United States v. Winchester

407 F. Supp. 261, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14630
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedDecember 24, 1975
DocketCrim. A. 75-105
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 407 F. Supp. 261 (United States v. Winchester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Winchester, 407 F. Supp. 261, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14630 (D. Del. 1975).

Opinion

OPINION

MURRAY M. SCHWARTZ, District Judge.

Henry McComb Winchester (“Winchester”), a former director of the Wilmington Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”) office, was charged in a 131-Count indictment on July 9, 1975. 1 Winchester has filed the following motions 2 which, after briefly describing the indictment, are treated seriatim;

A. A motion to sever certain Counts of the indictment

B. A motion to dismiss Counts 40 through 58 for failure to state an offense

•C. A motion to dismiss Counts 97 through 129 because of their failure to inform defendant of what he must meet

D. A motion for disclosure of grand jury records and

E. A motion for discovery.

Generally, the indictment arises out of two alleged schemes in which Winchester and other participants defrauded the Government. One scheme allegedly concerned bid-rigging activities on the part of Winchester and unindicted co-conspirator John F. Kelleher (“Kelleher”). The second scheme is supposed to have entailed Winchester’s use of his influence as FHA director on behalf of unindicted co-conspirators Frank P. Pullella and David Pierce. Specifically, the indictment charges that Winchester set up a system of fraudulent and noncompetitive bidding on Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) general contracting work so that companies controlled by Kelleher could submit the lowest bid and thus obtain work. According to the indictment, Kelleher was at the time of the alleged offenses an “area management broker” employed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 3 In addition, Kelleher allegedly held a substantial financial interest in three construction companies *264 which regularly submitted bids on HUD contracting work. The counts of the indictment dealing with Winchester’s Kelleher-connected activities allege violations of several statutes: conspiracy: 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count 1); conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims: 18 U.S.C. § 286 (Count 4); accepting bribes and gratuities: 18 U. S.C. § 201(c) (Counts 13-20); aiding and abetting false statements on matters within government agency jurisdiction: 18 U.S.C. § 2 and § 1001 (Counts 21-39); aiding and abetting submission of false claims to HUD: 18 U.S.C. § 2 and § 287 (Counts 40-58); aiding and abetting a conflict of interest: 18 U.S.C. § 2 and § 208 (Counts 59-96); and submitting false statements to HUD: 18 U.S. C. §1010 (Counts 97-129).

The indictment contains additional allegations that the defendant accepted bribes or gratuities in exchange for the use of his influence to gain the selection of Frank P. Pullella and David L. Pierce as general contractor and packager 4 on Banecker Heights and Whatcoat Community Development — “both multi-family housing projects insured under the National Housing Act.” Indictment, Docket No. 1 at 10. Winchester is also accused of accepting payments in exchange for aid in “processing and packaging” the Whatcoat project, and in return for granting “favorable labor decisions” with respect to both projects. Id. The Grand Jury additionally charged that Winchester attempted to obstruct justice and a criminal investigation by trying to persuade Pullella “to give false testimony” before the Grand Jury and attempting to prevent Pullella from communicating his knowledge of criminal activities to the ongoing investigation. Id. at 15. The crimes alleged in Counts 5-12 5 involving Pullella and Pierce are as follows: obstruction of justice: 18 U.S.C. § 1503 (Count 5); obstruction of criminal investigation: 18 U.S.C. § 1510 (Count 6) and accepting bribes and gratuities: 18 U.S.C. § 201(c) and (g) (Counts 7-12).

Finally, defendant Winchester is charged with the willful filing of false income tax returns for the calendar years 1970 and 1971, a violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1) (Counts 130 and 131).

A. Motion for Severance

Defendant alleges misjoinder of the counts pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 8(a) and prejudicial joinder within the meaning of Fed.R.Crim.P. 14.

Initial consideration must be given to defendant’s Rule 8(a) 6 contentions since “Rule 14 dealing with relief from prejudicial joinder only comes into play after it has first been determined that joinder was permissible under Rule 8. . . .” United States v. Graci, 504 F.2d 411, 413 (3d Cir. 1974). Even in the absence of prejudice, Rule 8 defines the permissible limits of a joint trial of offenses. Id. at 413. “Rule 8 is an attempt to set the limits of tolerance, and any joinder which does not fall within it is per se impermissible.” King v. United States, 355 F.2d 700 (1st Cir. 1966); accord, Graci, supra at 413; see 8 J. Moore, Federal Practice ¶ 14.02[1] at 14-3 (1975 ed.). Thus, the finding of a misjoinder would require the Court to sever *265 the counts as a matter of course without regard to the merits of defendant's claims of prejudice under Rule 14. 7

The defense contends that none of the three situations in which a Rule 8(a) joinder might be proper are present here and that “the counts involving Kelleher should be severed from the counts involving Pullella and Pierce . . . . ” Defendant’s Memorandum, Docket No. 8 at 2. This contention rests in part on an asserted distinction between the Kelleher-related bid-rigging activities, and the use of influence on behalf of Pullella and Pierce involved in most of the indictment’s remaining counts.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
407 F. Supp. 261, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-winchester-ded-1975.