United States v. Leighton
| Decision Date | 15 December 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 172,Docket 31476.,172 |
| Citation | 386 F.2d 822 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Louis LEIGHTON, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Gilbert S. Rosenthal, New York City, for appellant.
Elkan Abramowitz, Asst. U. S. Atty., So. District of New York (Robert M. Morgenthau, U. S. Atty., and Michael S. Fawer, Asst. U. S. Atty., on the brief), for appellee.
Before WATERMAN, FRIENDLY and SMITH, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Louis Leighton was convicted on trial to the jury in the Southern District of New York, Dudley B. Bonsal, Judge, of bribing an Internal Revenue Agent in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 201(b), and he appeals. We find no error and affirm the judgment.
The alleged bribe was made during the second of two meetings with Field Agent Tiffany at Leighton's place of business. Both parties agree that a bribery suggestion was made at the first meeting of the agent and the taxpayer. The litigants, of course, hotly dispute the authorship of the bribery suggestion. Tiffany appeared at the second meeting armed with both a concealed miniature wire recorder and a concealed miniature radio transmitter. The transmitter failed to function well, but the recorder produced a reproduction of a portion of the conversation between Leighton and Tiffany which was later admitted into evidence at the trial. Leighton now relies on three rulings of the trial court as bases for reversal of his conviction: (1) that Leighton was ordered not to consult with his attorney during a luncheon recess which occurred in the interim between the direct and cross examination of Leighton; (2) that the minifon recording of the conversation between Leighton and Tiffany was admissible; and (3) that entrapment was not established as a matter of law. Since Leighton made timely objections to these rulings they are properly before us on appeal.
Leighton's objection to the ruling of the trial court that he could not consult with his attorney during the luncheon recess is framed in terms of the violation of his right to counsel. But Leighton was represented by retained counsel during the entire trial. What is actually at issue is the question of the effective assistance of counsel. At no time during, before, or after the recess, did either Leighton or his attorney indicate that they did in fact have something to discuss which might have affected Leighton's testimony or course of action. Leighton's attorney did object to the judge's ruling, but the objection appears to us an attempt to sow reversible error into the record, rather than an effort to indicate to the trial judge that the attorney and client had something to discuss. Compare Krull v. United States, 240 F.2d 122 (5 Cir.), cert. denied 353 U.S. 915, 77 S.Ct. 764, 1 L.Ed.2d 668 (1957). We conclude that the government has established beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant's right to the effective assistance of counsel was not impaired by the ruling of the trial court. See Chapman v. State of California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).
Leighton's reliance upon United States v. Venuto, 182 F.2d 519 (3 Cir. 1950), is misplaced. That case involved a series of rulings barring communication between a defendant and his attorney in a four-day bank deposit reconstruction income tax trial involving voluminous records. The harm done by the ruling in those...
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United States v. Nelson
...Rule 16(d)(1), of course, is on the party requesting such an order. United States v. Leighton, 265 F.Supp. 27 (S.D.N. Y.1967), aff'd, 386 F.2d 822, cert. denied, 390 U.S. 1025, 88 S.Ct. 1412, 20 L.Ed.2d 282 (1968). As the Fifth Circuit said in the case United States v. Hughes, 413 F.2d 1244......
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U.S. v. Mitlof, 01 CR 466(CM).
...sought is necessary, not whether it is helpful. See United States v. Leighton, 265 F.Supp. 27, 35 (S.D.N.Y.1967), aff'd, 386 F.2d 822 (2d Cir. 1967). The Government may not be compelled to provide a bill of particulars disclosing the manner in which it will attempt to prove the charges, the......
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State v. Mebane, 13037
...defendant to make any preliminary showing of prejudice. The Geders court, however, expressly limited its holding, stating: " United States v. Leighton, 386 F.2d 822 ( [2d Cir.] 1967), on which the Court of Appeals relied, involved an embargo order preventing a defendant from consulting his ......
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Aiello v. City of Wilmington, Delaware
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