Opinion ID: 349992
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Forklift Rental

Text: 53 In connection with the repeated shuffling around of the computers among various warehouses, storage facilities, airline terminals, and the like, a forklift was employed which had been rented by Zeligs under the name of Mandeville Engineering Company. In view of the fact that Zeligs' testimony in respect to the circumstances of his use of this name was not forthcoming, and why this name was used probably will never be certainly known. The name had never been used by Mandeville himself, although he identified himself for certain purposes as an engineer, and it seems as likely as not that the name was, either on his own initiative or at the suggestion of a person unknown, assumed by Zeligs, who habitually did not use his own unusual name in connection with the computer transactions. Possibly Zeligs used the name because Mandeville had had prior dealings with the forklift rental agency in connection with the buoys. Possibly Zeligs knew that the warehouse was leased in the name of Mandeville and felt that the removal of the property from the warehouse would be less suspicious if Mandeville's name were connected therewith. In any event, there is no evidence that Mandeville ever authorized either the rental of the forklifts or the use of his name in that connection. In fact there is no showing whatsoever of any contact of any kind between Zeligs and Mandeville. 23 54 Finally, insofar as Mandeville is concerned, it is worthy of note that even though faced with a miasma of evidence confusing the computer, buoy, and transformer transactions, the jury apparently had its greatest difficulty in arriving at a verdict in connection with Mandeville. Not only was it the last of the verdicts, which were returned separately, as permitted by Fed.R.Crim.P. 31(b), but it was the only one in which a defendant was found guilty of less than all of the four counts charged. 55