Opinion ID: 622756
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Use of Fear

Text: Similarly meritless is Coppola's sufficiency challenge to that element of extortion requiring that consent be induced by the wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear. 18 U.S.C. § 1951(b)(2). Insofar as Coppola submits that the government offered no evidence that he ever threatened any Local 1235 president in order to induce payments, we have held that the Hobbs Act leaves open the cause of the fear inducing a party to consent to part with property and does not require that such fear be created by implicit or explicit threats. United States v. Gotti, 459 F.3d at 333 (internal quotation marks omitted). What is required is evidence that the defendant knowingly and willfully created or instilled fear, or used or exploited existing fear with the specific purpose of inducing another to part with property. See id.; United States v. Abelis, 146 F.3d 73, 83 (2d Cir.1998). Insofar as Coppola maintains that the cordiality of his March 6, 2007 conversations with Edward Aulisi precluded a finding of underlying fear, we are not convinced. A reasonable jury could have concluded that the necessary fear of Genovese family retaliation had been instilled over decades across the Manhattan and New Jersey waterfronts. See United States v. Hedman, 630 F.2d 1184, 1194 (7th Cir. 1980) (rejecting argument that seeming cordiality between extortionist and victim precluded finding that payment was induced by fear). The totality of the evidence here demonstrated that fear, intimidation, whatever were the means routinely used by members of the Genovese family who conspired over half a century to control unions and businesses operating on the Manhattan and New Jersey waterfronts. Trial Tr. at 1114; see supra Part I.B. Unions and businesses that met Genovese family payment demands were allowed to operate without interference. Those that did not faced personal violence and/or economic destruction. Further, where an organized crime enterprise cultivates a reputation for violence and intimidation in achieving its conspiratorial goal of control throughout an industry or area, a jury may reasonably consider that reputation in assessing whether payments were induced by the exploitation of existing fear without an explicit or implicit threat. See United States v. Mulder, 273 F.3d 91, 103-04 (2d Cir. 2001) (noting that [b]ad reputation is relevant to the fear element in a Hobbs Act conspiracy since such a reputation frequently conveys a tacit threat of violence (internal quotation marks omitted)). Here, evidence showed that Coppola and his one-time captain Fiumara cultivated and used the Genovese family's reputation for violence in furtherance of extortionate endeavors. Thomas Buzzanca, vice president of Local 1804-1, which like Local 1235 was controlled by Fiumara and Coppola on behalf of the Genovese family, told William Montella, another Genovese extortion victim, that everybody fears Fiumara and that we all live under[] fear when dealing with him. Gov't Ex. TR-CD-5b at 1-2, 5. Coppola's willingness to exploit the fear attending the Fiumara crew was evidenced by his allusion to contacts in telling undercover officer Delaney that the price for labor peace was a percentage of his business's profits. Trial Tr. at 148. Further, the evidence showed that Cernadas, in making payments to Fiumara and Coppola on behalf of Local 1235, knew that these men had a reputation, even among their criminal confederates, for being particularly powerful within the Genovese family. See id. at 1145. Viewed in this context, Coppola's March 6, 2007 statement to Edward Aulisi that we were right next to Cernadas all the time to prevent a union appointment is hardly benign. Rather, it demonstrates Coppola's exploitation of existing fear of Genovese family retaliation to achieve a result desired by the enterprise. Similarly, a reasonable jury could conclude that Vincent Aulisi's eagerness to assure Coppola that Local 1235 would continue to meetand even exceedits past tribute payments was animated by fear of organized crime retaliation. That conclusion is only reinforced by the fact that Vincent Aulisi felt obliged to give such assurances to a man who was a fugitive from the law and judicially barred from having anything to do with any ILA local. It was further evidenced by the younger Aulisi's subservient manner in accounting to Coppola for monies collected and explaining a possible delinquency. In sum, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury's finding that all elements of the extortion predicates of Racketeering Act One were proved.