United States v. Wasman

484 F. Supp. 54, 5 Fed. R. Serv. 590, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7898
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedDecember 18, 1979
DocketNo. 78-253-Cr-NCR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 484 F. Supp. 54 (United States v. Wasman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Wasman, 484 F. Supp. 54, 5 Fed. R. Serv. 590, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7898 (S.D. Fla. 1979).

Opinion

ORDER

ROETTGER, District Judge.

Defendant was indicted under 18 U.S.C. § 1542 for filing a false application for passport. In his opening statement defendant outlined what he expected the evidence to show. Moreover, after the Government rested its case, defendant proffered his anticipated evidence in great detail.

DEFENDANT’S ASSERTED DEFENSE

Defendant is an attorney who has spent much time engaged in real estate transactions in the state of Florida.1 Defendant and a man named Comninos, a resident of Switzerland who was of Greek extraction and had resided many years in Egypt, had been engaged in various land transactions in central Florida. Acrimony developed between the two and litigation followed. Nevertheless, Comninos advised defendant that he knew of wealthy Arab investors who would be interested in land purchases [56]*56in Florida. But Comninos suggested to Wasman that his name sounded “Jewish” and consequently the Arab investors would not want to deal with him.

Defendant, who already had a valid U.S. passport in his own name, then applied for a passport in the name of a deceased law school classmate and gathered promotional materials of various real estate ventures in Florida for a meeting to be held in London at the Carlton Tower hotel.

After the meeting in London, defendant and Comninos flew to Marbella, Spain where they passed their time patiently waiting for an audience with a sheik supposedly in nearby Malaga. Defendant went to Malaga with Comninos to meet the sheik but once there, instead of the anticipated meeting, Comninos advised defendant that defendant was being kidnapped. The kidnap was part of a scheme by disgruntled Italian investors who were unhappy over a previous investment in Florida real estate. The plan of the Italian investors was to offer defendant the opportunity for him to transfer real property worth $750,000 plus $25,000 in cash as the price for their not having him dumped into the Mediterranean bound to an anchor. This offer was not refused by Wasman. This kidnapping and extortion, instead of the hoped-for Arab investment, was the Message from Malaga (with apologies to Helen Maclnnes.)2

GOVERNMENT’S CASE

The Government presented its case showing that defendant applied for a passport under the name of David Hibbert Hendrick, Jr., purportedly born in Knoxville, Pennsylvania, in 1914. It further called both the agent in charge of the Passport Office and the employee at the Passport Office who actually processed the application; both identified defendant as the applicant.

Defendant presented a birth certificate at the Passport Office corroborating that he was David Hibbert Hendrick, Jr.; he brought along a friend, Barbara Bucci, and utilized the alternative method of corroboration by her swearing that she had known defendant for three years and that he was David Hibbert Hendrick, Jr. (Ms. Bucci was not indicted and did not testify.)

The Government also presented testimony of a fingerprint analyst who testified that defendant’s fingerprint was on the reverse side of the passport application, and a questioned documents and photographic expert opined that the photograph attached to David Hendrick’s application was the photograph of defendant. Evidence was also introduced that defendant and David Hendrick were law school classmates at the University of Miami in 1937 and 1938.

The Government rested its case. Motion of defendant for judgment of acquittal was denied and the Government moved to exclude defendant’s testimony which had been revealed in the opening statement on the basis that it was not relevant. After the court inquired into the relevance of the evidence described in defendant’s opening statement, defendant made a proffer outside the presence of the jury for more than one-and-one-half hours. The proffered evidence was essentially the same as set forth previously.

This court is not unmindful of the underlying general principle that defendant is entitled to present evidence supporting his theory of defense. But that evidence must indeed be relevant before it is admissible, Fed.R.Evid.Rule 402, and a motion to exclude testimony of defendant because it is not relevant should be granted under the proper circumstances. See United States v. Tidwell, 559 F.2d 262 (5th Cir. 1977); United States v. Johnson, 558 F.2d 744 (5th Cir. 1977).

[57]*57Defendant’s asserted defense boils down to a simple proposition: that his motive in obtaining the passport — remembering that he already had a valid passport issued in his own name — was to outwit and dupe Arab investors and that therefore he lacked the criminal intent necessary to sustain a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1542. The defense, of course, confuses motive and intent. U. S. v. Pomponio, 528 F.2d 247 (4th Cir. 1975), reversed 429 U.S. 10, 97. S.Ct. 22, 50 L.Ed.2d 600 (1976).

Defendant relies heavily on a recent Sixth Circuit decision in U. S. v. Cox, 593 F.2d 46 (6th Cir. 1979). Cox worked for the City of Detroit, and a number of witnesses identified him as Cox although one of them admitted she had known him to use a Muslim name on occasion. The defendant Cox took the stand and admitted making the passport application in the name of Carl Richard Stein. His testimony was that he knew entertainment personalities and athletes adopted other names and he thought there was nothing wrong in his doing it. He explained he was interested in establishing a small business and wanted the name for that purpose; he also explained he had been convicted of a felony seven years earlier while he was a college student and wanted to create a new identity, free of stigma of conviction. The defendant had obtained a new driver’s license and a new social security card in the name of Carl Richard Stein and established credit in that name in one or more Detroit financial institutions although he had never filed in court for a change of name.

The Sixth Circuit pointed out the gravamen of the offense in § 1542 was the “making of a false statement. The securing or use of a passport is only made criminal if false statements are proven to have been involved in its procurement.” 593 F.2d at 48. The court set forth the question to be resolved as whether the defendant made a false statement in his application by using the name Carl Richard Stein.

The Sixth Circuit concluded Cox was protected under the common law and that a person could adopt any name he or she wishes provided it is not done for fraudulent purposes. Consequently, the Sixth Circuit directed that a judgment of acquittal be entered.

After the court questioned defendant’s counsel expressly on Wasman’s intention about the use of the name Hendrick counsel finally answered, patently as an afterthought, that defendant would use the name Hendrick in such future promotional efforts.

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Related

United States v. Milton Wasman
641 F.2d 326 (Fifth Circuit, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
484 F. Supp. 54, 5 Fed. R. Serv. 590, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7898, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wasman-flsd-1979.