Opinion ID: 2002580
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Single or Multiple Conspiracies

Text: For the limited purpose of this appeal, there is no dispute as to the existence of conspiratorial agreements between Ms. Janoski, Mr. Lipinski and appellant, or between Ms. Fulin, Mr. O'Rourke, Mr. Moskovitz and appellant. Rather, the critical question in this appeal is whether there were two separate conspiracies or a single multi-faceted conspiracy. This important distinction often is not an easy one to make. Under Pennsylvania law, a single conspiracy may have multiple criminal objectives. See 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 903(c). Thus, when on a single occasion there is a single agreement to commit two crimes, e.g. murder and arson, a single conspiracy exists. See Commonwealth v. Grove, 363 Pa.Super. 328, 347, 526 A.2d 369, 379 (1987). Likewise, a single conspiratorial agreement may involve a continuing course of criminal conduct involving the repetition of a single crime or the commission of a series of crimes. See Commonwealth v. Perez, 381 Pa.Super 149, 151, 553 A.2d 79, 79-80 (1988) (finding a single conspiracy to commit multiple violations of separate statutes against the distribution of marijuana and the distribution of cocaine). Nonetheless, the essence of conspiracy remains the agreement to work in concert for one or more criminal purposes. Just as a single entrepreneur may enter into several separate yet similar joint business ventures with the same or different partners or investors at the same time, criminals in general and drug traffickers in particular may enter into more than one criminal conspiracy involving similar crimes at the same time, even in the same area. See generally Reuter, A Portfolio of Major Drug Traffickers, in Organized Crime Narcotics Enforcement Symposium, at 75-79 (Pa. Crime Comm. 1988) (describing the variability of partnerships, associations, and source connections of high level drug dealers); Alder & Alder, Relationships Between Dealers: The Social Organization of Illicit Drug Transactions, 68 Soc. & Soc.Res. 260, 260-78 (1983) (same); Alder & Alder, Shifts and Oscillations in Deviant Careers: The Case of Upper-Level Drug Dealers and Smugglers, 31 Social Problems 195, 195-207 (1983) (same); Soref, The Structure of Illegal Drug Markets: An Organizational Approach, 10 Urban Life, 329, 329-52 (1981) (same). Distinguishing between a single continuing criminal conspiracy and multiple separate or continuing criminal conspiracies is further complicated by the fact that it is not necessary that each conspirator know the identity of each fellow conspirator so long as the conspirator knows that a person with whom he has conspired has in turn conspired with other unknown persons to aid in the attainment of their joint conspiratorial objective(s). See 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 903(b). While we are aware of no Pennsylvania appellate court decisions specifically applying or construing that provision, we note that the equivalent federal provision has been consistently construed to provide that individual members of conspiracies need not know of all the co-conspirators, conspiratorial objectives, or steps to be taken in furtherance of the conspiracy, so long as the co-conspirators are aware of the existence of the broader conspiracy and its general objectives, and the co-conspirator acts (or agrees to act) in furtherance of the conspiracy. See e.g. United States v. Adamo, 882 F.2d 1218, 1222-24 (7th Cir. 1989); United States v. Sanchez Solis, 882 F.2d 693, 696 (2d Cir. 1989); United States v. Roberts, 881 F.2d 95, 101 (4th Cir. 1989); United States v. Martinez, 877 F.2d 1480, 1482 (10th Cir. 1989); United States v. Mendoza, 876 F.2d 639, 642-43 (8th Cir. 1989); United States v. Garcia-Rosa, 876 F.2d 209, 223 (1st Cir. 1989); United States v. Rastelli, 870 F.2d 822, 827-28 (2nd Cir. 1989); United States v. Garbett, 867 F.2d 1132, 1135 (8th Cir. 1989); United States v. Nusraty, 867 F.2d 759, 763 (2nd Cir. 1989); United States v. Grier, 866 F.2d 908, 924 (7th Cir. 1989); United States v. Inadi, 748 F.2d 812, 817 (3rd Cir. 1984) rev'd on other grounds 475 U.S. 387, 106 S.Ct. 1121, 89 L.Ed.2d 390 (1986) (reversing the 3rd Circuit's reversal of Inadi's convictions on other grounds); United States v. Warner, 690 F.2d 545, 548-49 (6th Cir. 1982). In this case, reliance by the Commonwealth and appellant as well as the trial court, on our decision in Commonwealth v. Abbott, supra , was in some respects unfortunate. Though Abbott is indeed an important case to consider in analyzing 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 111 motions, fundamental differences between the facts of Abbott and the facts of this case mandate different analysis in resolving the key issues presented here. Abbott, though decided under Section 111, presented facts virtually indistinguishable from those involved in the Section 110 issue addressed in Commonwealth v. Hude, 500 Pa. 482, 458 A.2d 177 (1983). In both Abbott and Hude the primary focus was on whether a series of similar criminal acts were part of one episode. Here, the principle issue is whether one or two groups of conspirators were involved; and, if two separate groups were involved, whether the separate groups of conspirators nonetheless furthered a single broader conspiracy. In Abbott, on the other hand, there was no conspiracy at all; rather, there was a series of illegal drug sales by one Doctor of Osteopathy to several different undercover agents during a single six month investigation. The critical issue here, i.e. whether the facts reveal the existence of a single group of conspirators, multiple groups of conspirators pursuing a single conspiracy, or multiple groups of conspirators pursuing separate conspiracies, was neither presented nor considered in Abbott. The decision in Commonwealth v. Mascaro, 260 Pa.Super. 420, 394 A.2d 998 (1978), is similarly distinguishable. Our decision in Commonwealth v. Perez, supra , is of only slightly greater applicability. In Perez, this Court held that multiple conspiracy convictions arising from a series of cocaine and marijuana sales could not be sustained because: Nothing in the complaint tends to establish separate conspiracies to distribute cocaine and marijuana or tends to disprove that a single conspiratorial relationship existed from which both marijuana and cocaine were distributed to the Walters in Pennsylvania. 553 A.2d at 81. We noted that [a]ppellant [was] depicted as doing no more than supplying, along with the other three Miami residents, cocaine and marijuana to Walters, who in turn sold drugs to others. Id. Perez emphasizes the need to establish specific facts demonstrating the separateness of conspiracies to justify separate conspiracy convictions. Unfortunately, Perez does not indicate the type of facts which would establish the existence of separate conspiracies. The dearth of Pennsylvania case law on this subject stands in stark contrast to the abundance of federal case law. While not controlling as to the proper construction of either 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 111 or 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 903, we nonetheless find the multifactor totality of the circumstances analysis embraced by a majority of the federal circuit courts for distinguishing single from multiple conspiracies to be a generally appropriate approach. See United States v. Liotard, 817 F.2d 1074, 1078 & n. 7 (3rd Cir. 1987) (collecting cases); see also United States v. Lindell, 881 F.2d 1313, 1318 (5th Cir. 1989); United States v. Peveto, 881 F.2d 844, 854-55 (10th Cir. 1989); United States v. Sanchez-Lopez, 879 F.2d 541, 549 (9th Cir. 1989); United States v. Gunter, 876 F.2d 1113, 1120 (5th Cir. 1989); United States v. Mendoza, supra, 876 F.2d at 642-43; United States v. Garcia-Rosa, supra, 876 F.2d at 223; United States v. DeVarona, 872 F.2d 114, 118 (5th Cir. 1989); Note, Single vs. Multiple Criminal Conspiracies, 65 Minn.L.Rev. 295, 310-11 & nn. 78-84 (1980) (collecting cases). The factors most commonly considered in a totality of the circumstances analysis of the single vs. multiple conspiracies issue in the cases noted above are: the number of overt acts in common; the overlap in personnel; the time period during which the alleged acts took place; the similarity in methods of operation; the locations in which the alleged acts took place; the extent to which the purported conspiracies share a common objective; and, the degree to which interdependence is needed for the overall operation to succeed. See Note, supra, 65 Minn.L.Rev. at 310-11 & nn.78-84 (collecting cases). We find all of these factors to be appropriate to consider in distinguishing single from multiple conspiracies. Different circuit courts have adopted different constructions or expressions of the multifactor test to be applied in such cases. Compare United States v. Goff, 847 F.2d 149, 166 (5th Cir 1988) (applying the five factor Marable test) [3] and United States v. Liotard, supra, 817 F.2d at 1078 (announcing a similar four factor test and criticizing particular aspects of the Marable test). To the extent that the tests as stated and applied in the various circuit courts actually differ, we find it unnecessary to choose between the tests. Rather, we consider the tests to be merely illustrative of the type of considerations to be included in the totality of circumstances analysis to be conducted, and not formulaic expressions of rigid tests to be applied. Indeed, we emphasize that no one factor or combination of factors is necessarily dispositive. A single conspiracy is not transposed into a multiple one simply by lapse of time, change in membership, or a shifting in emphasis in the location of the operation. United States v. DeVarona, supra, 872 F.2d at 119, quoting United States v. Vila, 599 F.2d 21, 24 (2nd Cir.), cert. denied 444 U.S. 837, 100 S.Ct. 73, 62 L.Ed.2d 48 (1979); see also United States v. Napue, 834 F.2d 1311, 1333 (7th Cir. 1987). All relevant factors must be considered. Conspiracies are sometimes diagrammed and described in terms of chains, links, spokes, wheels, and forks. See generally Marcus, Prosecution and Defense of Criminal Conspiracy Cases, supra, at § 4.02(2) (collecting and analyzing cases); Flannery, Conspiracy: A Primer, The Champion at 4, 10-13 (Nat'l Crim. Def. L. Ass'n. December 1988). For descriptive purposes such analogies can at times be extremely useful. As an aid or gauge of analysis of the single vs. multiple conspiracies issue, however, the efficacy of such analogies is extremely doubtful. Judge Friendly has opined that for analytical purposes, such analogies obscure as much as they clarify. United States v. Borelli, 336 F.2d 376, 383 (2nd Cir. 1964). In United States v. Perez, 489 F.2d 51 (5th Cir. 1973), after an extended demonstration of the futility of attempting to fit the facts of Perez into one such analogy and thereby distinguish it from the others in order to determine whether a single conspiracy or multiple conspiracies existed, Chief Circuit Judge John R. Brown explained in apparent exasperation: As for us, the problem is difficult enough without trying to compress it into figurative analogies. Conspiracies are as complex as the versatility of human nature and federal protection against them is not to be measured by spokes, hubs, wheels, rims, chains, or any one or all of today's galaxy of mechanical, molecular or atomic forms. 489 F.2d at 59 n. 11; accord United States v. DeVarona, supra, 872 F.2d at 118 (in analyzing whether the nature of a scheme points to a single conspiracy [or multiple conspiracies], this court has avoided analogies to wheels, rims, hubs, and chains). We agree that the use of such analogies should be confined to descriptive rather than analytical purposes. Whether a single conspiracy or multiple conspiracies exist must be determined by a multifactor analysis of the totality of the circumstances. Analysis must precede labelling. Most importantly, the principal focus must remain on the existence and scope of the conspiratorial agreement, which is the sine qua non of the offense. Cf. Commonwealth v. Derr, supra . Finally, with regard to continuing criminal conspiracies, we note that whether a given accused's acts indicate knowing participation in a broad continuing conspiracy, or are merely acts which incidentally benefit the broad conspiracy may depend upon the role which the accused played in the acts involved. For example, a purchaser of drugs for personal use is generally not deemed a participant in a broad drug distribution conspiracy solely on the basis of one or more personal use purchases. See United States v. Brown, 872 F.2d 385, 390-91 (11th Cir. 1989); United States v. Zabare, 871 F.2d 282, 287 (2nd Cir. 1989); United States v. DeLutis, 722 F.2d 902, 905-07 (1st Cir. 1983). In Zabare, Circuit Judge Lawrence Pierce explained: While it is true that a purchaser of illicit drugs or stolen goods may advance the goals of a criminal conspiracy simply by virtue of the revenues his purchase generates, the single purchase alone is not per se evidence the buyer's intent to knowingly join and participate in that conspiracy.       . . . it is also settled in this Circuit that a defendant's participation in a single transaction can suffice to sustain a charge of knowing participation in an existing conspiracy. The test that has evolved for determining whether a single act is sufficient to support a conspiracy conviction is whether `the qualitative nature' of the act `viewed in the context of the entire conspiracy' . . . in a particular case supports beyond a reasonable doubt the inference that an individual is involved in a conspiracy. 871 F.2d at 287 (citations omitted). Though discussed as a single transaction rule in Zabare, the rule involved is in fact more properly characterized as a purchase for personal use rule as it is generally applied to narcotics cases. See United States v. Brown, supra (a drug user made several purchases for personal use over a period of time from a single source, yet did not thereby become a participant in the source's broader conspiracy). [4] On the other hand, a single purchase of drugs for resale from an importer or wholesaler may, under the totality of circumstances, demonstrate sufficient participation to make the retailer a member in the broader conspiracy of the wholesaler or importer. See United States v. Garcia-Rosa, supra, 876 F.2d at 223 (noting the acceptance of the isolated transaction doctrine in the First Circuit, but finding it inapplicable to the defendant's multiple bulk purchases). If a retailer knew, or has reason to know, that other retailers were involved with the organization in a broad project for trafficking in illegal narcotics, and had reason to believe that his or her own benefits derived from the operation were probably dependent on the success of the entire venture, then a jury could properly find that each had agreed to the overall scheme. United States v. Grier, supra, 866 F.2d at 924; accord United States v. Adamo, supra, 882 F.2d at 1224-25; United States v. Garcia-Rosa, supra ; United States v. Baxter, 492 F.2d 150, 158 (9th Cir. 1973). Even if the separate retailers purchasing from the same source were considered independent of each other, and vis a vis other retailers were deemed to be members of different lesser conspiracies, the retailer might still be bound as a co-conspirator vertically to all those in the broader drug trafficking network performing separate, necessary tasks in furtherance of the common scheme which results in delivery of illegal drugs to the retailer for resale. Cf. United States v. Lindell, supra, 881 F.2d at 1318.