Court Opinion

ID: 9445528
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:31:53.779385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:18.698848
License: Public Domain

On Petitions for Rehearing
PER CURIAM.
Each of the appellants, whose convictions were affirmed by our opinion, petitions for rehearing.

McConnon’s Petition

It is now contended that we^ overlooked McConnon’s claim of a fatal variance between the conspiracy charged, which was alleged to have begun on or about June, 1951, and that, which the jury found to have been, formed when McConnon and Postma began their collaboration in November,. 1952. It is true that we did not discuss-this contention in our original decision: we thought it too specious to need discussion. For the indictment charged a conspiracy between Postma, Robilotto,. and McConnon “to obstruct, delay and affect interstate commerce * * * by *497extorting from” 12 named members of the trucking industry. It is true that there was insufficient proof to hold Robilotto and as a result the conspiracy charged was not proved to have existence until McConnon and Postma began to cooperate in a plan involving extortion. But because the indictment charged a three-man conspiracy existing between 1951 up to the date of the indictment and the proofs went no further than to show that of the three charged only two were criminally involved in a conspiracy not perfected until 1952, it does not follow that there was a fatal variance: the conspiracy proved fell within the period charged. And a conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by extorting money “under threat of continuing a strike” is precisely the conspiracy charged in paragraph 1 of the indictment which named McConnon, along with Postma and Robilotto, as a conspirator.
Nor may McConnon justly complain that he suffered undue prejudice from evidence relating to Postma’s declarations and activities prior to the consummation of their joint conspiracy, as proved. Although that evidence was offered primarily in an effort (which turned out to be unsuccessful) to prove the existence of a conspiracy between Postma and others before McConnon came into the scene, it was also admissible as tending to show that Postma, at and prior to the time when his collaboration with McConnon began, was nourishing illegal designs against interstate commerce of which McConnon was aware. Heike v. United States, 227 U.S. 131, 145, 33 S.Ct. 226, 57 L.Ed. 450; United States v. Compagna, 2 Cir., 146 F.2d 524, 530, certiorari denied 324 U.S. 867, 65 S.Ct. 912, 89 L.Ed. 1422
McConnon, in an effort to support sundry other attacks on the validity of his conviction, cites Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 11, 74 S.Ct. 358, 98 L.Ed. 435; People v. Scheppa, 295 N.Y. 359, 67 N.E.2d 581; and Hornstein v. Paramount Pictures, 292 N.Y. 468, 55 N.E.2d 740. In view of the evidence and the charge in this case, it seems to us abundantly plain that none of the cases cited demonstrates any of the errors which McConnon thinks inherent in his conviction.

Postma’s Petition

This petition raises only contentions which we think were adequately discussed and dealt with in our original opinion.

Conclusion

The petitions are both denied on the merits. However, in view of McConnon’s expressed intention to apply for certiorari, our mandate as to both appellants will be stayed pending a timely application for certiorari and, if such be granted, until finally dispositive action by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, as to each, bail may be continued.