Court Opinion

ID: 9487716
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:24:31.837772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:26.776714
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I would affirm the district court. The original indictment, dated October 21, 1992, alleged a conspiracy between Charles Nabors and Craig Keltner. It listed six overt acts, including (1) theft of an automobile, (2) breaking into a commercial establishment and stealing microphones and other materials, (3) breaking into a commercial establishment and stealing police scanners, walkie-*242talkie radios, and other materials, (4) driving from Arkansas to Oklahoma and kidnapping the president and senior vice president of a bank in that state, and (6) attempting to extort money for the release of the bank vice president. The complaint also alleged in separate counts that Nabors and Keltner robbed two homes in Arkansas and that they transferred stolen jewelry (having a value in excess of $5,000) from Arkansas to Oklahoma.
On March 17, 1993, a superseding indictment was filed charging Nabors and Keltner with a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962-1968.1 Eight racketeering acts were alleged, many of which were similar to those alleged as overt acts in the conspiracy count in the first indictment.2 A second superseding indictment similar to the first was filed on April 20, 1993. On April 13, 1993, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the RICO count charged in the superseding indictments. The court held a hearing on the motion to dismiss the count.
At the hearing, the court asked the Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) representing the government to describe the structure of the enterprise. The AUSA offered the following description:
Nabors was in charge of the organization^] Bill Keltner, while he was involved in it, was more or less the second in command, and Craig Keltner was the bottom of the run. When Bill Keltner withdrew from it roughly around February, which is associated with the time that he returned to jail in Houston, Texas, Craig Keltner moved up to his position.
Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Hrg. Tr. at 2. When asked to describe the pattern of racketeering activity, other than the commission of a series of robberies and other federal crimes, the AUSA answered that the series of criminal acts the defendants committed were interrelated in that they were part of a larger plan to extort, rob, and kidnap bank officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Id. at 3. The AUSA also stated that the defendants assisted one another with the purchase of automobiles and the payment of legal costs incurred as a result of their criminal activities, and that their acts were part of the same operation and shared a common modus operandi. Id. at 3-4, 6. The court then asked the AUSA whether the enterprise was an “association in fact of the two defendants and Keltner’s brother,” to which the AUSA responded affirmatively. Id. at 7. Noting the difficulty it had distinguishing the alleged pattern of racketeering in this case from the government’s description of the enterprise’s association in fact, the court stated: “[If you] take away [the] pattern of racketeering activity ... I don’t know what you have here, except a couple of criminals maybe involved in a criminal conspiracy.” Id. at 5. The court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the RICO count reasoning that
[W]e charged RICO ... because the pattern of activity that these individuals engaged in encompassed some crimes that could be charged [under] separate federal statutefs], other than RICO, and some that could not be charged in federal court except through a RICO mechanism. Since all of those [statutes] were ... part of the activity of this group, RICO was the only mechanism to put their entire criminal conduct before the court.
the only common factor that linked these parties and others together and defined them as a distinct group was their “direct or indirect participation” in Nabors’ and Keltner’s criminal activities. If the predicate acts are eliminated, the alleged association-in-faet enterprise has no form or structure, but is merely sporadic criminal activity.
United States v. Charles Bruce Nabors et al., No. LR-CR-92-252(1)(2), slip op. at 4 (E.D.Ark. Aug. 30, 1993).
The trial judge was concerned, and properly so, that if he failed to dismiss the RICO count (thereby permitting the government to introduce evidence at tidal that ordinarily would be inadmissible without the RICO *243count), he would have no alternative but to declare a mistrial, necessitating a retrial of this complicated case.3
I agree entirely with the district court. At most this case involves three individuals who committed a series of criminal acts over approximately seven months. Although there is an allegation in the second superseding indictment that an independent enterprise existed, when this allegation is read in light of the government’s concessions at the hearing on the motion to dismiss, it is clear that the government could prove little more at trial other than the existence of a series of criminal acts committed by a individuals who may have conspired with each other.
Had the district court simply dismissed the RICO count without giving the parties an opportunity for a hearing, I would have joined the majority’s opinion. The judge, however, gave careful consideration to the matter. After listening to both sides’ arguments at the healing, he was persuaded that the government was not going to be able to prove the RICO count at trial.
Neither common sense nor logic supports the majority’s position that the trial judge must allow the government to proceed to trial, notwithstanding that an indictment alleges facts that are sufficient to state a violation of a particular crime, where it is abundantly clear from the pretrial record that the government cannot prove the charged violation at trial.

. The Assistant United States Attorney representing the government at oral argument gave the following explanation for why the RICO count was charged:

. The conspiracy and the substantive counts were re-alleged and substantive counts were added.

. The government conceded at oral argument that if it failed to prove the RICO count at trial. the district court would have no alternative but to grant a mistrial on all counts.