Pyle v. United States

• Decision Date: 28 June 1946
• Docket Number: No. 9155.,9155.
• Citation: 156 F.2d 852,81 US App. DC 209
• Parties: PYLE v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

81 US App. DC 209, 156 F.2d 852 (1946)

PYLE v. UNITED STATES.

No. 9155.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia.

Argued May 20, 1946.

Decided June 28, 1946.

Mr. James J. Laughlin, of Washington, D.C., for appellant.

Mr. Sidney S. Sachs, Assistant United States Attorney, of Washington, D.C., with whom Mr. Edward M. Curran, of Washington, D.C., United States Attorney, was on the brief, for appellee.

Before GRONER, Chief Justice, and WILBUR K. MILLER and PRETTYMAN, Associate Justices.

WILBUR K. MILLER, Associate Justice.

During a two weeks' visit in Washington in December, 1943, Mary J. Pyle, of Lufkin, Texas, met and became immorally intimate with Chalmers H. Laubaugh, the operator of a pool room. After she returned to Texas, Laubaugh visited her there and asked her to return to Washington with him and marry him. She accompanied him to Washington early in 1944 and, in an apartment provided by him, lived with him as his wife but without going through a marriage ceremony. Except for a few weeks in Texas during the late spring, this arrangement continued until Mary left Washington on September 2, 1944, to return to her parents' home.

During all this time, Chalmers, or "Buck," Laubaugh also was intimate with Shirley Shelton, known in the record often as "Skippy." It appears that at least some of the money which Buck Laubaugh spent in maintaining Mary Pyle was given to him by Shirley from her earnings as a prostitute. It also appears that there was a coolness between Mary Pyle and Shirley Shelton. Sometime in the summer of 1944 Shirley went to Anderson, Indiana. In August she wrote to Buck Laubaugh that she was without funds and desired money from him so that she might return to Washington. Laubaugh and one Sipe went to Indiana and brought Shirley back to the District on August 29, 1944. Displeased at her return, Mary Pyle left for Texas on September 2, 1944.

On September 18, 1944, two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called at her farm home to obtain a statement from her concerning the activities of Laubaugh. Apparently the F.B.I. was then assembling evidence which resulted in the indictment of Laubaugh in October, 1944, on a charge of unlawfully transporting Shirley Shelton from Indiana to Washington for immoral purposes on August 29, 1944. During an interview of four hours or more, the agents reduced to writing the story which they say the appellant told them on that occasion concerning her visits to and life in Washington and concerning Laubaugh's relations with Shirley Shelton. The statement included the following:

"She (Skippy) left him a note and said she needed a rest and would be back in about three weeks or perhaps not at all. Buck did not seem disturbed about this at first but he found out that she had gone off with a man I knew as Paul who worked at the Parkside Grill. He, Buck, said he contacted her mother and that she had told her mother she was going to get married. Buck said he was going to locate her and that if she was going to get married he wasn't going to do anything about it but that if she wasn't going to get married he was going to bring her back because he didn't intend to let her work for anyone else but himself.

"Buck and Nelson Sipes went to Anderson, Indiana, where they heard she was with Paul and brought her back. They rode the train over and back and brought her on the train. Paul came back on the same train but not with Buck and Nelson and Skippy. This was about the last of August 1944."

Laubaugh was tried and convicted in April, 1945, for unlawfully transporting Shirley Shelton. Mary Pyle testified as a witness for the government. She said she had known that Laubaugh and Shirley Shelton had lived together for three and one-half years somewhere on 10th Street and that Laubaugh informed her Shirley had gone to Indiana; that later he showed her a letter in which Shirley said she desired to return to Washington but had no money. A portion of Mary's evidence on direct examination is as follows:

"Q. Now, Miss Pyle, do you recall when Buck left for Indiana? Do you recall that? A. Yes.

"Q. Do you remember who was with him? A. Well, Mr. Sipe went with him.

"Q. Do you recall when they returned? A. Yes, I know when they came back. I do not know the exact date, but I think it was on Thursday morning, some time, I think, or on Wednesday night, I am not sure.

"Q. That was around the latter part of August or the first part of September, was it? A. Yes.

"Q. How long after they came back with Skippy was it that you left Washington and returned to your home in Texas, how many days went by? A. It was only two or three days.

"Q. Did you intend to remain permanently in Texas, at that time? A. Well, I was very mad and angry that she came back.

"Q. You were mad and angry that she came back? A. Yes.

"Q. Did you attempt to stop Buck from going after her? A. I told him he should not, and he said she was out there and broke and needed money, and so he was taking it to her.

"Q. Did you suggest to Buck that he could send a money order, or a telegram forwarding the money to her, and that it was not necessary for him to carry it out there in person? A. No. I did not."

Mary Pyle's written statement of September 18, 1944, was introduced in evidence in the prosecution of Laubaugh and, when Mary was interrogated concerning it, she testified that she signed the statement because the agents told her she would get two years if she did not and that they would tell her mother of the life she lived in Washington. In spite of her claim that the statement was given involuntarily, she did not repudiate it as she testified against Laubaugh. On the contrary, she said that one of the agents read the statement to her and that it was an accurate record of what she had said to them. This is shown by the following excerpt from her testimony:

"Q. And do you recall whether or not the agents read back to you, when they read the statement to you, actually what you told them? In other words, was it correct in that statement?

"By the Court:

"Q. What is the answer? A. What they read back to me was what I told them.

"By Mr. Margolius:

"Q. Now, would you say that what you just answer — just told his Honor that, was actually what you told them, — would you say that applied to the entire nine pages? A. What they read to me was exactly what I told them.

"Q. Then why did you refuse to sign the statement? A. I didn't refuse to sign it."

In some particulars, however, she denied having made certain statements contained in the writing signed on September 18, 1944. For example, she said she paid the rent on the Washington apartment when the writing said that Laubaugh paid it. She testified that she did not know that Laubaugh obtained from Shirley Shelton money derived from her prostitution, although the written statement was to the effect that she did know it. She denied having mentioned an address on 8th Street, although the writing said that, at the instance of Laubaugh, she had visited an abortionist at that address. She denied having said that Laubaugh wrote to her in Texas, saying he would give up Shirley Shelton if she would return. In other minor matters, her evidence at Laubaugh's trial differed from statements contained in the writing signed by her.

Because of her testimony at the trial of Laubaugh in April, Mary J. Pyle was indicted for perjury in July. She was charged with having testified falsely in saying the statement given to the agents by her on September 18, 1944, was signed involuntarily. This, the indictment alleged, was a matter material to the subject of inquiry in the trial of Laubaugh. The appellant was convicted of perjury and by this appeal seeks a reversal of the judgment entered against her pursuant to the jury's verdict.

Errors assigned are that the justice who presided at the Laubaugh trial was not qualified to act, and that a teletype message which was received in evidence was improperly admitted, as it charged the appellant with criminal offenses other than that for which she was on trial.

With respect to the first error assigned, it is argued that the Honorable Henry A. Schweinhaut, an associate justice of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who presided at Laubaugh's trial at which Mary J. Pyle is said to have sworn falsely, was disqualified because his residence was in Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia. This contention is made because Title 28 U.S. C.A. § 1, provides that: "* * * Every district judge shall reside in the district * * * for which he is appointed, and for offending against this provision shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor." For the same reason, the qualification of the late Chief Justice Eicher of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia was once challenged, and the matter was heard by a specially designated district judge. The decision in that case¹ so clearly, completely and correctly disposes of the present contention that we adopt as our own the pertinent portion of the opinion. Reference is made to that opinion, therefore, for a statement of the reasons which lead us to conclude that the statute which requires a district judge to reside in the district for which he is appointed is not applicable to the justices of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia.

The teletype message, complained of in the second assignment of error, was sent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington to its Texas agents. It instructed them to obtain a statement from Mary Pyle, which, as has been shown, they proceeded to do on September 18,...