Opinion ID: 524322
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Loan Sharking Allegations

Text: 34 DeGeratto further complains that the prosecutor portrayed him as a loan shark, although that term was not used. In the government's case-in-chief the prosecutor asked Perry, one of its witnesses who had been involved in the meat transactions, if he had ever met the defendant. Perry had not. The prosecutor then asked why Perry did not want to meet the defendant and Perry responded, over defense objection, For my own safety. Subsequently another government witness involved in the meat transactions, Douyon, was asked on direct examination by the government about being solicited by DeGeratto to send to DeGeratto any persons who were unable to obtain loans elsewhere. On cross-examination Douyon acknowledged that he had borrowed $4,000 from DeGeratto. DeGeratto's attorney was not permitted to show that the Douyon loan had not been repaid. However, when the prosecutor was cross-examining DeGeratto he returned to the subject of the Douyon loan. DeGeratto's attorney had written a letter to Douyon asking Douyon about repaying the loan to DeGeratto. Douyon wrote back, explaining in his letter that he had not repaid the loan because of lots of bad luck. Douyon's letter was produced and read to the jury during DeGeratto's direct examination in order to show Douyon's bias toward DeGeratto because Douyon had never repaid the loan. Douyon, it appeared, had gone to Haiti for a reason not clear in the record, but which was apparently clear to the prosecutor. Referring to the letter, the prosecutor characterized Douyon as being so scared of DeGeratto, because he was not able to repay the loan, that he had gotten out of town. An objection was sustained, but the prosecutor pursued the same line of questioning by asking DeGeratto if he was aware that the reason Douyon went to Haiti was because he could not repay the loan to DeGeratto. The loan and the fears of both Douyon and Perry were referred to in the prosecutor's closing argument, and both men were characterized as being scared of DeGeratto. Referring to DeGeratto, the prosecutor argued to the jury, as we have already mentioned, that, He's a smart, sophisticated operator making 700 grand a year that we know of, prostitution rings going through his business, buying stolen food, loan business. 35 The thrust of the prosecutor's argument suggests that the government was endeavoring to convict the defendant, not just for the stolen meat transactions, but also for prostitution and loan sharking, and generally for being an undesirable man. It is true that the term loan shark was not used before the jury, but that was the prosecution's clear implication. Although most members of the general public know nothing of loan sharking personally, nearly everyone knows what the practice entails. Loan sharking is generally considered to be the practice of loaning money at exorbitant interest to persons unable to secure loans from customary financial sources. Thereafter the use of force or threats of force insures payment. The government's characterization of DeGeratto's loan business could easily be understood by many to be loan sharking, although it was not so labeled. 36 Although no objection was made to the government's loan shark argument to the jury, in our view it was so inflammatory, when coupled with the government's examination of the witnesses, as to constitute error without need for a specific objection. The prosecution clearly prejudiced DeGeratto by wandering too far afield to convict him. He was pictured in various ways as being a bad man, an offense nowhere defined in Title 18.