United States v. Thompson
Decision Date | 15 September 1966 |
Docket Number | No. 16832.,16832. |
Citation | 366 F.2d 167 |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Charles Taylor THOMPSON, William Edward Tanner and James Benjamin Campbell, Defendants-Appellants. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
William E. Badgett, Knoxville, Tenn., for Thompson and Tanner, Tom Taylor, Athens, Tenn., on the brief.
W. P. Boone Dougherty, Knoxville, Tenn., for Campbell.
Charles J. Gearhiser, Asst. U. S. Atty., Chattanooga, Tenn., for appellee, J. H. Reddy, U. S. Atty., Chattanooga, Tenn., on the brief.
Before O'SULLIVAN and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges, and CECIL, Senior Circuit Judge.
Appellants, who were members of the County Council of McMinn County, Tennessee, were found guilty by a jury of violating the general conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371. The prosecution grew out of the solicitation and receipt by appellants of a $6,000 kickback from the architects on a county hospital project under the Hill-Burton Act, 42 U.S.C. § 291 et seq. Each of the three appellants was sentenced by the district judge, the Honorable Frank W. Wilson, to a prison term of one year. A fourth defendant was found not guilty and a fifth alleged co-conspirator was not indicted.
The one-count indictment in part charged that defendants, in violation of the conspiracy statute, did:
Appellants had been members of the nine-member County Council, the governing body for the local county government, for several years prior to their arrest on June 4, 1964. A preliminary application was filed with the Director, Division of Hospital Services, Tennessee Department of Public Health, on April 24, 1962, seeking federal assistance under the Hill-Burton program, in the construction of a county hospital. Appellants served as members of the Hospital Committee and constituted the majority of this five-member committee. Appellant Thompson was chairman of the committee.
Under the federally sponsored Hill-Burton program, the United States contributes 52 per cent of the construction cost of certain hospitals and other medical facilities, while the local sponsor, in this case McMinn County, contributes 48 per cent.
Local officials were notified by letter under date of October 5, 1962, that federal funds in the amount of $468,000.00 had been set aside under the Hill-Burton Act for construction of the proposed hospital.
The architectural firm of Galloway and Guthrey had performed services for McMinn County on previous occasions. The partners in this firm, George Galloway and Charles E. Guthrey, were the chief Government witnesses. They testified that beginning on December 18, 1962, the appellants and others sought a kickback on the hospital project in return for Galloway and Guthrey being given the architectural contract for the proposed hospital; that they informed FBI agents of these facts on December 20, 1962; that appellants met with them on numerous occasions in 1963, both before and after the contract for the hospital was awarded on February 12, 1963; and that further meetings were held between them and the appellants in 1964 which culminated with the meeting on June 4, 1964, at the Knoxville airport at which time George Galloway delivered the sum of $6,000.00 to appellant Campbell.
The first contention of appellants is that the district court erred in overruling their motion to dismiss the indictment, the motion for judgment of acquittal made at the conclusion of the Government's proof and appellants' motion for judgment of acquittal made at the conclusion of all proof. The principal argument is that, under the facts in this case, appellants have not violated the general conspiracy statute and have not committed a crime against the United States.
18 U.S.C. Section 371 provides:
"If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined * * * or imprisoned * * *"
In Dennis v. United States, 384 U.S. 855, 859, 86 S.Ct. 1840, 1844, 16 L.Ed. 2d 973, the Supreme Court, in interpreting this statute, said:
In Hammerschmidt v. United States, 265 U.S. 182, 44 S.Ct. 511, 68 L.Ed. 968, in reversing a conviction for conspiracy to defraud the United States, the court, speaking through Chief Justice Taft, stated:
265 U.S. at 188, 44 S.Ct. at 512.
In Haas v. Henkel, 216 U.S. 462, 30 S. Ct. 249, 54 L.Ed. 569, the indictments charged a conspiracy by several defendants to cause the Bureau of Statistics for the Department of Agriculture to issue false cotton reports. In upholding the conviction, the Court said:
. 216 U.S. 479, 480, 30 S.Ct. 253.
In Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680, rehearing denied, 315 U.S. 827, 62 S.Ct. 629, 86 L. Ed. 1222, in affirming in part and reversing in part a conviction for conspiracy, the Court stated that "The indictment charges that the United States was defrauded by depriving it of its lawful governmental functions by dishonest means; it is settled that this is a `defrauding' within the meaning of § 37 now § 371 of the Criminal Code." 315 U.S. at 66, 62 S.Ct. at 463.
In Lutwak v. United States, 344 U.S. 604, 73 S.Ct. 481, 97 L.Ed. 593, rehearing denied, 345 U.S. 919, 73 S.Ct. 726, 97 L.Ed. 1352, the Court affirmed the convictions of defendants charged with conspiracy "`to defraud the United States of and concerning its governmental function and right of administering' the immigration laws and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, by obtaining the illegal entry into this country of three aliens as...
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