Court Opinion

ID: 9456453
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:53:25.367977+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:59.055393
License: Public Domain

SEITZ, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I agree with the majority’s disposition of Weber’s argument concerning the co-conspirator hearsay exception.
With respect to Weber’s arguments against consolidation, I concur in the result reached by the majority but I find it unnecessary to decide all the matters treated by them. Weber’s claim that the consolidation itself compelled him to testify on the Price counts in violation of the Fifth Amendment overlooks the fact that, at a separate trial on those counts, evidence of the Bechtel transactions would still have been admissible to prove guilt circumstantially by showing a general plan by Weber to control construction of the New Jersey segment of the Colonial Pipeline for his own pecuniary benefit. The tactical reasons for Weber’s desire to testify in rebuttal to the Bechtel evidence would have been equally compelling at a trial solely on the Price charges, and Weber does not now maintain that he might have changed his mind and remained silent on this evidence simply because it was used to prove some other crime. Thus, Weber would have faced the same evidence and the same testimonial dilemma regardless of consolidation. I believe that it is unnecessary to decide whether consolidation could create an unconstitutional degree of compulsion in a case where the evidence would not be mutually admissible at separate trials.
Apart from the constitutional issue, Weber was not “prejudiced” within the meaning of Rule 14. Since evidence concerning all eight counts would have been admissible at separate trials on each indictment, consolidation neither enlarged the possibility of an inference of criminal propensity nor confounded Weber in presenting his defense. Drew v. United States, 118 U.S.App.D.C. 11, 331 F.2d 85, 90 (1964).