Case Name: UNITED STATES of America v. Anthony J. BROOKS, Appellant; UNITED STATES of America v. John J. HAZEL, Jr., Appellant (two cases)
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Jurisdiction: District of Columbia
Decision Date: 1977-11-10
Citations: 185 U.S. App. D.C. 267
Docket Number: Nos. 76-1818, 76-1819 and 77-1018
Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Anthony J. BROOKS, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America v. John J. HAZEL, Jr., Appellant (two cases).
Judges: Before TAMM, ROBINSON and ROBB, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Volume: 185
Pages: 267–279

Head Matter:
567 F.2d 134
UNITED STATES of America v. Anthony J. BROOKS, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America v. John J. HAZEL, Jr., Appellant (two cases).
Nos. 76-1818, 76-1819 and 77-1018.
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.
Argued March 1, 1977.
Decided Nov. 10, 1977.
Rehearing Denied Dec. 9, 1977.
J. Richard Colbert, with whom Michael E. Geltner, Washington, D. C., (appointed by this Court) was on the brief for appellant in No. 76-1818.
Aurora C. Jose,* with whom Michael E. Geltner, Washington, D. C. (appointed by this Court) was on the brief for appellant in Nos. 76-1819 and 77-1018.
Mary Ellen Abreeht, Asst. U. S. Atty., Washington, D. C., with whom Earl J. Silbert, U. S. Atty., John A. Terry and James M. Hanny, Asst. U. S. Attys., Washington, D. C., were on the brief for appellee.
Before TAMM, ROBINSON and ROBB, Circuit Judges.
Entered appearances as Student Counsel of this Court. pursuant to Rule 20 of the General Rules

Opinion:
Opinion for the Court filed by ROBB, Circuit Judge.
Opinion filed by SPOTTSWOOD W. ROBINSON, III, Circuit Judge, dissenting in part.
ROBB, Circuit Judge:
After a trial by jury the appellants Brooks and Hazel were convicted of possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d). They appeal.
At trial the evidence for the government was that between September 1975 and March 1976 the Metropolitan Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation collaborated in an undercover operation known publicly as P.F.F., Inc., and privately as Police-FBI Fencing Incognito. At a warehouse in northeast Washington officers pretending to be underworld characters purchased stolen goods and contraband with government funds. All transactions between the undercover agents and their customers were recorded by hidden cameras and microphones.
On February 5, 1976 Brooks and Hazel came to the warehouse in an automobile driven by Hazel. Stopping at a nearby telephone Hazel called P.F.F., Inc., and got permission to enter. At the time Officers Gately and Lilly were on duty at the fencing operation. From a window Gately saw Hazel open the trunk of his automobile, remove a long item, and wrap a cloth around it. Then Brooks and Hazel entered the warehouse together. Hazel was carrying the long item wrapped in a cloth, and Gately recognized him as a P.F.F. customer he had seen several times before. Hazel placed on the counter the long item he was carrying, unwrapped it, and offered it for sale. It was a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun. A little later Hazel placed four shotgun shells on the counter for sale with the weapon. Brooks said the shotgun was his and it was for sale. He said he had fired it a couple of times, it held five shells, and it had already been sawed off when he obtained it. The officers paid Brooks $125.00 for the shotgun and gave Hazel $10.00 "for bringing in a new customer." The videotápe of the entire transaction was played to the jury and we have seen it.
Brooks testified that on February 5 he was innocently walking towards his house when Hazel came along in an automobile and asked him to take a ride "over to Northeast". Brooks accepted the invitation because he thought he would visit a friend who lived in that area. Hazel did not tell Brooks why he was going to Northeast, nor did he explain his call from the telephone booth, or tell Brooks what was in the package he took out of the trunk of the car. As they were entering the warehouse, however, Hazel asked him to say the wrapped item was his "so he could get some money". Brooks did not know what the item was, but agreed to go along with Hazel's request. When he got inside the warehouse he saw a man with a gun pointed at him and he was afraid, so he went along with Hazel's instructions and when he saw that the item on the counter was a sawed-off shotgun he said he had fired it before, and that it was sawed off when he acquired it. He denied that he had ever possessed a shotgun, and swore that he turned over the entire proceeds of the sale, $125.00, to Hazel.
Hazel testified that he first became familiar with the P.F.F. operation in October 1975. He said he found he could earn money by bringing new customers to the warehouse; that Officer Lilly said he "would pay me to bring people up there", $20.00 per person brought in. He averred that on his second visit Lilly lent him $200.00 with the warning that harm could come to him if he did not repay the money. Throughout that fall and winter he would return to the warehouse with items to sell. Sometimes he came alone, sometimes with a new customer. Whenever he entered alone, he said, there was a potential new customer, whom he did not know well enough to trust, waiting in the car outside. He testified that all his sales to P.F.F., Inc., were made for others, he was only a middleman trying to repay his loans.
"Numerous times" said Hazel, Lilly asked him to bring in people with guns, saying "he would pay top dollar for them." This led to the visit to the warehouse with Brooks on February 5. According to Hazel he was driving in his car when Brooks called and "started waving". When Hazel "pulled over" Brooks told him he had a shotgun he wanted to sell, his asking price being between $100.00 and $125.00. Hazel telephoned P.F.F., made arrangements for the two to go there, and Brooks went and got the shotgun and four shells. The gun, which Brooks had wrapped in a red blanket, was put into the car and the two men proceeded to the warehouse. Hazel carried the gun and shells because P.F.F. had instructed him that if he "ever got anybody with a gun, to make sure it wasn't loaded and to bring it upstairs himself". According to Hazel, when the sale was made Brooks received $125.00 which he kept. Lilly paid Hazel $10.00 "because they said I had owed money . . . and that they would give me another $10.00 the next time Mr. Brooks came to see them".
In rebuttal Officer Lilly denied ever having lent $200.00 to Hazel. He explained that small loans of about $20.00 were occasionally made to customers to provide a reason for the undercover police to demand identifications and telephone numbers; also the officers offered as much as $20.00 to old customers who brought in new ones.
On this appeal both appellants contend that the District Court erred by failing to explore the extent to which prospective jurors were affected by pretrial publicity. As a corollary of this argument the appellants say the court on its own motion should have granted a continuance. In addition Hazel argues that in his case the court should have instructed the jury on entrapment. Brooks also contends that the court should have severed the trials of the two defendants and that it was error to receive in evidence a portion of the videotape on which Brooks stated that his main "hustle" was stealing. Finding that none of these contentions warrants reversal we affirm.
PRETRIAL PUBLICITY
Hundreds of persons who had done business with P.F.F., Inc., were invited to a party at the warehouse on February 28, 1976. Once inside the doors they were arrested and told that the men who had posed as underworld figures were really police officers and FBI agents. This party was dubbed "Operation Sting", and given extensive coverage in newspapers and magazines and on radio and television broadcasts. Before the voir dire of prospective jurors for the Brooks-Hazel trial began counsel for Hazel called the court's attention to this publicity, noting that Hazel's name in particular appeared in at least one newspaper article. Counsel stated that if examination of the prospective jurors confirmed his suspicions of prejudice he would ask for an extended continuance; but, said counsel, "I would not ask the Court to rule on that now, [but] to see what we come up with in the voir dire". At the conclusion of voir dire counsel did not ask for a continuance or any other relief. Nevertheless, Brooks and Hazel now contend that they were denied a fair trial because the voir dire questions were not probing enough to uncover the jurors' prejudices and because the court did not grant a continuance on its own motion.
Having read the transcript we find the examination of prospective jurors was adequate. The court questioned fifty-five prospective jurors before empaneling twelve regular jurors and two alternates. The court explained to the jurors that the case "resulted from a police operation known as P.F.F., Inc., the store-front operation or fence or Sting operation group". Then the court directed any prospective jurors who "have either read about it or seen it on television or heard about it on the radio, whatever, [to] line up in front of the jury box and approach the bench one at a time". All but twelve veniremen indicated they had heard of the operation and consequently they were questioned individually at the bench out of the hearing of the other jurors. No veniremen had heard anything about Hazel or Brooks. Only four had formed an opinion as to the guilt of persons arrested in the Sting operation and they were excused by the court. All who had previously been on the jury in another "Sting" trial were excused. All the jurors chosen to sit averred that they could consider the case fairly and impartially.
The method and manner of conducting a voir dire are left to the discretion of the trial judge. United States v. Bryant, 153 U.S.App.D.C. 72, 471 F.2d 1040 (1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1112, 93 S.Ct. 923, 34 L.Ed.2d 693 (1973); United States v. Liddy, 166 U.S.App.D.C. 95, 509 F.2d 428 (1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 911, 95 S.Ct. 833, 42 L.Ed.2d 842 (1975). Here we find no indication that the District Court improperly exercised its discretion. The examination of the prospective jurors developed no significant possibility of prejudice against the defendants, and there was no reason to believe that further cross examination would have thrown more light on the matter. As was the case in United States v. Chapin, 169 U.S.App.D.C. 303, 515 F.2d 1274, cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1015, 96 S.Ct. 449, 46 L.Ed.2d 387 (1975), the pretrial publicity had not focused on Hazel and Brooks; so far as the talesmen were concerned they had neither name nor fame. There was no error in the court's conduct of the voir dire, and no reason for the court to grant a continuance sua sponte.
ENTRAPMENT
Hazel contends that he was entitled to an instruction on entrapment, in view of his testimony that the police officers paid him for bringing in new customers and asked him to bring in people with guns. We think however that the evidence, taken in the light most favorable to Hazel, requires us to reject his contention.
Hazel testified that he became acquainted with P.F.F. in October 1975 when he went there with two friends who were selling stolen credit cards. At this time the P.F.F. man explained the fencing operation to him. Thereafter he returned some eighteen times, always on his own initiative. According to his testimony his possession of the sawed-off shotgun was instigated by Brooks, who hailed him on the public street and requested his assistance in effecting a sale. We think these facts negate even a colorable contention that Hazel was an innocent person instigated to crime by the police, who implanted in his mind the disposition to violate the law. In the absence of evidence of such instigation the District Court properly refused to instruct on entrapment. See Hampton v. United States, 425 U.S. 484, 96 S.Ct. 1646, 48 L.Ed.2d 113 (1976); United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 93 S.Ct. 1673, 36 L.Ed.2d 366 (1973); Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932).
SEVERANCE
Although Rule 12(b)(5) Fed.R.Crim.P. provides that a request for severance must be presented before trial, Brooks made no such request until the government had completed its case in chief and Brooks had testified in his own defense. At this time, when Hazel's counsel indicated to the court that Hazel would deny ownership of the shotgun and impute it to Brooks, counsel for Brooks moved for a mistrial and a severance. He argued that Hazel's defense was inconsistent with, and prejudicial to, the denial by Brooks that he either owned or possessed the shotgun. The court denied the motions, commenting that "your motion for a severance is a little late".
Assuming that the court in its discretion might have granted Brooks relief from the requirement of Rule 12(b)(5) we hold that the court was right in refusing to do so. Brooks and Hazel were jointly charged with the possession of the sawed-off shotgun. The joinder was of course proper, Rule 8(b) Fed.R.Crim.P., and the general rule is that defendants jointly indicted will be tried together. The case for the government was that Hazel had actual possession of the shotgun, Brooks had constructive possession, and the two were acting in concert in selling the weapon to P.F.F., Inc. That one of them in mid-trial proposed to contradict the testimony of the other did not require a severance. If this were not so, then any jointly indicted defendants would have the absolute power to abort a trial by the expedient of proffering inconsistent testimony after the trial begins.
The motion for severance was addressed to the discretion of the trial judge, and the latitude of the judge's discretion was wide. United States v. Robinson, 139 U.S.App.D.C. 286, 432 F.2d 1348 (1970). Denial of a request for severance will not be reversed on appeal absent a clear showing of abuse of discretion. Opper v. United States, 348 U.S. 84, 75 S.Ct. 158, 99 L.Ed. 101 (1954); United States v. Peterson, 173 U.S.App.D.C. 49, 522 F.2d 661 (1975). Furthermore, in order to demonstrate abuse of discretion by a trial judge it is not enough to show that codefendants whose defenses were inconsistent were tried together. There must be a showing of danger "that the jury will unjustifiably infer that this conflict alone demonstrates that both are guilty." Rhone v. United States, 125 U.S.App.D.C. 47, 48, 365 F.2d 980, 981 (1966); United States v. Robinson, supra. Here it was not the conflict alone that resulted in the conviction of both defendants. Although Hazel's testimony did contradict Brooks' denial of any possessory interest in the shotgun, Brooks was also contradicted by the videotape recording of his claim of ownership and of his demeanor when the sale was made. In addition the jury might well have found his testimony incredible on its face. That he would have had a better chance of acquittal had he been tried alone did not justify a severance. United States v. Gorham, 173 U.S.App.D.C. 139, 143, 523 F.2d 1088, 1092 (1975); United States v. Wilson, 140 U.S.App.D.C. 220, 227, 434 F.2d 494, 501 (1970); Robinson v. United States, 93 U.S.App.D.C. 347, 349, 210 F.2d 29, 32 (1954).
Finally, we note that the district judge carefully instructed the jury:
You should give separate consideration and render separate verdicts with respect to each defendant. Each defendant is entitled to have his guilt or innocence of the crime determined from his own conduct and from the evidence which applies to him as if he were being tried alone.
The guilt or innocence of any one defendant should not control or influence your verdict respecting the other defendant. You must find either one or both of the defendants guilty or not guilty.
(TR. 346)
FAILURE TO EXPURGATE THE VIDEOTAPE
Our final problem arises because the prosecutor declined to excise from the videotape a dialogue in which Brooks asserted that his main "hustle" was stealing. This dialogue took place after the sale of the shotgun was completed and Brooks and Hazel had been paid and were preparing to leave the P.F.F. office. After some discussion of a man who had been killed and whose body was found in a trashcan Hazel remarked that he stuck to what he liked to do best, he didn't "go killing people". The following then ensued:
LILLY: What do you like to do best?
HAZEL: I like to make a (catch?) with my brain.
LILLY: (to Brooks) How about you? (to Hazel). Yea, brain. That's why you got (inaudible) before.
BROOKS: I like to use my head and my hands.
LILLY: Yea, but what is your main hustle?
BROOKS: (pause) Stealing.
LILLY: Stealing, uh?
BROOKS: I like stealing.
LILLY: That's your main hustle, stealing.
BROOKS: Rob.
LILLY: Anything.
BROOKS: Anything of value.
LILLY: Uh, huh.
BROOKS: Anything where I see I can get at least fifty. I ain't going to be going to jail for no five dollars.
LILLY: (inaudible) Dig it.
BROOKS: If I can get quantity, I get quantity.
LILLY: OK. You came to the right place. I'm the best fence around. I'm a good deal. You'll enjoy me.
(Appellant's Br. at 11-12)
The quoted portion of the tape could easily have been excised, and a cautious prosecu tor, considering the great strength of his case on the other evidence, might well have eliminated it. Nevertheless we conclude that the admission of the dialogue was not fatally prejudicial.
Brooks averred that he was an innocent who had no warning that Hazel was taking him to the office of a fence to negotiate the sale of a sawed-off shotgun. He testified he claimed ownership of the shotgun and cooperated with Hazel because he was afraid. His statement to Lilly that his predilection was for stealing directly contradicted this profession of innocence by indicating that the office of a fence was his natural habitat. For this purpose we think the statement was admissible. It did not fall within the rationale of United States v. Wiggins, 166 U.S.App.D.C. 121, 509 F.2d 454 (1975) because it had no tendency to show that Brooks possessed a sawed-off shotgun. In the Wiggins case, when the defendant was on trial for one murder the prosecutor introduced in evidence his statement that he had committed three other unrelated murders. We reversed, because "the jury were left free to reason that because Wiggins had killed others he probably killed Davis." Id., 166 U.S.App.D.C. at 129, 509 F.2d at 462 (1975). Here there was no reasonable possibility that the jury would reason that Brooks' possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun followed from his "hustle" of stealing.
In conclusion we repeat what we thought we had made clear in United States v. Wiggins, supra: in the trial of a defendant for one offense evidence of other offenses he has committed is not admissible merely because he mentioned them in a voluntary statement. Prosecutors tempted to paint the lily in presenting their cases should bear this in mind.
The Judgments are Affirmed.
.Speaking of the Wiggins decision the district judge said "I would like the Court of Appeals to have another look at it." (TR. 8)