Opinion ID: 378191
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: One conspiracy or several?

Text: 19 Appellant was indicted and tried for participating in a single, wide ranging conspiracy running from approximately 1962 to 1977. Appellant contends that the evidence produced at trial varied from the indictment and showed that at the very least there were two separate conspiracies, one running from 1962 to 1970, when the fullscale group meetings terminated, and one running from 1972 on. In support of this contention, appellant points to the testimony of the government's chief witness, Robert McCabe, who stated that the group died out around 1970 and efforts to revive it in 1972 failed. Appellant points also to the changes in industry practices which rendered the former, purported 5 aim of the conspiracy the allocation of contracts to the writer of the specifications no longer feasible. 20 The question of whether the facts indicate one or more distinct conspiracies is normally a matter of fact to be determined by the jury. United States v. Brown, 495 F.2d 593, 598 n. 5 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 965, 95 S.Ct. 226, 42 L.Ed.2d 179 (1974). In addition, even if the evidence showed two or more conspiracies rather than one as charged in the indictment, such a variance would only be fatal if it actually prejudiced the defendant, or adversely affected his substantial rights. Id. at 599 n. 6. 21 After examining the record, we find that there was sufficient evidence to allow the jury to find that there was a single, 15-year conspiracy as charged in the indictment. While certain original members of the conspiracy apparently dropped out of it and while new firms were drawn into the group, there was a sufficient core group, including appellant and McCabe, who worked together on and off throughout most of the entire period. A finding of a single conspiracy is not defeated merely because of personnel changes. United States v. Ochoa, 609 F.2d 198 at 201 (5th Cir. 1980). Most importantly, the unchanging jargon, the implied reciprocity, and the facility with which each additional series of bids were rigged with a minimum of planning and communication makes reasonable an inference of continuity which suffices to rebut appellant's claim that each incident of bid rigging was approached on an isolated, ad hoc basis. 22 It does not appear that a competitor needed to approach each new bid-letting occasion in search of some dishonest accommodation with the great care or caution which might reasonably be anticipated in an isolated instance of soliciting illegal cooperation with a competitor. The rules . . . appear to have been recognized and accepted. United States v. Consolidated Packaging Corp., 575 F.2d 117, 121 (7th Cir. 1978). 23 Additionally, even if we were to accept appellant's argument that the first conspiracy ended in 1970 and a new, separate one began later, we see no prejudice to appellant from the variance which would result. If there were two conspiracies, the evidence amply showed that appellant was a member of both. 6 Hence it could not have been unfairly harmed by having attributed to it the crimes of a conspiracy of which it was not a part. See Monroe v. United States, 234 F.2d 49 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 352 U.S. 873, 77 S.Ct. 94, 1 L.Ed.2d 76 (1956); Canella v. United States, 157 F.2d 470 (9th Cir. 1946).