Opinion ID: 590217
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Pietrafesa Case--Racketeering Act Twenty-Six

Text: 52 Morganti claims that there was insufficient evidence that she committed mail fraud in connection with the Pietrafesa case. That case arose from injuries sustained by Carmella Pietrafesa when she slipped on a sidewalk outside a supermarket in Greenwich Village. The Eisen firm sued the supermarket on behalf of Pietrafesa. The Eisen firm relied on the testimony of Morganti's 70-year-old mother, Helen Gaimari, who lived four blocks from the supermarket, to establish that the supermarket had prior notice of the sidewalk defect. At trial, Gaimari testified that she gave Pietrafesa her name at the time of the accident, had fallen because of the same defect months before, and had previously complained to the supermarket about the defect. It was not disclosed to defense counsel in the Pietrafesa case that Gaimari was the mother of Morganti, the Eisen firm's office manager. The jury returned a verdict for Pietrafesa of approximately $35,000. 53 Morganti argues that the Government adduced no affirmative evidence that Morganti caused her mother to testify, or that her mother, Helen Gaimari, testified falsely. In evaluating this claim we must credit every inference that can be drawn in the Government's favor, whether from direct or circumstantial evidence. See, e.g., United States v. Parker, 903 F.2d 91, 96-97 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 196, 112 L.Ed.2d 158 (1990). Moreover, the jury is free to draw negative inferences from an untruthful witness's testimony as long as there is affirmative testimony to supplement or corroborate those negative inferences. See United States v. Marchand, 564 F.2d 983, 985-86, 1000-01 (2d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1015, 98 S.Ct. 732, 54 L.Ed.2d 760 (1978). 54 The Government points to the testimony of five witnesses to support the inference that Morganti caused her mother to testify and that the testimony was false. The plaintiff, Carmella Pietrafesa, testified in a deposition preceding her personal injury trial that she had not gotten the names of the people who helped her up at the time of her accident. In contrast, she testified at her own trial and at the Eisen trial that an elderly woman who turned out to be Gaimari picked her up and gave her a piece of paper containing Gaimari's name and number. Pietrafesa also testified at the Eisen trial that during the course of trial preparation she had had a few discussions with Morganti concerning her case. 55 Frank DeSalvo, an Eisen firm attorney, testified about his handling of the Pietrafesa case. He stated that he sent out a letter to defense counsel on November 11, 1982, stating that there were no witnesses to Pietrafesa's accident. DeSalvo testified that he represented Pietrafesa at the December 20, 1982, deposition in which she stated that she did not get the name of the person who helped her up. He further testified that he sent a second letter to defense counsel in the Pietrafesa case three days after the deposition that listed Helen Gaimari, Morganti's mother, as a notice witness to Pietrafesa's accident. However, even though DeSalvo had dated Morganti's daughter and had met Gaimari, he claimed to know the older woman only as Grandma Helen. 56 Evan Torgan, another attorney formerly associated with the Eisen firm, testified that Morganti and Eisen assigned him the cases that he tried at the Eisen office, that he had tried the Pietrafesa case in November 1984, and that it was his practice to report trial verdicts to Morganti. He further testified that he was dating Morganti's daughter around the end of 1984 or the beginning of 1985 but also claimed that he did not learn that Gaimari was Morganti's mother until after the Pietrafesa trial ended. 57 Gaimari testified at the Eisen trial that sometime after the accident, she was called by a lawyer who asked her to testify at the Pietrafesa trial; the lawyer indicated that he knew Gaimari was Morganti's mother. 58 Robert Steindorf, a defense attorney at the Pietrafesa trial, testified that Gaimari was a crucial witness against his client because she was the only notice witness at that trial who was not related to Pietrafesa. 59 Giving credence to every inference that could be drawn in the Government's favor from the direct and circumstantial evidence elicited from these witnesses, we find that a reasonable juror could find that Gaimari gave false testimony concerning her presence at the Pietrafesa accident. We are, however, unable to conclude that a reasonable juror could find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Morganti caused Gaimari to give false testimony in the Pietrafesa case. The Government invites us to rely on Morganti's familial relation to Gaimari as well as Morganti's role in the Eisen firm. While these factors may indicate that Morganti had abundant opportunity to cause Gaimari to give false testimony, they provide an insufficient basis for a reasonable juror to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Morganti played a role in having her mother testify falsely at the Pietrafesa trial. Although, having persuaded the jury that Gaimari was untruthful, the prosecutor might have invited the jury to disbelieve Gaimari's denials of her daughter's involvement, without affirmative evidence in corroboration, such a negative inference is, by itself, insufficient to support the conviction. Marchand, 564 F.2d at 986. A jury's verdict will be sustained if there is substantial evidence, taking the view most favorable to the government, to support it. United States v. Mulheren, 938 F.2d 364, 368 (2d Cir.1991) (citations omitted) (emphasis in original). In this case Morganti has met the very heavy burden of demonstrating that the evidence at trial was insufficient to prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 60 We must now determine whether the invalidation of this racketeering act undermines Morganti's substantive and conspiracy RICO convictions. We conclude that the error in submitting the invalid predicate to the jury was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Paccione, 949 F.2d at 1198. Three valid racketeering acts remain, those relating to the Miceli, Schwartz, and Stanton cases. In each of these cases there was direct and unequivocal testimony that Morganti was an active participant in the cabal to falsify testimony. Furthermore, the pattern of verdicts returned against co-defendants confirms our conclusion that the jury would have returned the RICO convictions in the absence of the invalid predicate. Eisen, Gabe, and Rella were convicted of the RICO counts on the basis of a jury finding that they had each committed three racketeering acts. Morganti shares a pair of valid predicates in common with those of Eisen and Rella: Morganti and Eisen were both found guilty of the Schwartz and Stanton predicates; Morganti and Rella were both found guilty of the Miceli and Schwartz predicates. The acts alleged against Morganti in the Miceli, Schwartz, and Stanton predicates occurred, respectively, in 1983, in 1984, and between 1984 and 1988, and thus the substantive RICO conviction remains timely. Because the jury has already found that these predicates relate to each other as well as to the enterprise, and because we have no hesitancy in finding that, even without the Pietrafesa predicate, these three racketeering predicates posed a threat of continuity, we affirm Morganti's substantive and conspiracy RICO convictions. See United States v. Minicone, 960 F.2d 1099, 1106 (2d Cir.) (to establish pattern of racketeering, prosecution must show racketeering predicates are horizontally and vertically related, and that they amount to or pose threat of continued criminal activity), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1511, 117 L.Ed.2d 648 (1992).