Hoffa v. United States, Civ. A. No. 6222

• Decision Date: 11 February 1972
• Docket Number: 6268,Civ. A. No. 6222,6276.,6256
• Citation: 339 F. Supp. 388
• Parties: James R. HOFFA v. UNITED STATES of America. Ewing KING v. UNITED STATES of America. Larry CAMPBELL v. UNITED STATES of America. Thomas Ewing PARKS v. UNITED STATES of America.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

339 F. Supp. 388

James R. HOFFA v. UNITED STATES of America.

Ewing KING v. UNITED STATES of America.

Larry CAMPBELL v. UNITED STATES of America.

Thomas Ewing PARKS v. UNITED STATES of America.

Civ. A. Nos. 6222, 6256, 6268, 6276.

United States District Court, E. D. Tennessee, S. D.

February 11, 1972.

Brown & Brown, Chattanooga, Tenn., for all plaintiffs.

John L. Boeger and Morris A. Shenker, St. Louis, Mo., for James R. Hoffa.

Moses Krislov, Cleveland, Ohio, for Ewing King.

Cecil D. Branstetter, Nashville, Tenn., for Larry Campbell and Thomas Ewing Parks.

John L. Bowers, Jr., U. S. Atty., Chattanooga, Tenn., Michael C. Slonsky, David J. Slattery, Charles Ruff, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., for defendant.

OPINION

FRANK W. WILSON, District Judge.

The petitioners, James R. Hoffa, Ewing King, Larry Campbell, and Thomas Ewing Parks, were jointly tried and convicted in this court on March 4, 1964, of willfully endeavoring to influence, intimidate, and impede jurors in the discharge of their duties in violation of the Federal Obstruction of Justice Statute (18 U.S.C. § 1503). The style of the criminal proceedings referred to was "United States of America vs. James R. Hoffa, Thomas Ewing Parks, Larry Campbell, and Ewing King," Criminal Docket No. 11,989 in this court. The case has since had a lengthy history. Suffice it to say at this point that the conviction and sentence of each defendant was affirmed upon the original appeal and upon three subsequent post-trial proceedings. The present petitions constitute the fifth post-trial proceedings wherein the petitioners have sought to set aside their convictions and sentences in the aforesaid criminal case. Each defendant has now fully completed serving the sentence imposed in the criminal case other than the defendant Hoffa, who has recently been released from the sentence of confinement but remains under parole supervision.

These cases, seeking further post-conviction relief, are presently before the Court upon the petition of James R. Hoffa filed pursuant to Section 2255, Title 28 U.S.C., and the petitions of Ewing King, Larry Campbell, and Thomas Ewing Parks, seeking relief by way of a Writ of Error Coram Nobis. All petitions are substantially identical and the Government has filed an identical response to each petition. No issue has been raised as to the availability of the Writ of Error Coram Nobis or as to the relief obtainable thereunder by those petitioners whose sentences have now been completed. The cases have accordingly been consolidated.

Each of the petitioners now before the Court seeks to have his conviction set aside and a new trial granted and as grounds for such relief allege that a witness who testified against them, Edward Grady Partin, gave false testimony on the criminal trial and that the Government allowed the testimony to go uncorrected even though it knew it to be false. The petitioners contend that such knowing use of false testimony amounts to a denial of due process as affirmed in the case of Napue v. Illinois (1959), 360 U.S. 264, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217.

In response the Government denies that the witness Partin gave false testimony and denies that the Government knowingly used any false testimony in obtaining the petitioners' convictions. In support of their denial and in support of the factual and legal correctness of the defendants' convictions, the Government relies upon the record heretofore established in the criminal trial and in the previous post-trial proceedings.

In their present initial petitions the petitioners each alleged that the witness Partin testified falsely "that he had never agreed to be an informer, had never tried to trap anyone, and was not given instructions by Walter Sheridan concerning the overhearing of things and was never given any device or listening instrument by Walter Sheridan." They further allege that the falsity of this evidence and the Government's knowledge of that falsity was established in the course of the evidentiary hearings regarding electronic surveillance held in connection with the petitioners' fourth motion for new trial. Upon direction of the Court, the petitioners have since amended their petitions so as to make specific reference to those portions of the criminal trial testimony which it is contended were false and were known to be false by the Government. It is accordingly appropriate that the Court should consider each of these references in the light of the full record, including the record upon the criminal trial and the record upon prior post-trial proceedings, including the record made at the evidentiary hearing upon the fourth new trial motion respecting electronic surveillance.

Background

Since the foregoing records regarding the petitioners' convictions and post-trial proceedings have become so voluminous, it would be helpful at this point to make some summary statements regarding those records.

Upon May 9, 1963, the petitioners herein, James R. Hoffa, Thomas Ewing Parks, Larry Campbell, and Ewing King, were indicted, along with others, in a multi-count indictment charging them with conspiracy and with violation of the Federal Obstruction of Justice Statute. The various counts of the indictment charged the defendant Hoffa, along with one or more of the co-defendants, with having corruptly endeavored to influence jurors in connection with their deliberations in a prior criminal trial, often referred to in the record as the "Test Fleet Trial," wherein Mr. Hoffa was the only party defendant. The Test Fleet Trial occurred in October, November, and December 1962 in the United States District Court at Nashville, Tennessee, and resulted in a mistrial when the jury was unable to agree upon a verdict.

Following extensive pre-trial proceedings (see for example Hoffa v. Gray, 323 F.2d 178 (C.A.6, 1963); cert. denied 375 U.S. 907, 84 S.Ct. 199, 11 L.Ed.2d 147; United States v. Hoffa, D.C., 235 F.Supp. 611 (1964), affirmed 349 F.2d 20 (C.A. 6, 1965), affirmed 385 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 408, 17 L.Ed.2d 374 (1966) reh. denied 386 U.S. 940, 87 S.Ct. 970, 17 L.Ed.2d 880 (1967)), including the withdrawal of the original trial judge and the assignment of the undersigned as the trial judge, the criminal case here under attack went to trial in this court upon January 20, 1964. The first count, charging a criminal conspiracy, was severed, and the case went to trial upon the four substantive counts charging the defendants with obstruction of justice. The trial extended over a period of some seven weeks, involved some 123 witnesses and some 254 exhibits and accumulated a record of 9284 pages. At the conclusion of the Government's proof the Court directed a verdict of acquittal as to the defendant Hoffa upon the second count, deeming the evidence insufficient upon that count to submit to the jury.¹ The trial continued from day to day until March 4, 1964, when the jury returned a verdict finding the defendants Hoffa, Parks and Campbell guilty upon the third count and finding the defendants Hoffa and King guilty upon the fifth count. The jury found the defendants Hoffa, Tweel, and Dorffman not guilty upon the fourth count.

Without attempting any detailed summary of the evidence, the substance of the testimony of the Government's witnesses may be briefly stated as follows.

On October 22, 1962, the selection of the jury commenced in the United States District Court at Nashville, Tennessee, in the "Test Fleet" case, a criminal trial in which Mr. Hoffa was the only party defendant. Two associates frequently with Mr. Hoffa throughout the trial were Ewing King, an official of the Teamsters Union Local at Nashville, Tennessee, and Edward Grady Partin, an official of the Teamsters Local at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Upon the second day of the jury voir dire Mr. James Tippens, one of the prospective jurors, reported to the trial judge, William E. Miller, that he had been contacted the previous evening by one Lawrence Medlin regarding his jury service and reported his conversation with Medlin in this regard. Judge Miller excused the juror from the panel and advised Mr. Hoffa and his counsel that Mr. Tippens had reported that he had been offered $10,000 by Mr. Medlin "to be paid in one hundred dollar bills" to influence him if he were selected as a juror. In regard to this juror incident, Mr. Hoffa stated to Mr. Partin that "The dirty bastard went in and told the Judge his neighbor had offered him $10,000. We are going to have to lay low for a few days."

One of the jurors selected to try the "Test Fleet" case was Gratin Fields, a black man. During the course of the "Test Fleet" trial, Larry Campbell, a business agent in the Detroit Teamsters Union Local, of which Mr. Hoffa was president, contacted in Nashville his uncle, Thomas Ewing Parks, also a black man, and got him in turn to contact the son of juror Gratin Fields and offer $5,000 to the son and $5,000 to his juror father if the son would talk to his father and have him vote for the acquittal of Mr. Hoffa. Following this Mr. Hoffa stated to Mr. Partin that he had a colored male juror in his hip pocket and that his business agent, Larry Campbell, had fixed it. Upon other occasions Mr. Hoffa stated to Mr. Partin that all that was needed was a mistrial as the case would never be tried again and that he would pay $15,000 or $20,000 or whatever it cost to get to the jury.

Another juror selected to try the "Test Fleet" case was Mrs. James M. Paschal. Mrs. Paschal's husband was employed by the State of Tennessee as a highway patrolman. The Paschals lived in Woodbury, Tennessee, some distance from Nashville. After repeated urgings from Mr. Hoffa, Ewing King went to Woodbury on the night of November 17, 1962, and, along with an associate, Oscar Pitts, met Mr. Paschal at a secluded spot at 1:30 A. M. At that time Mr. King represented that he had influence in the state administration and that he would get Mr. Paschal a promotion in the...