Federal Circuits, 8th Cir. (May 06, 1978)
Docket number: 77-1759
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Alfred G. Parrish, argued and filed brief, Des Moines, Iowa, for appellant Rochon.
James H. Reynolds, U. S. Atty., Daniel T. Cutler, Sp. Asst. U. S. Atty., Sioux City, Iowa, argued and filed brief for appellee in Nos. 77-1759 and 77-1816 and 77-1817.Dan T. McGrevey filed brief and appendix for appellants in Nos. 77-1816 and 77-1817.Dan T. McGrevey, Price & McGrevey, Fort Dodge, Iowa, for appellants Cabbell and Johnson.Before BRIGHT, STEPHENSON and HENLEY, Circuit Judges.HENLEY, Circuit Judge.In early June, 1977 the federal grand jury for the Northern District of Iowa returned a forty-two count indictment charging Bonnie Marie Johnson, Edward Cabbell, Beverly New and Percy Rochon with violations of a number of the criminal laws of the United States relating to the interstate transportation of falsely made or forged securities, 18 U.S.C. § 2314, receiving and concealing falsely made or forged securities in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2315, willful perjury before federal grand juries, 18 U.S.C. § 1623(a), and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 371.The defendants with whom we are directly concerned, Johnson, Cabbell and Rochon, pleaded not guilty to the charges against them and were tried before a jury in August, 1977 with Chief District Judge Edward J. McManus presiding. They were all found guilty on all of the counts in which they were named as defendants, and in September, 1977 the district court imposed severe sentences of imprisonment on all three of them. They have appealed.1In seeking reversals the defendants do not attack the sufficiency of the indictment or the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdicts.Rochon contends simply that the district court erred in refusing to grant him a trial separate from that of Cabbell and Johnson.Cabbell and Johnson contend that the government did not timely furnish them with exculpatory material as required by Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). They also claim that they were deprived of the adequate assistance of counsel because counsel did not have sufficient time to familiarize themselves with the case and prepare a defense.We find no merit in the contentions of the defendants, and we affirm all three convictions.Facts and Procedural History.In view of the narrow positions taken by the defendants, we feel justified in stating the facts of the case as the jury would have been justified in finding them, and probably did find them under the evidence when viewed in the light most favorable to the government and giving the government the benefit of all reasonable inferences favorable to it.Basically, the charges against the defendants grow out of the fact that in June, 1976 thirty falsely made and forged commercial money orders issued by American Express Company and drawn on the First National Bank of Denver, Colorado were caused to be transported from points in Iowa to the Bank just mentioned in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2314.Those thirty money orders were completed on blanks which, with numerous others, had been consigned and mailed by American Express Company to a drugstore in Omaha, Nebraska, which was a distributing agent for money orders issued by the Company.2 The blanks were mailed to the drugstore in February, 1976. In March, 1976 the drugstore was the subject of an armed robbery by two men, and in the course of the robbery the pharmacist in charge of the establishment was shot and critically wounded. It appears that as a result of his wound he has been rendered totally and permanently disabled.The robbers stole from the drugstore a total of 320 blanks involving a potential loss of $64,000.00.3 The girl friend of one of the robbers came into possession of a number of blanks and passed some of them herself. She sold one book of twenty blanks to Cabbell in Omaha for $100.00 or 2.5% of the maximum value of the blanks. She gave another book of blanks to Leon Jenkins, an acquaintance of Cabbell, and the blanks in that book or some of them appear to have come into Cabbell's possession.4Those blanks were transported from Nebraska to Iowa and were completed in the latter state. Upon their completion they unquestionably became " securities" as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2311 and were covered by § 2314. Cf. United States v. Jackson, --- F.2d ---- (8th Cir. 1978).Cabbell obtained at least twenty-five of the blanks in question, and we will refer to them as the "Cabbell blanks." Those blanks were filled out in sums from $190.00 to $198.23, and on each blank "Mary A. Straight" was identified as the payee.The remaining five blanks may have come into the possession of the defendant, Rochon; certainly, at least four of them were handled by him at some stage because his latent fingerprints appeared on them when they were examined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the course of its investigation of the interstate transportation of this group of securities. And the fifth blank was closely connected with the other four when the five blanks are considered from the standpoint of serial numbers. Those five blanks, which we will call the "Rochon blanks," were filled out to show "Lita L. Church" or "Lori M. Evans" as payee. Two of the blanks were filled out in the sum of $185.00 each, and the other three were filled out for $175.00 each.The Cabbell blanks were negotiated on June 9 and June 10, 1976 by Bonnie Johnson, apparently at the instance and to some extent with the assistance of Cabbell, at four banks in the small cities of Algona, Eagle Grove, Humboldt and Webster City, Iowa, all of which are located in the vicinity of the larger city of Fort Dodge.5 The modus operandi may be described as follows.Shortly before negotiating the money orders Johnson appeared at each of the target banks and established a false identity for herself as "Mary A. Straight," or as "Mary Straight," and opened a small checking account in that name. With that foundation laid, negotiation of the securities could begin.6On June 9, 1976 Johnson appeared at the Iowa State Bank at Algona where she endorsed and deposited five money orders, each in the sum of $190.00, and each made payable to Mary A. Straight. Johnson's account in that name was credited with the full amount of the deposit. Those five money orders became the subject of Counts 1-5 of the indictment, and Bonnie Marie Johnson was the only defendant named in those counts.On the same day Johnson, posing as Mary A. Straight, appeared at the First National Bank of Humboldt where she deposited five "Straight" money orders varying in amount from $191.31 to $198.23. Likewise on the same day Johnson appeared at the Farmers National Bank at Webster City where she deposited ten of the "Straight" money orders ranging in amount from $190.00 to $197.34. Those fifteen money orders became the subject matter of Counts 6-20 of the indictment, and in those counts both Ms. Johnson and Cabbell were named as defendants.On June 10, 1976 Johnson, still posing as Mary A. Straight, deposited five "Straight" money orders, each in the sum of $190.00, at the Eagle Grove State Bank in Eagle Grove. Those five money orders became the subject matter of Counts 21-25 of the indictment, and in those counts Johnson was the sole defendant named.All of those twenty-five money orders negotiated by Johnson moved in ordinary banking channels from the Iowa banks which had accepted them to the First National Bank of Denver, Colorado. When they were presented to American Express Company, they were rejected as having been stolen, and they were returned in due course to the Iowa banks. Naturally, while the items were in transit, Johnson withdrew most of her fraudulent deposits from the banks by means of checks that she drew on the accounts that had been opened in the name of Mary A. Straight.7Turning now to the "Rochon blanks," it appears that after completion they were passed at mercantile establishments in various points in Iowa, including Cedar Rapids in the eastern part of the state, and it is inferable that they were passed by Beverly New who at the time was Rochon's paramour and whom he later married.Count 36 of the indictment charged that between May 1 and June 13, 1976 Rochon unlawfully received and concealed four specifically described blanks which were among those taken in the robbery of the Omaha drugstore. And Count 42 charged Beverly New with passing at the Me Too Store in Cedar Rapids a money order that it may fairly be said was made out on one of the Rochon blanks, although not one of the blanks described in Count 36.8 That money order, like all of the others involved in the case, passed in due course of business from Iowa to the drawee bank in Denver where payment was refused by American Express Company.In November, 1976 the federal grand jury for the Northern District of Iowa was investigating the criminal operations that have been described, and the defendants Johnson and Rochon testified after having been duly advised of their rights. The testimony of both of them was entirely exculpatory. With specific regard to the testimony of Rochon, he stated under oath that he had never possessed, seen, touched or handled any of the four blanks that were described in Count 36 of the indictment.That testimony in 1976 resulted in the 1977 grand jury indicting Johnson on ten counts of perjury (Counts 26-35) and Rochon on four counts of perjury (Counts 37-40).In addition to indicting the defendants on the substantive charges that have been mentioned, the grand jury also indicted Johnson, Cabbell and Rochon for conspiracy to violate § 2314. One of the overt acts alleged was that Cabbell borrowed an automobile from Craig Foster, a car salesman in Fort Dodge, which automobile Cabbell then turned over to Johnson "for the purpose of driving said vehicle to the various banks at which the money orders described in Counts 1 through 25, above, were cashed and deposited, and withdrawing from said banks the funds generated by such deposits."Johnson, Cabbell and Rochon all pleaded not guilty. At some time following the return of the indictment Beverly New entered a plea of guilty to Count 42 as the result of a plea bargain which involved her agreement to testify as a government witness.Motions were filed by the other defendants which motions included one filed by Rochon to sever the charges against him from the charges against the other defendants, and to grant him a separate trial. That motion was denied. Prior to the commencement of the trial, the government dismissed the receiving and concealing count against Rochon (Count 36) and also dismissed the conspiracy count (Count 41) as to him. That action left Rochon charged only on four counts of perjury (Counts 37-40). When that development took place, Rochon filed a second motion for severance and separate trial, and the motion was again denied but without prejudice to renewal in the course of the trial.Immediately prior to the commencement of the trial counsel for the defendants Rochon and New (by then Mrs. Rochon) advised the court that the latter defendant would not testify for the government and desired to withdraw her original plea of guilty. The district judge did not act on the question of the withdrawal of the plea of guilty at the time, and we do not know what disposition was finally made of the charge against Mrs. Rochon.Trial of the case formally began on August 15, 1977; however, the taking of testimony did not begin until August 18, and the trial was concluded on August 19.In support of its case the government called numerous witnesses, including expert witnesses, and introduced a substantial number of documentary exhibits. None of the defendants took the stand, and Rochon called no witnesses. Witnesses were called by Cabbell and Johnson.Counsel for Cabbell sought to establish by his witnesses that Craig Foster did not lend an automobile to Cabbell as mentioned in the indictment, that a woman by the name of Wanda Funkhauser had been accused at one time as being the person who deposited the money orders in the bank at Algona, and that the identifications of Ms. Johnson by bank employees were unreliable. Ms. Johnson herself called one witness, a fellow employee in the massage parlor, to establish that Johnson worked at the parlor on both June 9 and June 10, 1976 and could not have been the person who deposited the several Mary A. Straight money orders in the several banks that have been mentioned.In the course of the trial counsel for Cabbell and Johnson moved for a mistrial as to their clients on the ground that Brady material had not been timely furnished. The motion or motions were overruled. Post trial motions for judgments of acquittal notwithstanding the verdicts or for a new trial filed on behalf of Cabbell and Johnson were denied, and the three convicted defendants were sentenced on September 19, 1977.Rochon's Appeal.As mentioned, Rochon contends for reversal that the district court erred in denying him a separate trial. That contention must be evaluated in the light of Fed.R.Crim.P. 8 and Fed.R.Crim.P. 14. Rule 8 deals with permissible joinder of counts in a single indictment and with permissible joinder of defendants in the same indictment. Rule 14 deals with relief from prejudicial joinder of charges or defendants.9It is settled in this circuit that a motion for relief from an allegedly prejudicial joinder of charges or defendants raises a question that is addressed to the judicial discretion of the trial court, and this court will not reverse in the absence of a clear showing of abuse of discretion. United States v. Losing, 560 F.2d 906, 911 (8th Cir. 1977); United States v. Jackson, 549 F.2d 517, 523 (8th Cir.), cert. denied,Try vLex for FREE for 3 days
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