Laughlin v. United States

Decision Date19 December 1972
Docket NumberNo. 22996,71-1142.,22996
PartiesIn the Matter of the Conviction of James J. Laughlin, Appellant. James J. LAUGHLIN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Mr. James J. Laughlin, pro se.

Mr. James F. McMullin, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Messrs. Harold H. Titus, Jr., U. S. Atty., and John A. Terry, Asst. U. S. Atty., were on the brief, for appellee in No. 71-1142. Mr. Oscar Altshuler, Asst. U. S. Atty., also entered an appearance for appellee in No. 71-1142.

Mr. Edmund L. Jones, Washington, D.C., with whom Messrs. Milton W. King and Preston C. King, Jr., Washington, D. C., were on the brief for appellee Committee on Admissions and Grievances for the United States District Court.

Before MacKINNON and WILKEY, Circuit Judges, and WILLIAM J. JAMESON,* Senior United States District Judge for the District of Montana.

Certiorari Denied June 11, 1973. See 93 S.Ct. 2784.

PER CURIAM:

On appellant's motion we heard argument on these two cases together because they are both based on the appellant's long-continuing efforts to reverse his criminal convictions and resulting disbarment.

In No. 22,996 (the disbarment proceeding), Mr. Laughlin appeals from the December 20, 1969 order of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia disbarring him from the practice of law in the District of Columbia. His disbarment was based on final judgments of conviction entered in that court in two criminal cases: (1) on July 26, 1965 in Criminal No. 600-63, for conspiracy to obstruct justice and attempting to influence a witness in a criminal trial, and (2) on July 8, 1966 in Criminal No. 406-65, for perjury committed before the grand jury.

In No. 71-1142 (a coram nobis proceeding) Mr. Laughlin appeals from orders entered by the District Court on December 9, 1970 dismissing his complaint for collateral review of his two criminal convictions styled as a writ of error coram nobis, and on December 24, 1970 denying a motion for reconsideration of the foregoing that was based on an affidavit of personal bias by the trial judge against appellant. We affirm each of the orders of the District Court from which appeals were taken.

I. No. 22,996 — The Disbarment Proceeding

In his brief on this appeal, appellant contends that the Committee on Admissions and Grievances is not bound by the judgments of conviction in the District Court for the criminal offenses, as affirmed by this court, but rather that the Committee can itself assess those judgments and reach an independent decision of their validity and thereby reinstate appellant to active practice. He cites no authority in support of this assertion; indeed he pursues it no further than to state it and move on to his attack on the merits of his convictions.

Nonetheless, the proposition is at least an arguable one, for the controlling statute at the time of his convictions was not mandatory in its language:1

When a member of the bar of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, and a duly certified copy of the final judgment of the conviction is presented to the court, the name of the member so convicted may thereupon, by order of the court, be struck from the roll of the members of the bar, and he shall thereafter cease to be a member thereof.

However, at the time of his disbarment the statute had been amended to make its language mandatory. Section 199 of the District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 19702 amended D.C.Code § 11-2103 to cover the transition period between the date of its enactment, July 29, 1970, and April 1, 1972, when supervision of the local bar was shifted from the U.S. District Court to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.3 The amended statute, in effect on the date of appellant's disbarment, provides:4

If a final judgment of conviction is certified to the court, the name of the member of the bar so convicted shall be struck from the roll of the members of the bar and he shall thereafter cease to be a member. Upon the granting of a pardon to a member so convicted, the court may vacate or modify the order of disbarment.

We need not decide, however, which of these statutes controlled the District Court's exercise of its supervisory powers over the local bar, nor whether appellant's construction of even the non-mandatory version is correct.5 Appellant conceded at oral argument that this appeal rests wholly on our evaluation of the propriety of his criminal convictions, and that if we deny his appeal in the coram nobis proceeding, No. 71-1142, then this appeal, too, must fail. Since his convictions were for obstruction of justice and perjury, two offenses which belie the basic character qualification required of a lawyer, his concession recognized the reality of his situation. We find no error either in his convictions or in the District Court's orders appealed from in No. 71-1142 and the order of the District Court disbarring appellant is therefore affirmed.

II. No. 71-1142 — The Coram Nobis Proceeding
A. Background

In Criminal No. 741-61, United States v. Forte, appellant served as counsel for Forte who was being tried on charges of procuring and attempting to procure abortions for a Jean Smith.6 The trial resulted in an acquittal of Forte on February 20, 1963.

During Forte's trial appellant and Forte alleged that the arresting officer, Samuel Wallace, had attempted to "shake-down" Forte, and they demanded a grand jury investigation of Wallace's alleged solicitation of bribery. During the course of the grand jury investigation subsequently held, one of the officers who had investigated the original abortion charges, Mrs. Bernice Gross, revealed the involvement of appellant and Forte in attempts to have her solicit false testimony from Mrs. Smith at Forte's trial. After these relevations, Mrs. Gross was pressured into making several recorded telephone conversations with appellant. When he was called to testify before the grand jury, however, appellant denied having ever known or spoken with Mrs. Gross:

"Q. Do you even know Bernice Gross?
"A. No, I wouldn\'t say I know her if I saw her on the street. I heard her name because it came out during the trial. I would not know her if I met her on the street.
"Q. Have you ever talked to Bernice about this case?
"A. At no time.
"Q. Ever talked to her on the telephone at all?
"A. No."

United States v. Laughlin, 222 F.Supp. 264 (D.D.C.1963). The grand jury returned two indictments against appellant. In Criminal No. 599-63 (the perjury indictment) he was charged with perjury for his grand jury testimony regarding his knowledge of Mrs. Gross. In Criminal No. 600-63 (the obstruction and conspiracy indictment) he was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and with influencing and attempting to influence a witness in a criminal trial with respect to his and Forte's and Mrs. Gross' attempts to obtain false testimony from Mrs. Smith in connection with Forte's trial.

No. 599-63, the perjury charge, came on for trial before Judge Youngdahl. After playing the tape recordings of the calls between Mrs. Gross and appellant in open court, cross-examination of her revealed that she had been coerced into making the recorded calls by threats of prosecution if she did not cooperate. Upon revelation of this information Judge Youngdahl ruled that the recordings were inadmissible and declared a mistrial. United States v. Laughlin, 222 F.Supp. 264 (D.D.C.1963).

Appellant then filed a motion to dismiss the indictments in both Nos. 599-63 and 600-63 because of the impropriety of the recorded telephone calls and the fact that they had all been played before the grand jury. On November 13, 1963 Judge Curran ruled on these motions, denying the motion regarding No. 600-63 (the conspiracy and obstruction indictment), but granting the motion to dismiss the indictment for perjury in No. 599-63. United States v. Laughlin, 223 F.Supp. 623 (D.D.C.1963). Judge Curran reasoned that without the recordings the Government in the perjury trial could present only the uncorroborated testimony of Mrs. Gross, and "perjury cannot be proved by the uncorroborated testimony of one witness, since the falsity of one person's oath cannot be established by another person's oath alone." 223 F.Supp. at 625.

The Government requested reconsideration of this order arguing primarily that the telephone company records of the calls constituted sufficient corroboration of Mrs. Gross' testimony concerning the calls to warrant at least trial on the question rather than dismissal of the indictment. Judge Curran denied this request, finding that the bare telephone records established no more than that calls were made between two numbers, and such records did not provide sufficient corroboration of the identity of the persons who had been parties to those calls to meet the special independent corroboration test for a perjury conviction. United States v. Laughlin, 226 F.Supp. 112 (D.D.C.1964). An appeal from this decision was noted, but was subsequently dismissed on the Government's own motion.

In No. 600-63, the conspiracy and obstruction indictment, trial was had before Judge Hart. In this trial the tape recordings were admitted over appellant's objections, Judge Hart having ruled that Mrs. Gross' consent was freely given and not coerced. The resulting conviction was reversed by this court on appeal. Laughlin v. United States, 120 U.S.App.D.C. 93, 344 F.2d 187 (1965). We held that under the doctrine of collateral estoppel the issue of Mrs. Gross' consent and the admissibility of the recordings had been decided adversely to the Government by Judges Youngdahl and Curran in the earlier perjury trial and that it was reversible...

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