Shields v. United States

• Decision Date: 04 June 1928
• Docket Number: No. 4686.,4686.
• Parties: SHIELDS v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

58 App. DC 215, 26 F.2d 993 (1928)

SHIELDS v. UNITED STATES.

No. 4686.

Court of Appeals of District of Columbia.

Submitted May 9, 1928.

Decided June 4, 1928.

M. M. Doyle, J. H. Burnett and J. A. O'Shea, both of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Peyton Gordon and J. W. Fihelly, both of Washington, D. C., for the United States.

Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, and ROBB and VAN ORSDEL, Associate Justices.

ROBB, Associate Justice.

Appellant, Shields, was indicted under section 39 of the Penal Code (35 Stat. 1096), which provides: "Whoever shall promise, offer, or give, or cause or procure to be promised, offered, or given, any money or other thing of value, * * * to any officer of the United States, or to any person acting for or on behalf of the United States in any official function, under or by authority of any department or office of the government thereof, * * * with intent to influence his decision or action on any question, matter, cause, or proceeding which may at any time be pending, or which may by law be brought before him in his official capacity, or in his place of trust or profit, or with intent to influence him to commit or aid in committing, or to collude in, or allow, any fraud, or make opportunity for the commission of any fraud, on the United States, or to induce him to do or omit to do any act in violation of his lawful duty, shall be fined not more than three times the amount of money or value of the thing so offered, promised, given, made, or tendered, or caused, or procured to be so offered, promised, given, made, or tendered, and imprisoned not more than three years." 18 USCA § 91.

The indictment is in 16 counts, and charged Shields with offering and giving 16 different bribes on different dates to Della M. Hayes, an employee in the Prohibition Unit, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Treasury Department, in Washington, D. C. Shields was acquitted on the first 14 counts, and convicted on the last 2. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment on each of the last 2 counts, the sentences to run concurrently. A fine of $300 was also imposed on the first of the 2 counts, and of $600 on the second.

The facts disclosed by the evidence for the government were substantially as follows:

Miss Hayes' term of employment dated from September, 1921, to April 15, 1924. During all this time she was assigned to the office of the Chief of Prohibition Agents, and was listed as a stenographer, but in addition to her stenographic duties she received all correspondence coming into the office of her chief, including reports of brewery investigations; read and classified all mail; received carbon copies of all outgoing correspondence; examined the incoming and outgoing mail; compiled and kept a statistical card report from the same. She also had access to the files of the Unit. Upon assuming her position, she was instructed by her superior officers as to the confidential nature of the files and records, and was directed not to give any files, records, or data to any one, unless specifically authorized to do so.

On January 24, 1922, Shields was introduced to Miss Hayes, at her place of employment, as president of the Cambria Car & Foundry Company, of Johnstown, Pa. It was then made known to her that Shields was interested in certain breweries in Pennsylvania and desired information with respect to investigations which were being made of two particular breweries. Miss Hayes informed Shields that she had one of the files in question on her desk and had access to the other, but that she could not give any specific information, and referred Shields to her superior officers. About an hour after Shields left the office, Miss Hayes received a telephone call from him, inviting her to dinner. On the following night she dined with him, and attended the theater as his guest. Further dinner and theater appointments were made and kept on February 9 and February 16, 1922. On the latter occasion Shields informed Miss Hayes that she was in a position to help him, and that he was particularly interested in the Goenner Brewery Company, and that for any helpful brewery information he would pay her $1,000 a week. Two weeks later Shields again came to Washington, and, after receiving certain information relative to the Goenner Brewery Company, gave Miss Hayes $1,000. Two weeks later another $1,000 was paid under similar circumstances.

Soon after the second payment Shields informed Miss Hayes that the Goenner Brewery Company had been closed, but that he was interested in the Pennsylvania brewery situation in general; that for any information she could procure he "would see that she was taken care of." Thereafter she continuously furnished information to Shields on the 19 concerns mentioned in the indictment; on some occasions giving the information in person; on others, sending it by telephone and telegraph. All this information came from official documents and from correspondence and files in her office. In March, 1923, Shields made a third payment of $1,000 to Miss Hayes, and between April, 1923, and April 22, 1924, paid her $2,100, as set forth in the different counts of the indictment. In addition, he promised to buy her an automobile. Miss Hayes at the trial selected, from the papers containing confidential government information which had been taken from the office of Shields under a search warrant, some 60 government exhibits.

On February 15, 1924, government officials learned definitely of the betrayal of trust by Miss Hayes, whereupon she consented to work in conjunction with the government agents in the prosecution of Shields. Prior to this date Shields had requested her to send him copies of government reports in the cases of the American Cereal Beverage Company and the Elk County Brewing Company. After February 15, 1924, Miss Hayes gave Special Agents Lucas and Cox an original and duplicate copy of the report in the case of the American Cereal Beverage Company, together with a letter addressed to appellant, stating that she was sending the enclosed report, and would try to get the one on the Elk County Brewing Company the following week. After comparing the two reports, the original was placed with her letter in an envelope addressed to appellant at Johnstown, Pa. The letter was taken by Special Agent Lucas to Johnstown and placed in the post office box of Shields, from which it was taken by Shields' secretary into the building where Shields maintained an office.

On March 8, 1924, the same procedure was followed with respect to the report in the case of the Elk County Brewing Company, except in this instance Shields himself took the letter containing the report. On March 14th, following, in a telephonic conversation between Shields and Miss Hayes, he informed her that he had received both letters and the inclosed reports. On March 19, 1924, Shields telephoned Miss Hayes and told her "he was mailing her something upon receipt of which to drop him a note," to notify him of its receipt. The...