed on December 9, 1984 after the termination of the wiretap, and expert testimony by an FBI agent on the roles played by the various defendants in the gambling operation.

The electronic surveillance in this case was active for approximately twenty-four days in November and December, 1984. The government’s wiretap evidence and seized records in this case indicated the gambling business in question accepted wagers in excess of $2,300,000 in November and December, 1984. [Exs. 608-611].

Special Agent William Holmes of the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified as an expert witness for the government as to the roles of each of the participants m the gambling activity in question. His opinions were based on review of the electronic surveillance and search evidence. [Supp. Vol. 1, p. 36]. He did not rely on and was not privy to the testimony of the bettor witnesses. [Id.]. At the outset of his testimony, Holmes explained some basic gambling terminology which will be helpful in explaining the roles of each of the appellants.

Holmes described the “point spread” or “line” as having the purpose of attracting equal amounts of betting on each side of a contest. Bookmakers change the line on a particular game to attract betting on the other team. A line of “Denver minus six” means Denver is favored by six points and to win a bet on Denver, Denver must win by seven or more points. The term “vig” or “vigorish” represents a ten percent commission charged to losing bets, which compensates the bookmaker for the privilege of placing bets. In other words, a $100 losing bet would require payment of $110, which payment includes a $10 “vig”. According to Holmes, a bookmaker theoretically strives to accept the same amount of bets on each side of a contest, or balance his books, and take the “vig” as profit.

Agent Holmes explained the concept of “lay-off wagering” as that which allows a bookmaker “to get rid of wagers that he feels he is not financially able to handle and reduce the risk of great financial loss by having to pay off on large sums of money.” [Supp. Vol. 1, pp. 16-25]. The following example of lay-off wagering was provided by Holmes during his testimony: Suppose Bookmaker X has wagers of $1,500 on team A and $1,000 on team B. Bookmaker X would lay-off the $500 excess on team A with Bookmaker Y. If team A wins, Bookmaker X would collect $1,000 from those who bet on team B, plus the 10% vig for a total of $1,100. Bookmaker X would collect his $500 lay-off wager from Bookmaker Y, which would make the total amount collected $1,600. From this amount, he would have to pay his bettors who had bet $1,500 on team A.

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Bluebook (online)
890 F.2d 1461, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 18881, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-phil-pinelli-david-pinelli-robert-sheehan-martin-mosko-ca10-1989.