Court Opinion

ID: 9447269
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:30:12.711421+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:57.912309
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge.
After trial to the court Judge Palmieri found the defendant guilty of conspiring to violate the narcotics laws in contravention of 21 U.S.C. §§ 173, 174. At the same time the judge found him not guilty on a substantive count charging him with having sold narcotics and having facilitated such a sale. This acquittal resulted from a finding of reasonable doubt as to whether defendant’s participation in the sale may not have resulted from entrapment. The only error assigned on appeal is that this finding required a similar finding on the conspiracy count. The resolution of this issue necessitates a *170summarization of the testimony adduced at the trial.
The alleged entrapment was effected by one Bova, a previous acquaintance of defendant. Bova represented that a companion was interested in purchasing narcotics. Unknown to defendant, Bova was a special employee and his companion an agent of the Bureau of Narcotics. They were introduced by defendant to one Maimone, a codefendant below who entered a plea of guilty prior to trial. The agent expressed a desire to purchase a large quantity of heroin, but sought to buy a sample before entering into such a transaction. Negotiations for the sale of an ounce of heroin were concluded at a second meeting and this transaction was subsequently consummated. A third meeting involved arrangements for the purchase of a quarter kilo of heroin, for which Maimone demanded half payment in advance. But before this sale was transacted, Maimone and defendant became aware of the agent’s identity.
So much is clear; the remaining evidence was largely conflicting. Bova testified that the defendant readily agreed to assist in arranging the transaction, while defendant asserted that he initially refused before finally succumbing to Bova’s entreaties. Defendant also denied participation in all negotiations apart from the introduction, testifying that he was present only at the first meeting. But the agent asserted that defendant not only was present at all three meetings, but also offered assurance that Maimone “was all right, that he [defendant] stood behind him a hundred per cent.” This alleged testimonial was offered at the third meeting to assuage the agent’s misgivings in regard to the advance payment requirement. Although defendant was not present during the physical transfer of narcotics, there was conflicting testimony as to whether he received payment from Maimone for his part in the transaction. There was also testimony that at the first meeting defendant named his brother-in-law as an alternative source of narcotics, but at subsequent meetings stated that he had not yet been able to locate this relative.
The resolution of this conflicting testimony necessarily turned upon an assessment of credibility and thus was a matter for the trial court sitting as trier of fact. From this we conclude that the evidence did not establish entrapment as a matter of lam on either count. Masciale v. United States, 356 U.S. 386, 78 S.Ct. 827, 2 L.Ed.2d 859, affirming United States v. Masciale, 2 Cir., 236 F.2d 601; Lyons v. United States, 98 U.S.App.D.C. 276, 235 F.2d 223. And in acquitting on the first count the court found only a reasonable doubt, not an assured fact, on the evidence. Indeed, we do not understand defendant to assert the contrary. The point now urged is merely that conviction on the second count is inconsistent with acquittal on the first count. But the same conclusions if reached by a jury would clearly be unimpeachable. It is true that this court has recently decided that a trial judge, sitting as the trier of fact, is held to a more exacting standard, so that inconsistency, if established, requires reversal. United States v. Maybury, 2 Cir., 274 F.2d 899. But we do not find that principle applicable to the present circumstances.
Here the trial court was faced with the question whether defendant’s actions were the product of government inducement or a matter of independent volition. Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 374, 78 S.Ct. 819, 2 L.Ed.2d 848. On the substantive count the court considered only the evidence of the initial meeting and was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the absence of entrapment. But when evidence of the subsequent meetings and defendant’s active participation therein was also considered, such reasonable doubt was dispelled. Since the testimony of government agents was probative of the voluntary nature of defendant’s participation, we are unable to see the alleged inconsistency. In fact at the trial defendant denied such participation, instead of asserting that it was the product of en*171trapment. The two findings of the trial judge seem therefore perfectly logical and consistent, as well as well supported by the evidence.
Conviction affirmed.