Pollock v. United States

• Decision Date: 22 July 1929
• Docket Number: No. 2830.,2830.
• Citation: 34 F.2d 94
• Parties: POLLOCK v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

34 F.2d 94 (1929)

POLLOCK v. UNITED STATES.

No. 2830.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

July 22, 1929.

John Philip Hill, of Baltimore, Md. (John E. Magers, of Baltimore, Md., on the brief), for appellant.

A. W. W. Woodcock, U. S. Atty., of Baltimore, Md.

Before PARKER and NORTHCOTT, Circuit Judges, and WATKINS, District Judge.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal by David Pollock, the defendant below, from a judgment of the District Court of the United States for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore, entered on the 19th day of November, 1928, imposing a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment in the United States penitentiary, at Atlanta, upon a verdict of guilty on the first count of an indictment charging conspiracy to transport intoxicating liquors in violation of the National Prohibition Act. A second count in the indictment charging a conspiracy to possess intoxicating liquors was nolle prossed before the case was given to the jury.

Included in the indictment with the defendant were James M. Geisey, Harvey Jones, Milton Hawkins, James Morsell, Harry Bessick, and George Bowden. The defendant Pollock was tried jointly with Geisey, Jones, Hawkins, and Morsell. Bessick and Bowden were not in custody. Pollock, Jones, Hawkins, and Morsell were found guilty, and Geisey was found not guilty by the jury.

A distillery, located at Tannery, Carroll county, Md., was robbed on the night of January 2, 1926, and a large quantity of whisky was removed therefrom by means of trucks. There was evidence to the effect that the guards at the distillery were captured one by one, and tied up in the office, while the whisky was being removed. A man passing the distillery at the time was also seized and bound. Early the following morning a Reo truck was seen at a filling station, at Hampstead, Carroll county, Md., loaded with five barrels said to be filled with whisky. The driver of the truck was identified as Hawkins, one of the defendants. The truck, when seen at the filling station, bore a license which had been issued for a Dodge truck, in the name of Harry Cohen, and it was proven that appellant, Pollock, applied for this license in the name of Harry Cohen. The defendant Pollock conducted a garage in the city of Baltimore, together with his brother, Harry Pollock. The garage was known as the "Wilson Street Garage," and both the Dodge and Reo trucks in question were afterward found in this garage, and were kept there. Hawkins, Jones, and Geisey were indicted for conspiracy, and tried in June, 1928; the trial resulting in a hung jury. The defendant Morsell was joined in the indictment, but was not in custody, and was, therefore, not tried at this time; but it was proven that defendant Pollock, under the name of Cohen was sending him money in the city of Philadelphia, and that at one time the defendant Pollock wired Morsell to stay away from Baltimore until he (Pollock) sent for him. The several colored men indicted were used at the Pollock garage, as drivers of trucks, including the Dodge and Reo trucks above...