United States v. Wolfson

294 F. Supp. 267, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7993
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedNovember 15, 1968
DocketCrim. A. 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 294 F. Supp. 267 (United States v. Wolfson) 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. Wolfson, 294 F. Supp. 267, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7993 (D. Del. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

LATCHUM, District Judge.

On June 7, 1968 the Grand Jury for this District returned a twenty-nine *271 count indictment against Nathan Wolf-son, William F. Emmons, Albert Frost, James B. Thompson and Edward Fishbein. The first count charged all five defendants with a conspiracy to violate the mail fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1341. Counts two through twenty-nine charged the defendants with various substantive violations of the mail fraud statute. 1 Following the indictment, defendants filed a virtual flood of pre-trial motions —some twenty-five in number — which were subsequently consolidated for the purposes of briefing and argument. Since many of the motions are similar in nature, although in some instances based on different grounds, they will be considered under the general headings to follow.

I. Inspection Of Grand Jury Minutes

Defendants, Wolfson, Emmons, Frost and Fishbein, have moved for the production and inspection of the minutes of the grand jury proceedings which led to the indictment. Emmons desires that the Court make the inspection while the others wish to make their own examination. All of the motions are based generally upon the possibility that the Grand Jury may have considered either incompetent or illegal evidence or both.

Under Rule 6(e) of the F.R. Cr.P., disclosure of grand jury proceedings to someone other than a government attorney is authorized “only when so directed by the court preliminarily to or in connection with a judicial proceeding or * * * at the request of the defendant upon a showing that grounds may exist for a motion to dismiss the indictment because of matters occurring before the grand jury.” But since the proceedings before the grand jury have been traditionally guarded in secrecy, the defendant must sustain the burden of showing a “particularized need” before the veil of secrecy will be lifted “discreetly and limitedly.” Dennis v. United States, 384 U.S. 855, 86 S.Ct. 1840, 16 L.Ed.2d 973 (1966); Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. v. United States, 360 U.S. 395, 79 S.Ct. 1237, 3 L.Ed.2d 1323 (1959); United States v. Procter & Gamble Co., 356 U.S. 677, 683, 78 S.Ct. 983, 2 L.Ed.2d 1077 (1958); United States v. Jaskiewicz, 272 F.Supp. 214 (E.D.Pa., 1967).

In the light of these principles, I think defendants have not made the required showing of “particularized need” in this case. Wolfson and Emmons 2 contend on information and belief that their depositions, taken in a related civil action in a State court, may possibly have been presented without their consent to the Grand Jury and that evidence obtained as a result of an illegal search and seizure may also have been considered. Hence, they argue that if the examination revealed this to be so then their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and their Fourth Amendment right against unlawful searches and seizures were violated. Defendant Frost also specifically moved to inspect for the purpose of ascertaining whether the indictment was procured by the use of evidence illegally seized, whether the testimony before the grand jury concerning him was based on hearsay, surmise or conjecture and whether the testimony was of sufficient legal value to charge him with any offense.

The “particularized need” for the inspection of grand jury proceedings, either by the Court or the defendants, must be based on something more than mere speculation on the part of the defendants. The present motions are all bottomed on information and belief and the “mere assertion” that the possibility exists that illegal or incompetent evidence was considered by the Grand Jury. *272 In my view this is not a sufficient showing to impel the Court to exercise its discretion to open the grand jury records so that the defendants may verify a “hunch” that the indictment is unsupported by any competent evidence. United States v. Papaioanu, 10 F.R.D. 517 (D.C.Del., 1950). Such requests, based on surmise and conjecture, are not sufficient to overcome the presumption that the Grand Jury acted, on sufficient evidence. United States v. Weber, 197 F.2d 237 (C.A. 2, 1952).

Finding that the defendants have not made a sufficient showing to move the Court, in the exercise of its discretion, to order disclosure of the proceedings before the Grand Jury, the defendants’ motions will be denied.

II. Motions To Dismiss

Defendants, Wolfson, Emmons and Fishbein, have moved to dismiss the conspiracy charge on the ground of duplicity. They contend that the first count improperly joins two separate and distinct substantive offenses, viz., a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and 18 U.S.C. § 1341, contrary to Rule 8(a), F.R.Cr.P. which requires that “there be a separate count for each offense.”

In my opinion, however, the defendants’ contention is wholly without merit. A fair reading of Count one indicates that the gist of the offense charged is a conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 371. It states that the defendants “did unlawfully, wilfully and knowingly conspire, confederate and agree together * * * to commit an offense against the United States, that is to say, to use the mails * * * in furtherance of a scheme * * * to defraud * * * in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 1341 * * * ” The count is not duplicitous when it contains allegations of the objects of the conspiracy, i. e. mail fraud violations, because it is well settled that a conspiracy, no matter how diverse its objects, is but one offense. Frohwerk v. United States, 249 U.S. 204, 210, 39 S.Ct. 249, 63 L.Ed. 561 (1919); Reno v. United States, 317 F.2d 499, 502 (C.A.5,1963) cert. den. 375 U.S. 828, 84 S.Ct. 72, 11 L.Ed.2d 60; United States v. Boisvert, 187 F.Supp. 781, 784 (D.C.R.I., 1960). While it is true that 18 U.S.C. § 371 was. not expressly referred to in Count one, the indictment was laid in the language of the conspiracy statute which is all that is required. United States v. Debrow, 346 U.S. 374, 74 S.Ct. 113, 98 L.Ed. 92 (1953). Moreover, the omission of the citation of the conspiracy statute does not provide grounds for its dismissal when the omission has not misled the defendants to their prejudice, Rule 7(c), F.R.Cr.P.

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Bluebook (online)
294 F. Supp. 267, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7993, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wolfson-ded-1968.