Opinion ID: 386012
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: claims common to all appellants

Text: 18 Appellants claim that the evidence at most shows a series of separate smaller conspiracies rather than the single conspiracy alleged in the indictment and that the variance caused each appellant substantial prejudice. Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946); Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 81-82, 55 S.Ct. 629, 630-631, 79 L.Ed. 1314 (1935). The principles governing such a claim are well settled. The Government, of course, has the burden of establishing the conspiracy alleged in the indictment. Whether it has proved the existence of this conspiracy and each appellant's membership in it or has instead proved multiple other independent conspiracies is a question of fact for a properly instructed jury, United States v. Murray, 618 F.2d 892, 902 (2d Cir. 1980); United States v. McGrath, 613 F.2d 361, 367 (2d Cir. 1979); United States v. Taylor, 562 F.2d 1345, 1351 (2d Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Salley v. United States, 432 U.S. 909, 97 S.Ct. 2958, 53 L.Ed.2d 1083 (1977); United States v. Armedo-Sarmiento, 545 F.2d 785, 789 (2d Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 917, 97 S.Ct. 1330, 51 L.Ed.2d 595 (1977). 19 There is no claim here that the jury was not properly instructed on the subject of multiple conspiracies versus a single conspiracy. The issues therefore are whether the evidence supports a finding that the alleged conspiracy was proved and that each appellant was a member of it and, if not, whether the variance substantially prejudiced any of the appellants. Having in mind that the gist of the offense remains the agreement, United States v. Borelli, 336 F.2d 376, 384 (2d Cir. 1964), cert. denied sub nom. Mogavero v. United States, 379 U.S. 960, 85 S.Ct. 647, 13 L.Ed.2d 555 (1965), we must, in order to resolve these issues, examine the evidence to determine what kind of agreement or understanding could reasonably have been found to exist as to each appellant. This requires a review of the defendants' activities as a whole in order to determine the scope of the criminal enterprise or enterprises and whether any of them fits the pattern of the conspiracy alleged in the indictment. The next step is to review each appellant's conduct and statements to determine whether it could reasonably be inferred that he participated in the alleged enterprise with a consciousness of its general nature and extent. Assuming proof of the alleged conspiracy, it need not be shown that each appellant knew every other member or was aware of all acts committed in furtherance of it, see United States v. Gleason, 616 F.2d 2, 16 (2d Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1082, 100 S.Ct. 1037, 62 L.Ed.2d 767 (1980). It is sufficient to show that he participated in what he knew to be a collective venture meeting the allegations of the indictment. Proof of an appellant's membership depends upon the extent of his knowledge and participation, given the scale of the criminal enterprise. Direct Sales Co. v. United States, 319 U.S. 703, 709, 63 S.Ct. 1265, 1268, 87 L.Ed. 1674 (1943); United States v. Paoli, 603 F.2d 1029, 1035 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 926, 100 S.Ct. 264, 62 L.Ed.2d 182 (1979); United States v. Miley, 513 F.2d 1191, 1206-07 (2d Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Vavarigos v. United States, 423 U.S. 842, 96 S.Ct. 75, 46 L.Ed.2d 62 (1975); United States v. Borelli, supra, 336 F.2d at 383 n.2. 20 In the present case the 17 defendants were charged with a conspiracy, extending over the 4 1/2-year period from January 1975 to June 1979, to use stolen or lost credit cards to obtain airline tickets without authorization from the card-owners and to sell or use the tickets with knowledge that they had been so unlawfully obtained. The evidence revealed the existence of such unlawful operations by functional interlocking groups (prostitutes, middlemen, retailers and customers) who were virtually dependent on one another for overall success. Against the contention that the proof showed only a series of independent groups, each engaged in identical but separate parallel operations, there was evidence of an interrelationship and interdependency between the groups. For instance, all retailer-appellants except Jesselli, Martelli and Carcone were directly connected with middlemen Colagrande and Fugario. Each appellant, moreover, sold tickets obtained by the same Q card as that used to obtain tickets sold by at least one of his co-defendants. Jesselli and Carcone, for instance, sold tickets obtained by use of a Q card which had been used to obtain tickets for other appellants who were linked with Colagrande or Fugario. This evidence, when coupled with the nature and duration of the enterprise, which depended on a steady flow of freshly stolen or lost cards, interchange of such cards between middlemen for maximum utilization and communications between both middlemen and retailers, justifies an inference that there was one loose-knit conspiracy as alleged. 21 Turning to the appellants' knowledge and participation, there was sufficient direct evidence to sustain the verdicts as to Alessi, Carcone, Colagrande and Ferrara. Colagrande's statements and conduct, including his dealings with prostitutes for the purchase of stolen Q cards, his supplying tickets to several of the retailers (Ferrara, Margro, Pedicine, Peraino and probably Doctor), his many phone communications with numerous retailers, and his collaboration with Casella, who also appears to have acquired lost or stolen cards, placed Colagrande at the center of the illegal activities of many of his co-defendants and gave him more than ample reason to know the dimensions of the overall conspiracy alleged in the indictment. 22 The record proof against Ferrara likewise supports an inference that he knowingly participated in a criminal venture of the dimensions alleged. He was seen together with Fugario, a central figure, at the very site where lost or stolen Q cards were purchased from prostitutes. Their wives were partners in the business where these purchases occurred. Fugario's purpose in buying the cards, of course, could only have been to use the cards illegally to obtain tickets. From this evidence and the very high volume of calls between Ferrara, Colagrande and Fugario, the jury was justified in finding that Ferrara knew the outlines of the illegal enterprise. The evidence against Alessi and Carcone, outlined above, justifies a similar inference as to them. 23 Although the evidence against the remaining four appellants (Jesselli, Margro, Martelli and Peraino) is not as conclusive on the issue of their knowledge of the dimensions of the conspiracy as that against Colagrande, Ferrara, Alessi and Carcone, we are persuaded that it was nevertheless sufficient. The evidence is clear that they participated knowingly in obtaining tickets and selling them for cash discounts to customers under circumstances making it apparent to them that the tickets had been unlawfully obtained by use of Q cards in someone else's name. Each of the four (Jesselli, Margro, Martelli and Peraino) sold tickets purchased with the same Q card as that used unlawfully to obtain tickets sold by at least one other co-defendant. Three witnesses testified to at least 50 occasions on which Jesselli supplied them with tickets in 1976 and 1977. Margro, in addition to having numerous phone calls to and from Colagrande's number, spoke with Colagrande in person, took a customer to Colagrande's home, sold unlawfully obtained tickets from 1975 to 1977 and told one customer (Barrow) that he could supply tickets when needed. Witnesses testified that Martelli sold tickets on several occasions during 1975 and 1976. Peraino and Colagrande met personally at Peraino's office, and were overheard discussing the ticket supply (the goods). Telephone records show 39 calls between Colagrande's number and that of Peraino during the period of December 19, 1976, to April 21, 1977. A witness testified that Peraino received calls for tickets frequently from 1974 to 1976, and ticket sales in 1977 by Peraino were also demonstrated. 24 From all of these circumstances-the high volume of sales for cash discounts of tickets which disclosed on their face that they were obtained by using Q cards in different persons' names, the communications of Margro, Ferrara and Peraino with middleman Colagrande, and the long period of time during which the sales occurred-the jury could reasonably infer that each of these retailers was aware as a matter of business reality that he was participating in an illegal operation embracing more than a few transactions. When a retailer is able to sell numerous unlawfully-obtained tickets at a cut rate over a long period of time to many customers it may be inferred as a matter of common sense that he must have appreciated that he was participating in a larger scheme. The very nature of the operation, involving use of lost or stolen cards that could be used only a short time before detection, would necessitate a larger group to supply recently stolen or lost cards and thus furnish the volume of tickets needed by the retailers to conduct their business. In order to derive the maximum amount of ill-gotten gains from each stolen card during its short life span, a larger group of retailers would be required than a single retailer-appellant and one or two others. We therefore conclude that the evidence, viewed in the context of the nature and method of the operation and the number of people and mutual dependence required for it to function continuously, was sufficient to support the jury's verdict that each of the appellants joined a single loose-knit multi-person conspiracy, making it his own. 25 Even if a variance existed in the proof, indicating that only smaller conspiracies had been shown, we would reverse as to an appellant only upon a showing that his substantial rights had been prejudiced. 28 U.S.C. § 2211; Kotteakos v. United States, supra, 328 U.S. at 764-65, 66 S.Ct. at 1247-1248. No such prejudice appears here. There was no charge given pursuant to Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 66 S.Ct. 1180, 90 L.Ed. 1489 (1946), which allows one member of a conspiracy to be convicted for substantive offenses committed by another. No appellant points to any prejudicial testimony directed against him which was received as a co-conspirator's declaration that would otherwise constitute inadmissible hearsay, Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). 26 Nor was there a prejudicial spillover effect. There was ample evidence that each appellant joined others in committing the substantive violations charged against him. While a prejudicial variance may become more likely as the number of improperly joined defendants increases, compare Berger v. United States, supra (4 defendants), with Kotteakos v. United States, supra, 328 U.S. at 766, 66 S.Ct. at 1248 (32 defendants), and we have warned the Government on prior occasions against using a single conspiracy count, which it cannot prove, as the basis for a mass trial and then seeking to defend convictions on the ground that the variance was not prejudicial, United States v. Sperling, 506 F.2d 1323, 1340-41 (2d Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 962, 95 S.Ct. 1351, 43 L.Ed.2d 439 (1975), see also United States v. Miley, supra, 513 F.2d at 1207 n.10, the number of persons tried together here (10 defendants) was sufficiently small to enable the jury to give individual consideration to each. The jury's acquittal of two co-defendants indicates that it gave each defendant the separate and individual consideration of the evidence against him to which he was entitled, United States v. Toliver, 541 F.2d 958, 963 (2d Cir. 1976), in accordance with the trial judge's instructions. Lastly this was not a case in which shocking or inflammatory evidence came in against co-defendants, cf., United States v. Bertolotti, 529 F.2d 149 (2d Cir. 1975), but rather one in which the crimes of the various appellants were not markedly different, United States v. Miley, supra, 513 F.2d at 1209. The evidence against the various defendants was largely repetitive, describing transactions in which each defendant did essentially the same thing as his co-defendants had done. 27 We therefore find no merit in appellants' contention that there was a prejudicial variance in the proof of a conspiracy and, absent a showing of prejudice, it is unnecessary to consider the additional question of whether, even though there was evidence of guilt of the conspiracy charged, proof of other conspiracies or criminal acts might still entitle them to a new trial. See Berger v. United States, supra, 295 U.S. at 83, 55 S.Ct. at 631.
28 Appellants' contention that there was insufficient evidence to establish that they knew that the tickets had been purchased with illegally obtained credit cards can be disposed of summarily. Colagrande actually purchased Q cards from prostitutes. Ferrara was seen on occasion with another purchaser (Fugario) at the site of Q card purchases. Alessi's prior conviction on a similar charge supported the inference that he knew of the source of the tickets. Each appellant, on at least one occasion and some on many occasions, sold tickets bearing markings of the type commonly made when the embossed surface of a credit card is pressed against a ticket, revealing on the ticket the name of the corporation and executive to whom the Q card belonged. Although the jury, which was properly instructed, 6 was free to accept the speculations offered by appellants' counsel to the effect that the tickets themselves had been stolen or that they had been bought for cash from airline employees, it was also entitled to infer knowledge, as it did, that these tickets were purchased with stolen cards. The sheer repetition of similar secretive transactions supported an inference of familiarity with the operation. In the absence of any convincing refutation of this logic at trial, see United States v. Frank, 494 F.2d 145, 153 (2d Cir. 1974), the jury's verdict was sufficiently supported in this respect.
29 Appellant Jesselli asserts, for the first time, a claim, applicable to all appellants, that since the Government charged participation in a single conspiracy it was error to sentence him on separate counts charging that the conspiracy violated two distinct conspiracy statutes, 15 U.S.C. § 1644(a) (Count One) and 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count Two). No such claim was asserted in the district court by any appellant. Since the objection is one which appellants were obligated to raise before trial, see Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(b)(2), they are barred by their procedural default from raising it now, see Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(f). See Davis v. United States, 411 U.S. 233, 243-45, 93 S.Ct. 1577, 1583-1584, 36 L.Ed.2d 216 (1973); United States v. Viserto, 596 F.2d 531, 538 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 841, 100 S.Ct. 80, 62 L.Ed.2d 52 (1979); United States v. Droms, 566 F.2d 361, 363 (2d Cir. 1977). Moreover, since one general concurrent sentence was imposed on each appellant with respect to all counts in the present case, which was within the maximum permitted under the general and specific conspiracy statutes charged in Counts One and Two, and the convictions on both counts instead of one would be most unlikely to have any collateral consequences for any defendant, see United States v. Vargas, 615 F.2d 952, 956-62 (2d Cir. 1980), no purpose would be served in reviewing the legality of the duplicative sentences. Barnes v. United States, 412 U.S. 837, 848, 93 S.Ct. 2357, 2364, 37 L.Ed.2d 380 (1973).