Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Rosario OCCHIPINTI
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1978-03-06
Citations: 358 So. 2d 1209
Docket Number: No. 60666
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Rosario OCCHIPINTI.
Judges: SUMMERS, J., dissents.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 358
Pages: 1209–1213

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Rosario OCCHIPINTI.
No. 60666.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
March 6, 1978.
On Rehearing May 22, 1978.
Larry P. Boudreaux, Boudreaux & Clement, Thibodaux, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Francis Dugas, Dist. Atty., John J. Erny, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Opinion:
DENNIS, Justice.
Defendant was convicted of perjury, La. R.S. 14:123, in a trial without jury and sentenced to serve two years at hard labor. Defendant appeals, relying upon two assignments of error for reversal of his conviction and sentence.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1
Defendant, Rosario Occhipinti, testified as a defense witness on March 5,1975 in the burglary trial of Joseph Cappo. During the trial, both Cappo and Occhipinti were portrayed by the State's principal witness, Robert Tallent, as participants with him in a conspiracy organized to plan and execute burglaries in Lafourche Parish. Tallent testified that although they had not physically participated in the offenses with him, Occhipinti and Cappo had been involved in gathering information and in planning the crimes. Tallent claimed that Occhipinti was thus implicated in crimes committed during a period from December of 1972 to July of 1973. In his testimony Occhipinti contradicted these allegations by denying that he ever planned any crimes with Tal-lent or Cappo and by asserting that he had been engaged in managing a motel on a full time basis in Pascagoula, Mississippi during a substantial portion of this time. In fact, Occhipinti testified, he was in Pascagoula "twenty-four hours a day" from February, 1978, to January, 1974.
Defendant now concedes that, in truth, he did not move from New Orleans to Pas-cagoula until April, 1973, and that even after moving there he was absent from Pascagoula many times during the period specified in his testimony. Furthermore, he does not dispute the principle that false testimony which impeaches the credibility of a witness as to a material issue is always material. Defendant's argument is simply that his false testimony did not contradict that of Tallent or attack his credibility. Our inquiry, therefore, is directed toward whether the testimony of defendant in question had contradictory impeaching value or tended to show that Tallent had erred or falsified as to certain material facts. See, C. McCormick, Evidence, § 47 (Cleary ed. 1972).
The majority rule is that materiality of false testimony is a matter of law for determination by the court, rather than a factual question to be decided by the jury. Therefore, our scope of review is not limited to an examination of the record to determine whether there was "some evidence" from which the trier of fact could have concluded that the false testimony was material, but is instead directed toward an independent decision on the question of law of materiality. After such an independent analysis, we conclude, for the reasons set forth below, that the trial court correctly determined that the false testimony was material and that the State had met its burden of proving this essential element of the crime.
During the burglary trial of Joseph Cap-po, Tallent was questioned about the participation of Occhipinti in one of the alleged crimes which occurred in Thibodaux on February 3, 1973. Tallent testified:
"Q. Did you ever see Mr. Occhipinti after the Lefort burglary?
"A. After the Lefort burglary? These dates are getting me all mixed up. That was on the 3rd of February. I was more or less thinking to myself. I can't say for certain.
"Q. You don't know if you ever saw him after that day. Is that correct?
"A. If I saw Mr. Cappo?
"Q. Mr. Occhipinti after the 3rd day of February, 1973, the time of the Le-fort burglary.
"A. I am almost certain I did, but I would hesitate to say positively.
"Q. Did you or did you not testify here today that Joseph Cappo, Roy Oc-chipinti, and Dave DiVincenti planned all of the crimes that you committed in Lafourche Parish?
"A. That they planned them all?
"Q. Yes, or gave you information for you to plan them.
"A. In Lafourche Parish. I believe that's accurate for Lafourche Parish.
"Q. That Roy Occhipinti participated along with Cappo and DiVincenti in every crime that you committed in Lafourche Parish.
"A. Now, you are saying participated. I am saying that he had knowledge of these and that at one time or other actually was with me, drove me to these different residences, business places, showed them to me, described some of the circumstances along with Mr. Cappo. That's true.
"Q. Let's take the Sako robbery, which was in July, the end of July.
"A. The 22nd of July.
"Q. Did Mr. Occhipinti come and show you anything in connection with that crime?
"A. He showed me that some time earlier; much, much earlier than the crime itself, yes.
"Q. What would you call much earlier?
"A. Probably a month or two months maybe.
*
"Q. Did you at any time after the Le-fort burglary up to and including the time of the Sako robbery — did you ever meet with Roy Occhipinti to plan any crimes in Lafourche Parish?
"A. Roy Occhipinti?
"Q. Yes.
"A. Of that I am not certain. I will have to say I cannot remember that. I am not certain about that."
After Tallent had testified, Occhipinti was called as a defense witness. During examination by Cappo's attorney, he testified:
"Q. How long did you operate that furniture store? Let me ask you this. Were you operating it in 1972 and 1973?
"A. Yes.
"Q. All of'73?
"A. No, sir. I operated it up until around — I think some time like around the middle of February.
"Q. At that time what did you do?'
"A. I moved to Pascagoula. I went there to run a motel.
"Q. What motel did you run there?
"A. The Dutch Inn for Mr. William Bos-worth.
"Q. What hours did you work there?
"A. I was on twenty-four hour call, but I worked from 5:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night, and then when I would close at 11:00 at night the switchboard was connected to my apartment so any calls that came into the motel I had to be right there to answer them.
"Q. Between February, 1973 until— when did you leave that job?
"A. I left there and moved back to New Orleans around January of '74.
"Q. Between February of '73 and January of '74 were you ever out of Pascagoula?
"A. Never. I was there twenty-four hours a day."
Defendant argues that this portion of his testimony was not material because it did not contradict any definite statement made by Tallent. Since Tallent's vacillating testimony did not amount to an assertion that defendant visited Lafourche Parish after February of 1973, defendant contends, it was completely consistent with his statement that he was never out of Pascagoula between February of 1973 and January of 1974.
We disagree. A reading of the Cappo trial testimony as a whole demonstrates that the essential effect of Tallent's testimony was to indicate that the defendant was deeply involved in all of the burglaries which occurred in Lafourche Parish during 1973 and that there was at least a strong possibility that Occhipinti had visited him in the Parish after February of that year. The thrust of Occhipinti's testimony was that there was absolutely no possibility that he could have been in Lafourche Parish during that time, that instead his job in Pascagoula demanded all of his time twenty-four hours per day — all of which tended to show that the likelihood of his involvement in any of the crimes with Tallent was small. Therefore, Occhipinti's testimony had impeaching value and tended to show that Tallent had erred or falsified important facts in his testimony. Moreover, this attack upon Tallent's credibility was sharpened by the defense attorney who informed the jury in his opening statement that Oc-chipinti "could account for every minute of his time" during the period he was in Pas-cagoula. It is clear that the primary reason Occhipinti was called as a witness was to attack Tallent's credibility. An objective reading of the transcript supports the trial court's finding that the statement given by Occhipinti tended to undermine the testimony of Tallent. Accordingly, we find that the false statements were material, and that defendant's first assignment of error lacks merit.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 2
Defendant concedes that he gave the false testimony but contends that he did not understand the crucial questions put to him during the Cappo trial. Therefore, he argues that there was no evidence whatsoever to support the trial judge's finding that he had the requisite criminal intent required for perjury. We find, however, from reading defendant's Cappo trial testimony and his explanatory testimony in the instant case, sufficient evidence to support the trial court's determination that the State proved this element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
For the foregoing reasons, defendant's conviction and sentence are affirmed.
. The conviction and sentence imposed in that case were reversed by this Court in State v. Cappo, 345 So.2d 443 (La.1977).
. State v. Smith, 126 La. 135, 52 So. 244 (1910); see also, Anderson, Wharton's Criminal Law and Procedure, § 1312 (1957); Comment, "Perjury: The Forgotten Offense", 65 J.Crim.L. 361 (1975); McClintock, What Happens to Perjurers, 24 Minn.L.Rev. 727 (1940).
. Perkins on Criminal Law, p. 462 (2d ed. 1969); contra, People v. Clemente, 285 App.Div. 258, 136 N.Y.S.2d 202 (1st Dept.1954).
. La.Const. of 1974, Art. V, § 5(C); State v. Singleton, 252 La. 976, 215 So.2d 512 (1968).