U.S. v. Bagaric
| Decision Date | 14 April 1983 |
| Docket Number | 875,877,D,932,Nos. 887,876 and 886,s. 887 |
| Citation | 706 F.2d 42 |
| Parties | 13 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 421 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Milan BAGARIC, Mile Markich, Ante Ljubas, Vinko Logarusic, Ranko Primorac, and Drago Sudar, Defendants-Appellants. ockets 82-1247, 82-1249, 82-1251, 82-1253, 82-1255 and 82-1257. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Stuart J. Baskin, Sp. Asst. U.S. Atty., S.D.N.Y., New York City (John S. Martin, Jr., U.S. Atty., Paul L. Shechtman, Roanne L. Mann, Asst. U.S. Attys., New York City, of counsel), for the United States of America.
Michael D. Monico, Chicago, Ill. (Barry A. Spevack, Chicago, Ill., of counsel), for Milan Bagaric.
Jeffrey A. Rabin, Brooklyn, N.Y., for Mile Markich.
Michael Young, New York City, for Ante Ljubas.
Newman & Adler, New York City (Roger Bennet Adler, New York City, of counsel), for Vinko Logarusic and Drago Sudar.
Jacob R. Evseroff, Brooklyn, N.Y., for Ranko Primorac.
Before KAUFMAN, TIMBERS and KEARSE, Circuit Judges.
Milan Bagaric, Mile Markich, Ante Ljubas, Vinko Logarusic, Ranko Primorac, and Drago Sudar appeal from judgments of conviction in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, after a trial before Chief Judge Motley and a jury. Appellants urge reversal, relying not only on a series of claimed infirmities of the usual sort, but also upon this court's recent refusal to permit prosecution of a terrorist organization pursuant to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, where the Government failed to allege the group or its activities possessed any financial dimension or purpose. See United States v. Ivic, 700 F.2d 51 (2d Cir.1983). We are asked to expand that holding to the facts of this case. We decline to do so, since the overwhelming proof at trial showed that the defendants, acting through their criminal enterprise, perpetrated an extensive international extortion scheme using the United States and foreign mails. In addition, the defendants directed numerous acts of violence against certain supporters of Yugoslavia. Because we also reject appellants' myriad other contentions, we affirm the convictions.
The massive, complex and convoluted record of this thirteen-week trial established that appellants were members of a Croatian terrorist group operating principally in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, with participants in Cleveland, San Francisco, Toronto, South America, and Europe. Acting through their criminal enterprise, they perpetrated an international extortion scheme against "moderate Croatians" and persons they believed to be supporters of the government of Yugoslavia, resorting to multiple acts of violence against those not sufficiently sympathetic to their cause. We chronicle the history of their activities in some detail.
Operating from his home base in Chicago, Ante Ljubas began in late 1974 to recruit and hire persons to commit murders and bombings. In each case, the intended victim was to be an individual considered unsympathetic to the cause of Croatian independence from Yugoslavia. In time, Ljubas approached a long-time acquaintance, Frank Korenic, inquiring whether Korenic could obtain explosives, and requesting that Korenic introduce Ljubas to one Joe Neary. Neary, a notorious Chicago gangster, was a frequent customer at a restaurant where Korenic's ex-wife was a waitress, and the two men had known one another since 1973. Korenic took Ljubas to Neary's home, where Ljubas was introduced to Neary and another local gangster, Louis Almeida. Ljubas told these two men he "was working with other people," and would be willing to pay well for a series of contract killings. He offered $20,000 for the first murder, and $10,000 for each of approximately ten additional assassinations. Neary and Almeida agreed to perform the killings. Accordingly, Ljubas gave them a photograph and the address of the first intended victim, John Badovinac. At that time, Badovinac was president of the Croatian Fraternal Union in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an organization Ljubas regarded as pro-Yugoslavian.
In February, 1975, Neary and Almeida travelled to Pittsburgh, and went to Badovinac's office. Uncertain whether that was the best locale at which to carry out the murder, they drove to Badovinac's home address and "look[ed] the place over[,] trying to figure out how ... to assassinate him there." Still undecided, they telephoned Badovinac's office, only to discover, from his secretary, that Badovinac was out of town attending a meeting. Neary and Almeida returned to Chicago to tell Ljubas of their frustration. The three men met at a restaurant near Ljubas's home, where Ljubas expressed his unhappiness that Neary and Almeida had not "[gotten] the job done."
In March, Neary and Almeida set off to Pittsburgh a second time. En route, they were stopped by Ohio police for speeding. A search of their car turned up a .38 Colt firearm with a four-inch barrel, a .380 automatic Barretta, a .380 Walther PPKS with silencer, and a photograph of Badovinac. Shortly after his arrest on firearms charges, Almeida told Illinois state police that Ante Ljubas had approached Neary and Almeida and hired them to murder a man in Pittsburgh.
Undeterred by the intervention of fate which spared Badovinac, Ljubas sought out co-appellant Milan Bagaric, and had Bagaric introduce him to Ante Caran. 1 Bagaric and Ljubas demonstrated to Caran the nature and seriousness of their endeavor. Bagaric showed him explosives the two men were storing in Bagaric's basement, and Ljubas instructed Caran on techniques of bomb construction. Shortly thereafter, apparently convinced of Caran's bona fides, Ljubas asked Caran if he would be willing to recruit two men to bomb the Pittsburgh home of Milan Vranes, an officer of the Croatian Fraternal Union. Ljubas provided Caran with the address of Vranes's home in Pittsburgh and told Caran to pick up the bomb at Bagaric's apartment. Caran acquired the services of two friends, Andrija Skrabo and Vjelko Jaksic. 2 The three men went to Bagaric's home, where they were shown a bomb and timer device built by Bagaric. Skrabo and Jaksic drove to Pittsburgh with the bomb.
In Pittsburgh, the two men had difficulty locating Vranes's home. After consulting a local telephone directory, they drove to an address other than that provided by Ljubas. They set the timer on the bomb and left it in a snowbank near the sidewalk of that house, later learning from a radio broadcast that the bomb had exploded. Soon after, Bagaric informed them they had bombed the wrong house.
This series of misadventures in Pittsburgh seems reminiscent of Inspector Clouseau-style bumbling. Unfortunately, tragedy soon replaced what had appeared to be a comedy of errors. Ljubas and Bagaric, undaunted, continued their private war, taking on new soldiers along the way. Beginning in early 1977, the members of the criminal enterprise began an operation to stockpile dynamite in the United States and to transport it for use in various cities. 3 Ljubas asked Caran to arrange for the use of an automobile "to go to Canada to bring some explosive[s]." Caran secured the assistance of Mico Jaksic, brother of Vjelko. 4 Ljubas, Caran, and Mico Jaksic drove to Canada in Jaksic's car. Their destination was a small rural town, Elliott Lake, Ontario, site of the huge Dennison uranium mines, the ex-employer of appellant Mile Markich.
Upon arrival in Elliott Lake, Ljubas departed alone in the car. He rejoined Caran and Mico Jaksic twenty minutes later, with a bag containing approximately twenty sticks of dynamite which he showed the two men. The dynamite was manufactured by CIL Inc., a Canadian company, bore the coded manufacturing date D7 (signifying April, 1977 manufacture), and had been shipped in April and May of 1977 to Dennison Mines. Ljubas, Caran, and Jaksic then drove to the Toronto area, where they stopped at the home of Milan Rukavina, a Croatian acquaintance of Caran. To ensure they would not be observed, they drove into Rukavina's garage, where Jaksic packed the dynamite into the door panels of the car. Blasting caps, also obtained by Ljubas, were separated from the dynamite and were stored "underneath the dashboard so they would blend in with the rest of the wires." Ljubas left the two men at this point, after instructing them to transport the contraband across the United States-Canada border and deliver it to Markich in Skokie, Illinois. Several days later, Caran travelled to Skokie, telephoned Markich to receive directions to the latter's home, and brought most of the dynamite and blasting caps to Markich, retaining some for his own use. 5 After Markich hid the explosives, the two men spoke briefly "[a]bout Croatia and [the] Croatian cause." Caran returned to his home in Milwaukee, and later travelled to San Francisco. There, he went to the home of one Mile Boban, and left the explosives he had not given Markich. Bagaric came to San Francisco and wired the explosives into bombs. 6
Also in mid-1977, appellants formalized and commenced their principal operation, a scheme to extort money from so-called "moderate" Croatians in the United States. Ljubas travelled to West Germany, where he and others committed to the violent overthrow of the Belgrade government determined to adopt a tactic which had previously been employed by Algerian terrorists seeking independence from France. They would send letters to "bad Croatians," demanding they provide financial support for appellants' criminal enterprise and also stating that, if they balked, reprisals would be carried out against them.
Appellant Ranko Primorac headed up the extortion operation in the Los Angeles area, where a number of successful Croatians resided. Primorac compiled a list of potential wealthy victims, and threatened "to squeeze that [sic] people financially, and if they refuse, to be punished [sic]...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Giuliano v. Everything Yogurt, Inc., No. CV-92-1728.
...(2d Cir.1991), cert. denied sub nom. Kelly v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 1486, 117 L.Ed.2d 628 (1992); United States v. Bagaric, 706 F.2d 42, 55-56 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 840, 104 S.Ct. 134, 78 L.Ed.2d 128 (1983); United States v. Mazzei, 700 F.2d 85, 89-90 (2d Cir.19......
-
State v. Ball
...States v. Mazzei, 700 F.2d 85, 89-90 (2nd Cir.), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 945, 103 S.Ct. 2124, 77 L.Ed.2d 1304 (1983). In United States v. Bagaric, 706 F.2d 42, 56, cert. denied, 464 U.S. 840, 917, 104 S.Ct. 133, 134, 283, 78 L.Ed.2d 128, 261 (1983), the Second Circuit Court of Appeals took p......
-
U.S. v. Bidloff
...369 U.S. 749, 765, 82 S.Ct. 1038, 8 L.Ed.2d 240 (1962); United States v. Covino, 837 F.2d 65, 69 (2d Cir. 1988); United States v. Bagaric, 706 F.2d 42, 61 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 840, 104 S.Ct. 133, 78 L.Ed.2d 128 (1983). Where an indictment tracks the statutory language it should......
-
Saine v. AIA, INC., Civ. A. No. 83-K-1726.
...in both an enterprise and a pattern of racketeering activity, and hence were subject to RICO. Id. at 21-23.3See also United States v. Bagaric, 706 F.2d 42, 55 (2d Cir.1983), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 133, 78 L.Ed.2d 128 (1983) ("We have upheld application of RICO to situations w......
-
Has the Supreme Court really turned RICO upside down?: an examination of NOW v. Scheidler.
...interpretation is a "holistic" endeavor. Id. The Supreme Court did not respond to these specific arguments. (43)United States v. Bagaric, 706 F.2d 42 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 840 (44)National Org. for Women, Inc. v. Scheidler, 968 F.2d 612, 629 (7th Cir. 1992), rev'd, 114 S. Ct. 79......
-
"face"-ing Rico: a Remedy for Antiabortion Violence?
...to those specifically enumerated. BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 517 (6th ed. 1990). 137. 452U.S. at 581. 138. 700 F.2d 51 (2d Cir. 1983). 139. 706 F.2d 42 (2d Cir.), cert, denied, 464 U.S. 840 (1983). 140. 758 F.2d 843 (2d Cir.), cert, denied, 474 U.S. 1032 (1985). 141. 700F.2dat 62-63. 142. Id. a......
-
Extraterritorial jurisdiction: can RICO protect human rights? A computer analysis of a semi-determinate legal question.
...under RICO). (119.) 18 U.S.C. [section] 1951 (2000). (120.) See supra note 117 and accompanying text. (121.) United States v. Bagaric, 706 F.2d 42, 62 (2d Cir. 1983) abrogated on other grounds by Nat'l Org. for Women, Inc. v. Scheidler, 510 U.S. (122.) Bagaric, 706 F.2d at 62 (2d Cir. 1983)......