Opinion ID: 393273
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Requisite Two Acts of Racketeering Activity

Text: 14 The government proved that a number of specific traffic tickets were (1) given by traffic violators to either Walker or Maynard, and (2) favorably disposed of by Sutherland in his capacity as municipal judge. Through the testimony of Sally Kalastro (a co-worker with Walker at the time of the events in question), the government identified twenty-five individual tickets that had been accepted by Walker. Through the testimony of several persons who submitted tickets to Maynard (including several bogus tickets prepared for the purpose of the investigation), the government identified fifteen individual tickets that had been accepted by Maynard. In the case of each ticket, the government introduced evidence (primarily from Municipal Court records) to establish its favorable disposition (typically a finding of not guilty) by Sutherland. 15 The gist of the defendants' argument is that the governments' evidence fails to prove that any one of these specific tickets was the subject of bribery. Insofar as the government's direct evidence is concerned, this statement is correct. The government does not point to any evidence that pertains to any specific ticket and demonstrates either (1) that the ticket was delivered by Walker or Maynard to Sutherland, (2) that money was delivered by Walker or Maynard to Sutherland, or (3) that Sutherland favorably disposed of the ticket in exchange for such money. Moreover, the defendants suggest a reasonable hypothesis of innocence that is consistent with the government's direct evidence as to any one ticket: a ticket that was merely given to Walker or Maynard and later favorably disposed of by Sutherland might have been successfully defended by an attorney retained by Walker or Maynard. 16 The fault in the defendants' argument is that it ignores the importance of the overwhelming circumstantial evidence introduced by the government. The government's case begins with evidence that pertains both to the Walker-Sutherland and to the Maynard-Sutherland conspiracies. This evidence establishes, in brief, that the individual tickets at issue were not processed through normal Municipal Court procedures. Only five of the forty tickets were processed through the Traffic Violations Bureau, which ordinarily assigns individual cases to the various judges, and only four of the tickets had complaints drawn up on them, although a complaint is ordinarily prepared in each case that is heard by a judge. Moreover, the government introduced the testimony of two Municipal Court clerks to the effect that Sutherland regularly appeared in court with the violators' copies of traffic citations and directed the clerks irregularly to process those tickets. These clerks also testified that they were instructed by Sutherland not to discuss these irregular practices in public; that Sutherland paid the clerks for the extra work required by such practices; and that Sutherland ceased the irregular procedures when he discovered he was under investigation. 17 The government also introduced substantial circumstantial evidence with regard to each separate conspiracy. The government's case as to the Walker-Sutherland conspiracy rested chiefly on the testimony of Sally Kalastro. She testified that beginning in 1975 Sutherland would meet Walker in her office once or twice each week. On one such occasion in late 1975, Kalastro interrupted the meeting and observed Sutherland taking a stack of traffic citations (the violators' copies), along with a stack of money, from Walker. Kalastro testified that after Sutherland left the office, Walker chastised her for the interruption but confessed to the ticket-fixing scheme and explained to Kalastro how it operated. 18 The government's case as to the Maynard-Sutherland conspiracy rested chiefly on testimony concerning a series of meetings in which persons cooperating with the F.B.I. in mid-1979 sought help from Maynard with their traffic tickets (some of which were written for the purpose of the investigation). In each instance, Maynard appeared to call someone to ask the cost of taking care of a ticket; although he did not refer to Sutherland by name during the phone conversations, he referred to his contact as the Honorable and indicated that the contact was the only judge handling night court, which was in fact Sutherland's assignment. Moreover, Maynard referred to his activities as fixing or taking care of the citations, and insisted on payment in cash. The evidence suggests that on at least one occasion, Maynard dialed his own number and merely pretended to speak with another person as to the price necessary to take care of the ticket; however, the government's evidence shows that seventy-eight phone calls were in fact made between Sutherland's and Maynard's phones during the three month period of the investigation. 19 The appropriate standard for our examination of the sufficiency of the evidence is no different where as here the evidence is largely circumstantial rather than direct. E. g., United States v. Palacios, 556 F.2d 1359, 1364 (5th Cir. 1977); United States v. Warner, 441 F.2d 821, 825 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 829, 92 S.Ct. 65, 30 L.Ed.2d 58 (1971). It is clear, therefore, that a criminal conspiracy may adequately be established purely on circumstantial evidence. E. g., Glasser v. United States, supra, 315 U.S. at 80, 62 S.Ct. at 469; United States v. Harbin, 601 F.2d 773, 781 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 954, 100 S.Ct. 433, 62 L.Ed.2d 327 (1979); United States v. Elliott, 571 F.2d 880, 903 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 953, 99 S.Ct. 349, 58 L.Ed.2d 344 (1978). For example, participation in a conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs can be established solely on the basis of the quantity of drugs in the possession of the defendants; at some point the circumstance of enormous quantity excludes all reasonable hypotheses of innocence despite the absence of direct evidence of an intent to distribute. E. g., United States v. Perez, 648 F.2d 219, 221 (5th Cir. 1981) (The defendants could not, even if they were chain smokers, personally consume this quantity of marijuana in their lifetime.) 20 The government established through direct evidence that a number of specific traffic tickets were given to Walker and Maynard and were later favorably disposed of by Sutherland. The government did not demonstrate through direct evidence that any one of these tickets was actually given to Sutherland in the conduct of a bribe. However, such facts may adequately be established by circumstantial evidence. In this case, the exceptionally irregular treatment of the tickets, Walker's earlier meetings with Sutherland and admission of a ticket-fixing scheme, and Maynard's conversations with several customers, constitutes convincing evidence of bribery as to the individual tickets at issue. We conclude that the evidence is more than sufficient to support the charge.