Opinion ID: 1831783
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence for RICO Convictions

Text: Lugo asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions for RICO activity and conspiracy to commit RICO activity. [42] The elements of a crime under Florida's RICO statute [43] are (1) conduct or participation in an enterprise through (2) a pattern of racketeering activity. See, e.g., Gross v. State, 765 So.2d 39, 42 (Fla.2000). With regard to the enterprise element, the State must prove the following subelements: (1) an ongoing organization, formal or informal, with a common purpose of engaging in a course of conduct, which (2) functions as a continuing unit. See id. at 45. [44] Lugo's assertion that the State failed to prove the enterprise requirement is unavailing. The State proved, through the testimony of Jorge Delgado and others, that Lugo, Doorbal, and others specifically associated for the illicit purposes of kidnaping and extorting money from Marc Schiller, as well as the illicit purposes of kidnaping and securing the assets of Griga and Furton. When we further consider the coordinated events, especially surveillance activity, surrounding the planned (but never executed) abduction and extortion of Winston Lee, we determine that competent, substantial evidence supports the enterprise element of the RICO statute. Specifically, testimony regarding the militaristic nature in which Lugo, Doorbal, and others conducted the abduction and extortion in connection with Schiller proves an association for illicit purposes regarding that event. The common purpose and continual functioning of the organization were further shown by the testimony describing the coordinated but ultimately aborted plan to abduct and seize the assets of Winston Lee a few months after the Schiller episode. The culmination of the organization's common purpose and continual functioning was the careful planning and execution of the abductions of Griga and Furton. Jorge Delgado testified that Doorbal had developed a plan to kidnap and extort money from a Hungarian couple. Lugo later confirmed Doorbal's plan to Delgado. Lugo and Doorbal subsequently ingratiated themselves with both Griga and Furton while plying Griga with visions of enormous profits from their bogus scheme to invest in phone lines in India. As in the abduction of Marc Schiller and the hoped-for abduction of Winston Lee, the abductions of Griga and Furton were, most assuredly, not random, spur-of-the-moment events lacking a common purpose and organizational structure. Rather, the events surrounding the involvement of Lugo and his team of evil with Schiller, Lee, Griga, and Furton evince a common purpose of carefully targeting specific victims for abduction and extortion. Moreover, in each instance at least one plan to abduct each victim was aborted or never executed, further evincing the non-random nature of the organization with which Lugo was associated. [45] Lugo and his organized group planned their crimes in advance and employed devices they had acquired to facilitate those crimes. [46] Therefore, [a] jury could reasonably conclude that [Lugo] and his associates shared the requisite common purpose of an ongoing organization, Gross, 765 So.2d at 47, thereby establishing the first subelement of the enterprise element. The State also proved that the organization with which Lugo was associated functioned as a continuing unit, thus satisfying the second subelement of the enterprise requirement. Continuity [of an alleged RICO enterprise] exists where an unchanging pattern of roles is necessary and utilized to carry out the predicate acts of racketeering. Id. at 46. [47] Lugo contends that the State's evidence failed to show an unchanging pattern of roles. We disagree. Stevenson Pierre testified that Lugo directed the Schiller abduction in militaristic fashion. Jorge Delgado testified that Lugo coordinated the surveillance of Winston Lee's townhouse in preparation for an abduction attempt that never materialized. Delgado's testimony also established that while the initial plan to kidnap and obtain the assets of Griga and Furton may have been Doorbal's, Lugo was heavily involved in the planning and was a primary participant in the execution of the Griga-Furton abduction. Lugo participated in several conversations with Griga prior to the kidnaping, in which Lugo and Doorbal floated their contrived plan for phone lines in India. Lugo and Doorbal also jointly lured Griga and Furton out of Griga's home on May 24, 1995, with the intent of implementing their kidnaping and extortion plan. Moreover, Lugo subsequently not only injected Furton with Rompun but also directed Doorbal to do soacts which independently or in concert contributed to Furton's death. Based on these facts, competent, substantial evidence supports the conclusion that Lugo assumed and carried out a managerial function in the three major undertakings of an organization whose purpose was to kidnap carefully targeted victims and to extort money from them. Doorbal was literally his partner in crime, making for an unchanging pattern of roles which was utilized to execute the predicate acts of racketeering. We further determine that the State presented competent, substantial evidence to prove the pattern of racketeering element. [48] To satisfy the pattern of racketeering requirement, the State must offer proof of the similarity and interrelatedness of racketeering activities [and] proof that a continuity of particular criminal activity exists. State v. Lucas, 600 So.2d 1093, 1094 (Fla.1992) (quoting Bowden v. State, 402 So.2d 1173, 1174 (Fla.1981)). [49] Relying primarily on H.J., Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co., 492 U.S. 229, 109 S.Ct. 2893, 106 L.Ed.2d 195 (1989), Lugo claims that the predicate acts listed in the indictment against him were actually isolated incidents that extended over no more than a few weeks or months and, most importantly, did not threaten any future criminal conduct. We disagree. The predicate acts in which Lugo and his organized group engaged spanned approximately a six-month period. In State v. Lucas, 600 So.2d 1093 (Fla.1992), we determined that predicate acts involving a series of fraudulent investment-related activities met the continuity requirement of the pattern of racketeering element when those acts were perpetrated over a six-month period. Specifically, we concluded that the fraudulent activities in Lucas conformed to the concept of open-ended continuity discussed in H.J., Inc., because the only thing that prevented the enterprise from perpetrating subsequent fraudulent acts was the arrest of some of its key members. [50] Since the organization had performed predicate acts in the past and posed a real threat of executing similar predicate acts in the future, a pattern of racketeering was established. See Lucas, 600 So.2d at 1095-96. The logic in Lucas applies to Lugo's case. The arrests of Lugo, Doorbal, Delgado, and others associated in the RICO enterprise effectively forced the enterprise out of business. Had those arrests not occurred, there would have been nothing to keep the enterprise from executing further kidnaping and extortion plots. Just as in Lucas, [t]he nature of the operation [with which Lugo was associated] suggests the threat of continued criminal activity. Lucas, 600 So.2d at 1095. Moreover, Jorge Delgado's testimony afforded insight into the level of sophistication that Lugo and his companions invested in their abduction and extortion activities. Abduction and extortion was the business in which [Lugo and his group] had associated themselves. Id. Therefore, the continuity of particular criminal activity is again shown because the threat of continued criminal activity [can] be proven by showing the predicate acts to be part of an ongoing entity's regular way of doing business. Id. Finally, we note that both in Lucas and in Lugo's case, the predicate RICO activities were directed toward different persons, and there is no suggestion that they occurred at the same time. Id. at 1096. Therefore, based on the above, we conclude that competent, substantial evidence supported Lugo's RICO convictions. The State presented evidence to satisfy both the enterprise element and the pattern of racketeering activity element as required. No relief is warranted on this issue.