Opinion ID: 553323
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Merger and Related Claims

Text: 61 Appellants Roundy and Sweeton also argue that the evidence fails to meet the pattern requirement because the acts charged or proven are closely related in circumstance or at law, and merge so as to constitute one act. Appellants use various, but similar, claims that the predicates underlying their convictions, because they deal with one criminal transaction, are insufficient to constitute a pattern. Roundy argues that the evidence supporting his conviction shows only his acts of transporting Newcomb and Johnson and introducing them to LeQuire in connection with the May 23rd importation. Because of the structure of the Travel Act, the gravamen of which requires one overt act in furtherance of illegal activity subsequent to the travel, Roundy claims his act of introducing Newcomb and Johnson to LeQuire is doing double duty in supporting both importation and Travel Act predicates charged to him. Roundy contends that because these two predicates each rest on the introduction to LeQuire for their completion, they merge and constitute only one predicate. Sweeton similarly claims that both his importation and Travel Act predicate crimes rest on his presence at the airport (this being the overt act necessary under the Travel Act), and that these two must merge. Sweeton further contends that his conduct, at least as proven, occurred in close temporal proximity and thus fails the pattern requirement or alternatively, is in reality one act which the government has split into two statutory violations in order to satisfy the pattern requirement. 62 Roundy's claim that his conviction is due to be overturned because his act of introducing Newcomb and Johnson to LeQuire is doing double duty, and that therefore the two statutory violations which it supports merge, must fail. Appellant Roundy is correct in alleging that the Travel Act violation is not complete without performing some act in furtherance of illegal activity upon arrival. From the Senate Report on the Travel Act it is clear that to come within the provisions of the bill some activity in furtherance of a racketeering enterprise, subsequent to performance of the travel, must take place ... accordingly the gravamen of the offense will be travel and a further overt act to aid the enterprise. S.Rep. No. 644, 87th Cong., 1st Sess. 2 (1961), cited in United States v. Jones, 642 F.2d 909, 912, n. 4 (5th Cir.1981). 63 This Circuit has decided this point against the appellant. In United States v. Pepe, 747 F.2d 632, 662-663 (1984), this court upheld a defendant's RICO conviction based on Travel Act and loan sharking predicates. We there dismissed the defendant's contention that his travel in interstate commerce and subsequent extortion merged and only supported one offense. Similarly in United States v. Russo, 796 F.2d 1443, 1459 (11th Cir.1986), we affirmed two RICO convictions where a single drug importation venture was alleged as a predicate importation act and was also alleged separately, as a violation of the Travel Act. In the case relied upon by appellant, Phillips, 664 F.2d at 1038-39, it is true that we held that defendant Echezarreta's alleged predicates of possession with intent to distribute, and actual distribution were merged into only one act. However, the Phillips defendant's indictment alleged these as two violations of the same statutory provision, 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a). Further, on the very next page the Phillips court refused to apply this merger analysis to a different defendant, Fisher, whose RICO conviction was based on Travel Act, and importation predicates. Id. at 1039. Roundy's situation is the same as Fisher in Phillips above; he was indicted of violations of two different statutes, not two violations of the same statute. Roundy's predicates do not merge and are sufficient to constitute a pattern. 64 The standard which has been applied in this Circuit is whether each act constitutes a separate violation of the [state or federal] statute governing the conduct in question.... If distinct statutory violations are found, the predicate acts will be considered to be distinct irrespective of the circumstances under which they arose. 65 Bank of America v. Touche Ross & Co., 782 F.2d 966, 971 (11th Cir.1986) (emphasis added), citing United States v. Watchmaker, 761 F.2d 1459, 1475 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1100, 106 S.Ct. 879, 88 L.Ed.2d 917 (1986). 23 66 Sweeton's arguments as to the merger of his Travel Act predicate and his possession predicate because they both rely on his presence at the Sylvania airport on May 23, fail for the same reasons discussed above concerning Roundy. The Travel Act violation and the possession charge are both valid predicate acts, notwithstanding the fact that the overt act of the Travel Act offense is the basis for the possession charge. Sweeton's other contention along this line is that because his travel and importation predicate crimes are in such close temporal proximity they fail to meet RICO's pattern requirement. Sweeton is correct that a pattern of racketeering activity requires proof of something beyond the two predicate acts themselves. Sedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479, 496, n. 14, 105 S.Ct. 3275, 3285, n. 14, 87 L.Ed.2d 346 (1985). The Supreme Court has recently announced the extra element as one of continuity plus relationship among the predicates. To establish a RICO pattern it must also be shown that the predicates themselves amount to, or that they otherwise constitute a threat of continuing racketeering activity. H.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co., 492 U.S. 229, 109 S.Ct. 2893, 2901, 106 L.Ed.2d 195 (1989). The Court went on to give an example of when this continuity requirement would be met: 67 Though the number of related predicates involved may be small and they may occur close together in time, the racketeering acts themselves [may] include a specific threat of repetition extending indefinitely into the future, and thus supply the requisite threat of continuity. In other cases, the threat of continuity may be established by showing that the predicate acts or offenses are part of an ongoing entity's regular way of doing business. Thus, the threat of continuity is sufficiently established where the predicates can be attributed to a defendant operating as part of a long-term association that exists for criminal purposes. Id. 109 S.Ct. at 2902. 68 This language indicates that the predicate crimes charged to Sweeton, as indeed those charged to all appellants, meet the continuity requirement. The clear evidence is this case is that Sweeton's activities took place as part of the LeQuire enterprise's smuggling operations. This organization had smuggled drugs in the past, and continued to do so after the incident Sweeton was involved in. The threat of continuing racketeering activity was present, and was, in fact a threat fulfilled. That Sweeton's acts were in close temporal proximity and related to a single importation scheme does not prevent them from fulfilling the pattern requirement of continuity plus relationship in light of the clear statement from the Supreme Court.