Court Opinion

ID: 9458624
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:57:12.83757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:50.025376
License: Public Domain

KILKENNY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
The indictment charges appellant with collecting an extension of credit by extortionate means in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 891(7) and 894.
On the record before us, there could be an extension of credit to Meyer under two theories and two theories only: (1) that appellant knew that Meyer was placing bets under the name of “Wynn Don”, or (2) that Meyer personally assumed the debt, after the alleged assault, by offering to obtain the money from his parents.
(1) It is clear that “Wynn Don” was an actual person who had placed at least one bet under his own name. The name seemed to attract Meyer and in November he used it for his personal betting and after losing a substantial sum, admitted his wrongdoing to appellant and Clapes, then agreed to pay the losses and did so. The name “Wynn Don” did not again appear until a few days immediately before the meeting on January 2nd.
There is nothing in the record to support a finding that appellant, or, for that matter, his partner, Clapes, knew that Meyer had been placing bets, after the November occurrence, under the name “Wynn Don”. For that matter, the proof demonstrates that appellant and his partner believed Meyers when he told them that “Wynn” had actually placed the bets and had left town. Obviously, appellant and his partners were angry at Meyer, not for using the name “Wynn” instead of his own, a fact of which they had no knowledge, but for permitting “Wynn” to make the bet and then leave town. What occurred at the *1023crucial meeting speaks for itself. If appellant and his partners had known that Meyer was again using the name “Wynn Don”, they would have confronted him with this fact and would not have been urgently inquiring as to the then whereabouts of the missing person. Beyond that, the record is quite clear that appellant, when he left the January 2nd meeting, was totally unaware of the fact that Meyer had again used the fictitious name. In agreeing to be responsible for the loss, Meyer was trying to keep appellant and his partners from learning of the fact that he had again made bets under the Wynn name. Simply stated, the record is devoid of proof that appellant, or his partners, knew that Meyer had again been betting under the name “Wynn Don”. The fact that Clapes may at one time have "thought” that “Wynn Don” and Meyer were possibly the same person does not rise to the dignity of proof against the appellant.
(2) Assuming, arguendo, that Meyer’s statement that he would assume the debt and obtain the money from his parents amounts to an extension of credit as charged in the indictment, there is absolutely no evidence that appellant assaulted or, in any manner, abused Meyer after the assumption of the indebtedness. For that matter, the record would support a finding that appellant was protecting, rather than abusing Meyer.1
In United States v. Quintana, 457 F.2d 874 (CA 10 1972), the extension of credit was undisputed. Perez v. United States, 402 U.S. 146, 91 S.Ct. 1357, 28 L.Ed.2d 686 (1971), does not support a conviction on our facts.
In my view, the statutes in question were never intended to apply to a factual background such as that before us.
I would reverse and direct a dismissal of the indictment.

. “Q And he [Clapes] grabbed him [Meyer], pulled him out of the chair?
A Yes, -when he grabbed him it looked like James Clapes went back — I can’t remember if Mr. Meyer hit him, pushed him or what the deal was, but then he started to hit him and then he grabbed him; they rolled to the floor, and he was trying to hit him on the floor when Mr. Briola went over and broke up the tight.” [Witness, Ligrana, T. pp. 116-117]. [Emphasis supplied.]