Reamer v. United States

• Decision Date: 07 June 1963
• Docket Number: No. 17163.,17163.
• Citation: 318 F.2d 43
• Parties: Glen Watson REAMER, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

318 F.2d 43 (1963)

Glen Watson REAMER, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 17163.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

June 7, 1963.

T. Eugene Thompson, St. Paul, Minn., made argument for the appellant and filed brief.

Murray L. Galinson, Asst. U. S. Atty., Minneapolis, Minn., made argument for the appellee; Miles W. Lord, U. S. Atty., Minneapolis, Minn., was with him on the brief.

Before VAN OOSTERHOUT and BLACKMUN, Circuit Judges, and YOUNG, District Judge.

BLACKMUN, Circuit Judge.

Glen Watson Reamer in March 1962 was charged by indictment¹ with a violation of the Mann or White-Slave Traffic Act, 18 U.S.C.A. § 2421.² He pleaded not guilty and, in the manner prescribed by Rule 23(a), F.R.Cr.P., waived his right to a jury trial. He was convicted by the court and received a sentence of three years with the provision, "Defendant to be confined in a Jail type institution for a period of four (4) months. The execution of the remainder of the sentence of imprisonment is hereby suspended and the defendant placed on probation for such period as remains".

Reamer now appeals in forma pauperis. The complete transcript of the trial was provided at government expense. The defense argues insufficiency of the evidence and error in denying its motion for judgment of acquittal.

The events in question took place on the cold Minnesota-Wisconsin winter night of January 20-21, 1962. There was snow on the ground. Reamer, then 28, first met Sally about 8:45 P.M. that evening at Scotty's Tavern in St. Paul. This was a combination "neighborhood" 3.2 beer parlor and grocery store. Sally was 18 and unmarried. She had a tenth grade education. She had never had a date alone with a man before. Her parents were at the tavern that evening. Sally telephoned her mother there and was asked to come over to get the bread and milk her mother had purchased. She came. The defendant introduced himself to Sally as "Jack Larson". She was invited to sit at his table. She did so. She had a soft drink. Reamer asked Sally's father if he might take her to a movie. Her father consented if he would bring her home by one o'clock. The two left the tavern about nine. Reamer did not take her to a movie but stopped instead at his brother's home nearby. There Reamer had whiskey. Some was offered to Sally but she refused it and said she did not drink. After about 20 minutes Reamer and Sally left and went to a restaurant in downtown St. Paul. While there Reamer told Sally he was going to take her to Hudson, Wisconsin, because 18-year old girls could drink legally in that state.³ Sally told him she did not wish to go to Hudson and that she did not drink. However, when Reamer agreed to stay in Hudson for only 15 minutes, she consented to go. Sally had never been in Hudson before.

Hudson is a Wisconsin town approximately 16 miles east of St. Paul. It is on the east side of the St. Croix River which, at that point and north beyond Stillwater, Minnesota, 10 miles upstream, constitutes the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin. There are paved roads on each side of the river between Hudson and Stillwater and there are bridges at each of these points.

The defendant drove Sally to Hudson. They spent approximately two hours there at the Badger Bar and at Sam's Bar. Sally had cokes at both places. The defendant had whiskey and some food. They left Sam's about 12:30 A.M. with Reamer agreeing to take Sally home. Up to this point, as Sally testified, Reamer had not "done anything that she objected to".

The foregoing facts are not in dispute. What happened between the time the couple left Sam's Bar and Reamer's return of Sally to her St. Paul home about four hours later with her feet swollen from frostbite is said by the defense to be in dispute. Sally was the only direct witness as to this period for the defendant did not take the stand.

Sally testified on direct examination that after they left Sam's Bar, Jack Larson did not take her back to St. Paul but that, instead, he stopped his car on the road and attacked her. We need not at this point set forth all the described details. In themselves they are not too important. It is enough to note that Sally testified that the defendant's advances to her were with force; that he removed much of her clothing; that she resisted; that intercourse was effected; that she was able to get out of the car; that she ran down the road; that she lost her shoes; that she encountered barbed wire; that she cut her legs; that the defendant ran after her and caught up with her; that he said once more he would bring her home; that she walked back to the car with him; that her feet were frozen; that when they returned to the car he again had intercourse with her; that they then drove to the Green Acres Motel; that she took a shower there and he assisted in thawing out her feet; that they returned to St. Paul about five A. M.; that the defendant carried her to the porch of her home because she could not walk; that he left her on the porch; that the police were called; and that she went to the hospital for ten days.

On cross-examination Sally testified that she had never had anything to drink; that she was introduced to the defendant's brother and his wife at their house but could not remember whether they were referred to as Mr. and Mrs. Reamer; that she did consent to go to Wisconsin; that she had only coke at the Badger Bar; that at Sam's Bar she refused the defendant's offer of a drink and had coffee instead; that it was about an hour after they left Sam's place when the defendant stopped the car; that this was "out in the country"; that the defendant had kissed her that evening when they left his brother's home, when they entered the Badger Bar, and when they left Sam's place; that she did not cooperate with him in any way in his advances; that when she got out of the car she did so on the driver's side and fell into a ditch and met with barbed wire and was cut; that she then ran up the hill with the defendant after her; that he did not disturb her at the motel while she took her shower; that when she came out of the bathroom with only a slip on she lay on the bed; that Reamer was then in the bed; that he fondled her; that she objected to this and told him to take her home; that he obtained her underclothing from the car; that he took her home; that she was completely dressed, except for her shoes when she arrived home; that she had been at Stillwater before; that the road on which the incident took place was between Stillwater and Hudson; that she knew there were two roads between these towns; that she had no idea where the car was stopped other than that it was a plain road and no houses were nearby; that she did not know for sure if it was in Wisconsin; that she was not familiar with the area between Hudson and Stillwater; that the place they stopped could have been in Minnesota; and that the Green Acres Motel was in Wisconsin.

Sally's father testified that he met the defendant at Scotty's Tavern on the night of January 20; that the defendant introduced himself as Jack Larson; that he had seen him three or four times before but had not talked with him; that the defendant asked him if he could take Sally to a show; and that he told the defendant she had never been with men.

Her mother testified that they had met the defendant once or twice before to the extent of greeting him.

The prosecution stipulated that Reamer sustained no orgasm on the night in question. There is other testimony, not contested, that the Green Acres Motel is in Wisconsin across the St. Croix River east from Stillwater, and that Reamer registered there that night as "Mr. and Mrs. Glen W. Reamer".

There are some discrepancies in Sally's testimony; it is also evident that she was not positive about the exact location of the car when it was stopped, or, perhaps, even about the ultimate nature of the physical advances Reamer made upon her. It is apparent, too, that Sally was not well educated or experienced and that she was emotionally upset upon the happening of the events that evening. Her judgment and that of her parents may not have been good but the points of discrepancy and of unsureness in her testimony, as we point out below, concern matters of little legal consequence in the light of other admitted or established facts.

On this record there is no dispute that Reamer used a false name in his introduction to Sally and her parents; that he asked her to go with him to Hudson; that he drove her from Minnesota to Wisconsin; that he was drinking both before and after that drive; that he stopped the car at a lonely spot; that he effected sex play of some kind with Sally; that Sally endeavored to get away; that she was able to get out of the car; that she encountered barbed wire and sustained lacerations and severely frostbitten feet; that the defendant registered himself and Sally as husband and wife in a Wisconsin motel; and that he drove her back to her home in Minnesota in the very late hours of the night.

The defense here is three-fold. It is first argued that the Mann Act does not embrace activity of the essentially private and non-commercial kind indulged in by Reamer with Sally. It is urged next that, even if the statute is sufficiently broad to encompass this, the prosecution's case falls short of establishing that any act proscribed by the statute took place outside Minnesota, or in other words, that the interstate aspect was not proved. It is argued, last, that, even if the statute is broad, the prosecution's proof also falls short of establishing that the interstate transportation was effected with the requisite intent on the part of the defendant, that is, with a then existing, and not later acquired, purpose of the kind described in the statute.

A. The application of the Mann Act. There is of course, nothing in the indictment's charge and nothing whatsoever in this record which associates the events of the...