Court Opinion

ID: 9449468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:13:13.524841+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:51.117173
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Circuit Judge, with whom HAYS, Circuit Judge,
joins, concurring in part:
Judge Hays and I agree with the careful and exhaustive opinion of our brother Moore except in one respect, the affirmance of the convictions on the substantive counts, 4 and 5.
The trial of Bentvena, Struzzieri and Monastersky together with those indicted and tried only for conspiracy under the circumstances here portrayed, we feel, constituted prejudicial error as to them. The proof of their participation in the transactions alleged in the substantive counts was presented at the start of the government’s case. Thereafter, they and the jury were forced to sit through months of testimony establishing the conspiracy, none of which related to the substantive accusations. We cannot feel confident that the admission of this evidence against them, when it was legally inadmissible unless they were shown to be part of the conspiracy, did not contribute to their convictions on the substantive counts by blackening them with the general guilt. See Schaffer v. United States, 362 U.S. 519, 523, 80 S.Ct. 945, 4 L.Ed.2d 921 (1960) (dissenting opinion).
This is not a case like Schaffer v. United States, supra, or United States v. Manfredi, 275 F.2d 588 (2 Cir. 1960), In which the dismissal of a conspiracy count as to less than all defendants during trial was held not to prevent submission to the jury of substantive counts against these defendants. (It may be noted that even in Schaffer four judges dissented.) Proper cautionary instructions there can presumably limit the prejudicial effect of the evidence presented at the trial directed towards proof of the conspiracy. Indeed, one might speculate that a jury would scrutinize evidence of substantive guilt with greater than ordinary care once apprised of the fact that the government had failed to prove its conspiracy case against a particular defendant. But in the case at bar there were no limiting instructions to disregard evidence concerning these defendants. All counts were submitted to the jury, which found defendants guilty of conspiracy on evidence that we have unanimously held to be legally insufficient, and then considered the mass of hearsay declarations of purported co-conspirators against them. There appears to us far greater likelihood of prejudice here than in a case where the jury has weighed the evidence of conspiracy and found it wanting, or where the Court has so found and warned the jury to disregard it.
Particular evidence of prejudice can readily be found. Struzzieri and Monastersky both took the stand and denied dealing in narcotics. Though admitting their physical presence in the area and certain details as to their physical movements, they claimed that their activities and those of Bentvena related to gambling transactions. Struzzieri’s testimony to fourteen or fifteen bookmaking arrests (supported by police testimony) lends a certain wry corroboration to his story. Both Bentvena and Struzzieri were brothers-in-law of the severed defendant McGovern, who figured prominently in the alleged substantive violations. The package wrapped in Christmas paper was said to be a present to him. From these and other details, the three sought to explain the activities in which they were observed on some basis other than dealing in narcotics. We may be skeptical, but it is not our primary function to appraise this evidence. The jury charged with that duty could hardly have given their defense the same consideration after they were erroneously found to be narcotics conspirators as it would have had they been tried on the substantive counts alone. The mass of conspiracy evidence militated against their credibility and towards their guilt.
*956Nor do we overlook the general prejudice that results to unrelated defendants who are tried in a mass conspiracy trial. We need but quote Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 772-773, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946):
“Numbers are vitally important in trial, especially in criminal matters. Guilt with us remains individual and personal, even as respects conspiracies. It is not a matter of mass application. There are times when of necessity, because of the nature and scope of the particular federation, large numbers of persons taking part must be tried together or perhaps not at all, at any rate as respects some. When many conspire, they invite mass trial by their conduct. Even so, the proceedings are exceptional to our tradition and call for the use of every safeguard to individualize each defendant in his relation to the mass. Wholly different is it with those who join together with only a few, though many others may be doing the same and though some of them may line up with more than one group.
“Criminal they may be, but it is not the criminality of mass conspiracy. They do not invite mass trial by their conduct. Nor does our system tolerate it. That way lies the drift towards totalitarian institutions. True, this may be inconvenient for prosecution. But our Government is not one of mere convenience or efficiency. It too has a stake, with every citizen, in his being afforded our historic individual protections, including those surrounding criminal trials. About them we dare not become careless or complacent when that fashion has become rampant over the earth.”
However, we find that no prejudice to the other defendants resulted from their trial with the three substantive-count defendants. The week of proof at the beginning of the trial relating to these three was practically the only reference to them. Thereafter, the trial was solely concerned with proof of guilt in the conspiracy. It is unlikely that this would confuse jury deliberations. Moreover, all of the direct evidence of their participation in the conspiracy was properly admitted against the conspiracy defendants. These appellants attack so-called “real evidence” (narcotics and paraphernalia) which was admitted — particularly that allegedly purchased from the three which they claim to be inadmissible against the conspiracy defendants on the record before us. Once they were linked to the conspiracy by independent evidence this appears properly admissible against them. Moreover, this was of itself of no particular force to prove participation in the conspiracy by any individual. It was merely duplicative of other like evidence seized from co-conspirators which was properly admitted. Even if there were error in the admission of any of this evidence we could not hold it prejudicial.