Opinion ID: 396887
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: THE McCARRON AFFIDAVITS.

Text: 18 Margaret McCarron gave three affidavits relative to her dealings with Ciulla. Two of them are dated April 24, 1980. The third is dated July 28, 1980, the same date on which all three were turned over to Paul Smith and Barry Haight, attorneys for Price and James DeMetri. They can be summarized as follows. 19 The First Affidavit. 20 Sometime within the week prior to December 26, 1978, McCarron tried to contact Ciulla, first through Strike Force Attorney O'Sullivan and then through FBI Agent Thomas Daley. McCarron wanted to interview Ciulla because she planned to write a book about him in collaboration with a Dale Austin. Ciulla called McCarron on December 26 and discussed the book; Ciulla told her that he was interested in getting money for himself. From then on Ciulla called McCarron frequently. At times, he appeared to be drunk and calling from bars or nightclubs. 21 McCarron met with Ciulla and his wife, Helen, in Portland, Oregon. 3 They discussed the writing of a book. Ciulla told McCarron that he wanted to reserve the movie and television rights but he would go along with her if she gave him $25,000. She gave him $2,000 in cash and got a receipt for it. McCarron had understood from previous telephone conversations with Ciulla that she was to have the movie and television rights. Ciulla, however, struck from a proposed contract her rights to movie and television earnings. She then called Agent Daley who said he was washing his hands of the matter. 22 Ciulla called McCarron many times after that. At least once he told her he was looking out for himself and intended to make a million dollars out of the movie and television rights. He told her that she was out from the first day. He also told her that there were some people against whom he had a personal vendetta and that he was going to accuse them of various crimes. We quote the rest of the affidavit. 23 He told me that he had lied during the trial of the case in Boston involving Elliot Price and other defendants and that he had brought the Las Vegas people into this case because he had been down to Las Vegas and had become drunk and disorderly and that he had lost a lot of money gambling and when he went to get additional credit, he was turned down and that this was the reason why he felt that he would rather bring those people into the case than others to whom he felt a personal loyalty. My credibility is the most important thing to me because when I get out of this F program I am going to get my money for my story. It is my story and I'll lie whenever I feel like it, is what he said to me. 24 The Second Affidavit. 25 Ciulla told McCarron over the phone on various occasions that he had to say what the Government people told him to say. He also told her that he and Agent Daley were close personal friends. The affidavit ends with this sentence: Ciulla told us that Daley and the Justice Department told him what to say in the trial of the case. 26 The Third Affidavit. 27 This affidavit is mainly a recital of McCarron's unsuccessful attempts to enter into a contract with Ciulla for writing and publishing a book. She describes her contacts with Dale Austin whom she expected to help her write the book. Austin lost interest early and withdrew from the venture. McCarron then talked to an agent in New York, Sterling Lord, who told her she needed more material. Gerald R. Strine, Editor of the Horseman's Journal, told her that if she would introduce him to Ciulla so that he could get enough information for an outline, there would be an instant advance. She immediately called Ciulla and told him to contact Strine, which he did. Strine interviewed Ciulla for ninety minutes and wrote a three-chapter outline which was submitted to a literary agent, Milton Fenster. Fenster, in turn, submitted the outline to Bantam Books and Columbia Pictures with an asking price of $500,000. After some negotiations, both Bantam and Columbia turned the deal down. Ciulla told McCarron in early June that he had told Strine to stop trying to sell the property; he was going to sit on it until the New York indictments were handed down. McCarron flew to New York in July to talk to Fenster personally. She told Fenster that I had been spending my money right and left and wanted to hear from him why the deal with Columbia Pictures had fallen through. Strine and Fenster then got into a battle over the rights to the book (which was still nonexistent). Fenster approached five different movie companies and Mike Wallace of Sixty Minutes, but to no avail. According to McCarron, (a)ll of the business dealings that I have just put on paper took place during the trial in Boston. 28 The Counter-Affidavits. 29 Thomas Daley executed an affidavit on October 10, 1980. He stated that McCarron contacted him in late December, 1978, and requested an interview with both him and Ciulla. He informed her that he could not be interviewed without permission from FBI headquarters and not until the case was fully over in the courts. He said that he would pass on her request to interview Ciulla to the witness protection program. Daley denied any knowledge of McCarron's intention to write a book about Ciulla; she had told him that she was thinking of writing a book about horse racing. Daley stated that he never told Ciulla what to say in his testimony other than to tell the truth about the other defendants. Daley's affidavit further states that his relationship with Ciulla was only that of the normal agent-witness one, that Ciulla never discussed any book or movie and television rights with him and that he was not aware of any negotiations between Ciulla and McCarron. 30 Ciulla's affidavit was executed on November 5, 1980. He admitted talking to McCarron several times about her ideas for a book, but stated that he never gave her permission to represent him. On the occasions that he called McCarron, he was not intoxicated. Ciulla admitted receiving $2,000 from McCarron in Portland, Oregon, but stated that he had met with her because she said she would give him $25,000 for a six months option for the right to write and publish a book on his race fixing activities. He gave her six months to raise the additional $23,000 and find a publisher. Ciulla denied that he ever told her he needed convictions to bolster his credibility for a book. He denied telling her that his trial testimony was not true or that he falsely accused anyone of a crime because of a personal vendetta. Ciulla stated that he never told McCarron that the Government was telling him what to testify to during the trial and that at no time during the trial in Massachusetts did I lie or testify falsely. 31 McCarron filed a further affidavit dated November 13, 1980, in which she said that during her first conversation with Daley, she told him specifically that she intended to do a book about Ciulla. She further stated that prior to the end of the trial, she told Daley that she gave Ciulla $2,000 in Oregon and wanted it back and Daley told her to contact Ciulla through the United States Marshal's office in Boston. 32 Ciulla's Book Testimony. 33 During cross-examination, Ciulla admitted that he had been approached about writing a book, but stated that he hadn't dealt with anyone relative to ghost writing or collaborating with him. He agreed that he hoped to write a book. Earlier he had stated that he hoped he would earn some money after he finished testifying. Ciulla denied that he was waiting to negotiate about a book until convictions were returned in the case. He testified that he spoke to a writer from Roper magazine over the phone about a book, but no figures were mentioned. 34 We agree with the district court that Agurs does not apply to the McCarron affidavits. Accepting McCarron's affidavits at face value, this was new evidence of which the Government had no knowledge prior to the time Ciulla testified and certainly not prior to trial. See United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. at 111, 96 S.Ct. at 2401. The standard of review is abuse of discretion. United States v. Wright, 625 F.2d 1017 (1st Cir. 1980). 35 A motion for new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence will ordinarily not be granted unless the moving party can demonstrate that: (1) the evidence was unknown or unavailable to the defendant at the time of trial; (2) failure to learn of the evidence was not due to lack of diligence by the defendant; (3) the evidence is material, and not merely cumulative or impeaching; and (4) it will probably result in an acquittal upon retrial of the defendant. 36 Id. at 1019. 37 We do not think the district court abused its discretion in finding that the evidence was merely impeaching and that it would not have affected the verdict. Nor do we think that an evidentiary hearing was either necessary or desirable. Such a hearing would essentially have been a swearing contest with McCarron pitted against Ciulla and Daley. There probably would be side excursions involving the others who, along with McCarron, saw in Ciulla a golden opportunity to pander to the public's thirst for an inside view of crime. There is no smoking gun evidence or anything approaching it, only the statements of a disappointed opportunist who was bilked out of $2,000 by one whom she knew was a self-confessed briber, cheat and crook. As we already have noted, the jury was well aware of Ciulla's character and way of life. This was not the straw that would have broken the camel's back; it was just more chaff to scatter in the wind. 38