Railton v. United States, 9979.

• Decision Date: 02 June 1942
• Docket Number: No. 9979.,9979.
• Citation: 127 F.2d 691
• Parties: RAILTON v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

127 F.2d 691 (1942)

RAILTON v. UNITED STATES.

No. 9979.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

April 29, 1942.

Rehearing Denied June 2, 1942.

Maury Hughes and J. Forrest McCutcheon, both of Dallas, Tex., for appellant.

Clyde O. Eastus, U. S. Atty., of Fort Worth, Tex., and Joe H. Jones, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Dallas, Tex., for appellee.

Before FOSTER, SIBLEY, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.

SIBLEY, Circuit Judge.

E. J. Railton was charged jointly with Claude Jordan and Arthur Lee Simpson with conspiracy to steal and carry away property of the United States in violation of Section 82 of Title 18, U.S.C.A., the overt acts charged all relating to the stealing and selling of certain fire clay. In a second count they were charged with actually stealing and carrying away the fire clay. Simpson pleaded guilty and became the chief witness for the prosecution. Jordan pleaded not guilty but did not testify, and was convicted on both counts. Railton vigorously defended himself, and was convicted of the conspiracy but acquitted of the stealing. He, only, appeals.

The evidence leaves no doubt that the fire clay was stolen and sold pursuant to a plan. The only question is whether Railton was a party to it. According to Simpson's testimony he was, and got part of the money from the sale. If the jury believed Railton was a party to the plan to steal, since the plan was carried out he should have been convicted of the stealing also. This want of consistency is no fatal defect in the verdict, but it has a probable explanation in the admission of evidence to support Simpson's testimony that he, the engineer on a Government park construction project, was engaged in other dishonesties along with Railton, who was a city official on the Park Board. The prosecution was allowed to give evidence of a number of instances, both before and after the taking of the fire clay, in which Railton joined Simpson or Jordan or others in taking for his use material or labor belonging to the city park, and especially of a "rake off" of $1,000 in the purchase of a large asphalt order, as to which the specifications were so altered as to exclude other bidders. These were all denied by Railton, and the greater part of the testimony in the record relates to these collateral contentions. It was of course no function of the federal court to investigate charges of grafting by a State official, and these charges were admitted only for the light they might throw on the federal offenses on trial. We recognize the rule that light may be sought in this way to show motive or intent, or a system of crime, in some cases. Weiss v. United States, 5 Cir., 122 F.2d 675. But it is a fundamental rule of criminal law that guilt of another offense cannot generally be proven to show guilt of the offense charged in the indictment. Boyd v. United States, 142 U.S. 450, 12 S.Ct. 292, 35 L.Ed. 1077; Bird v. United States, 180 U.S. 356, 21 S.Ct. 403, 45 L.Ed. 570; Scheinberg v. United States, 2 Cir., 213 F. 757, Ann.Cas.1914D, 1258; Wolf v. United States, 2 Cir., 290 F. 738; Fish v. United States, 1 Cir., 215 F. 544, 545, L.R.A.1915A, 809; Tedesco v. United States, 9 Cir., 118 F.2d 737. This is true even when guilt of the other offense has been established by a conviction, or is admitted. When, as in all the instances in this record, there has been no conviction, there is no admission, but strong denial, and in the main the issue is as to them the same as in the main issue, whether Simpson or Railton is to be believed, confusion rather than light is apt to result. We think it quite likely the...