Opinion ID: 788340
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Existence of RICO enterprise: ad hoc decision-making13

Text: 44 Appellants argue that the government did not meet its burden of proving substantive violations of the RICO statute because the evidence adduced at trial demonstrated only ad hoc decision-making. This challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence is based on the second element identified in Sedima as necessary to proving a violation of § 1962(c): that the racketeering activity be conducted by an enterprise. 473 U.S. at 496, 105 S.Ct. 3275. The statutory definition of enterprise includes any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity. 18 U.S.C. § 1961(4). The indictment specifically alleged that the type of enterprise involved in this case is an association in fact of individuals. 45 Under Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit precedent, establishing the existence of an associated-in-fact enterprise requires proof (1) of an ongoing organization, formal or informal, (2) which exhibits a hierarchical or consensual decision-making structure beyond that inherent in the alleged racketeering activity, and (3) in which the various associates function as a continuing unit. United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 583, 101 S.Ct. 2524, 69 L.Ed.2d 246 (1981); Chang v. Chen, 80 F.3d 1293, 1297, 1299-1300 (9th Cir.1996). In order for a group of individuals to qualify as an enterprise, the [decision-making] structure should provide some mechanism for controlling and directing the affairs of the group on an on-going, rather than an ad hoc, basis. Chang, 80 F.3d at 1299 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see also Simon v. Value Behavioral Health, Inc., 208 F.3d 1073, 1083 (9th Cir.2000) (A group whose members collectively engage in an illegal act, in-and-of-itself, does not constitute an `enterprise' for the purposes of RICO.). 14 46 In their brief, Appellants support their characterization of the Eme as an anarchy, 2002 WL 32302660 at , by pointing to apparent confusion about who was on the green light list, the process by which associates became members, the concentration of decision-making power in the hands of a few individuals, and disputes between individuals and factions within the Eme. Even if these appraisals of the evidence are accurate, they neither contradict nor undermine the jury's conclusion that the Eme was a RICO enterprise, for none is inconsistent with the existence of an associated-in-fact enterprise. 47 First, as discussed above, the mere existence of a dispute between rival factions within an organization is not dispositive of whether it qualifies as an associated-in-fact enterprise. Second, as the Second Circuit has noted, [c]ommon sense suggests that the existence of an association-in-fact is often-times more readily proven by what it does, rather than by abstract analysis of its structure. Coonan, 938 F.2d at 1559 (emphasis in original) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). The evidence at trial clearly established that the drug taxing and drug trafficking conspiracies were undertaken by individuals on behalf of the enterprise, and were in fact an integral part of the conduct of the Eme's affairs. Additionally, the murder conspiracies were proof of the existence of an enterprise, because the dispute was between different factions of the enterprise struggling for position within and control of the organization. Cf. United States v. Amato, 15 F.3d 230, 234 (2d Cir.1994) (holding, in context of criminal prosecution of members of one faction within a criminal enterprise that [r]ivalry and dissension, however violent, do not necessarily signify dissolution of a conspiracy.). 48 In this case there was evidence of more than the racketeering acts and conspiracies. Wiretap evidence showed, and several witnesses testified, that the Eme was a criminal organization of long standing, with a well-defined set of rules that were enforced by violence or the threat of violence, 15 consistent procedures for recruitment and advancement, and the overall goal of controlling Latino gangs in southern California by maintaining and projecting its power both inside and outside of prison. 49