State v. Mclaughlin
| Decision Date | 28 June 1945 |
| Citation | 44 A.2d 116,132 Conn. 325 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE v. McLAUGHLIN et al. |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.
Appeal from Superior Court, New Haven County; Mellitz and Inglis, Judges.
Information charging defendant John D. McLaughlin and others with the crime of conspiring to operate telegraph and telephone apparatus for transmitting and receiving information concerning horse races upon which bets were to be placed, brought to the superior court, where certain of the defendants pleaded guilty and the remaining defendants' motions to expunge and for more specific statements were denied, demurrers to the information were overruled, and the issues were tried to the jury. Verdict and judgment of guilty, and defendants McLaughlin, Bangert, Celentano, and Pacileo appeal. Appellants' motion for reargument was denied.
No error.
Alfonse C. Fasano, of New Haven (Fred Trotta, of New Haven, on the brief), for appellants (defendants).
Abraham S. Ullman, State's Atty., of New Haven (Arthur T. Gorman, Asst. State's Atty., of New Haven, on the brief), for appellee (State).
Before MALTBIE, C. J., and BROWN, JENNINGS, ELLS, and DICKENSON, JJ.
The state's attorney for New Haven County filed an information charging that nineteen persons named in it, at New Haven in New Haven County and at Bridgeport in Fairfield County, on or about August 1, 1940, and thereafter, conspired ‘together and with one George T. McKee, to lease, maintain and operate telegraph and telephone apparatus for the purpose of transmitting to New Haven and receiving at New Haven information concerning horse races upon which bets were to be placed,’ that in pursuance of the conspiracy a telegraph line was maintained between the two cities, that certain places equipped with suitable apparatus, books and devices were maintained for the purpose of transmitting and receiving such information, and that bets were made, recorded and registered, all contrary to the statute against conspiracy. General Statutes, Cum.Sup.1939, § 1447e. The statute makes no change in the common-law crime of conspiracy which is material to the decision of this case. Five of the defendants pleaded not guilty, were tried by a jury, were found guilty and were sentenced by the court. Four of them, McLaughlin, Bangert, Celentano and Pacileo, have appealed. We shall refer to them as the defendants, and to the others charged with conspiracy in the information as the accused.
One assignment of error is the denial by the trial court of a motion to set the verdict aside. The jury might have found the following facts: McLaughlin was an employee of an organization known as the Sports Review Company and later as the Metropolitan News Service. The organization was engaged in the business of disseminating sport news, particularly that concerning horse racing, and it had an office at first in New York City and later in Elizabeth and Hoboken, New Jersey. McKee had been employed for many years by a concern which had been engaged in selling information on horse races, and at one time McLaughlin had been in the employ of the same concern. In 1940, McLaughlin met McKee, who was then unemployed, informed him that the Sports Review was going to extend its services to Bridgeport, and proposed that he join the organization. McKee agreed, and they went to Bridgeport and there secured an office. McLaughlin paid the rent for the first month and at the beginning financed the office with his own funds; and he continued to have a general oversight of the service in Connecticut. Bangert actually managed the service, keeping the accounts in his own name. The name on the door of the office was ‘Novelty Advertising Company,’ the telephones were listed in the name of the Radio Programme, and the business was conducted under the name of the Seaboard News Company. Five or six subscribers to the service, men who were engaged in betting on horse races, were secured. McLaughlin introduced Bangert to McKee, with the statement that the former was the operator for the office and would conduct it. A wire of the Postal Telegraph Company was run from the office of the Sports Review in or near New York into the Bridgeport office, over which news came by telegraph. Bangert, who was a skilled telegrapher, received the information in telegraphic code and then relayed it to several subscribers to the service by speaking into telephones, one of which each subscriber had the right to keep open throughout any afternoon when there was horse racing anywhere in the country. Information was sent out only while or shortly before or after the racing was in progress, and it was particularly last-minute information of a type of great value to gamblers on horse races.
The business at Bridgeport was not making money; also, certain men in New Haven became somewhat troublesome to the Bridgeport subscribers by reason of telephoning them for information. McLaughlin, Bangert and McKee talked the matter over and, as New Haven looked like a good field, it was decided that McKee should go to New Haven to see if he could get subscribers there. Certain persons were suggested as possible subscribers. At first it was thought that the payment of $25 a week by each subscriber would be sufficient to justify the maintenance of the service, but when the cost was estimated it was found that $40 a week would have to be charged, and this was the amount paid, except in one instance where, by special arrangement, $35 was accepted. It was also decided that there must be a minimum of four subscribers, and McKee ‘broadcast it around to everyone in New Haven’ that it was necessary to have this number if the service was to be furnished. Four were secured and later two others were added. The method employed to extend the service to New Haven was by an agreement with the telegraph company to run a private wire from the Bridgeport office to New Haven, of a type which would carry the human voice and over which Bangert would speak as he did over the telephones in the Bridgeport office; each subscriber was connected with this wire by a ‘loop’ and furnished with a headpiece which would enable him to hear the information coming over it. As in the case of the subscribers at Bridgeport, those at New Haven were men interested in betting on horse races. They were usually known in their relations with the service by fictitious names. Payment for the service was made at first to McKee, who, after deducting his weekly salary, delivered the balance to Bangert. Later, after McKee severed his connection with the organization, Bangert went to New Haven each week to make the collections. The sums due were paid in cash and slipped to the recipient very quietly when, at an agreed time, he would be on a public street near a certain restaurant or in it. The wire from Bridgeport to New Haven and the ‘loops' from it to the places where the subscribers received the information were installed, owned and maintained by the telegraph company and the agreement with that company was made by persons representing the Sports Review organization in New York.
Among those who were discussed by McLaughlin, Bangert and McKee as possible subscribers at New Haven was Celentano. One of the first men there with whom McKee made contact was Frank Rulli, by whom Celentano was employed. McKee, about the time the wire from Bridgeport was installed, talked to Celentano about the service. Rulli became a subscriber. When later Rulli moved his place of business, Celentano took the service over, becoming himself a subscriber. Celentano's business was admittedly betting or advising others as to betting on horse races, and he took the service to aid him in it. He rented an office under the name of Joseph Clark. Desiring to have two telephones installed, he arranged with the janitor of the building, who was also a photographer, to make application for them and have them listed under the designation ‘ Color Portrait’ and ‘Photographers Portrait.’ For a time Celentano gave up the service and these telephones were removed. Later he again became a subscriber. He then caused Pacileo, owner of a restaurant in New Haven, to apply for telephones for him, which Pacileo did, having three instruments installed and listed in his name, with the addition of the words ‘photography business.’ By means of these telephones, Celentano at times talked with other subscribers in New Haven, although their telephones were listed in fictitious names or unlisted. Pacileo was a friend of Celentano's and a frequent visitor at his place of business. He must have known that Celentano was using the service for betting purposes. When Celentano heard of the first arrest in this case, he burned various papers connected with betting in his place of business. He also cut the ‘loop’ which connected with the wire from Bridgeport to New Haven, removing the portion extending from the roof of the building to his office. At that time Pacileo was with him. Pacileo, when being questioned after his arrest, denied any connection with Celentano's business, and stated that he had no part in securing the telephone for him and was not present when he cut the wire. When asked on the witness stand why he lied about these matters, he admitted that it was because he did not want to get into trouble.
From these facts the jury could not well conclude otherwise than that McLaughlin and Bangert conspired with McKee and others to maintain and operate telegraph and telephone apparatus for the purpose of transmitting information concerning horse racing upon which bets were to be placed. The defendants Celentano and Pacileo claim, however, that upon the evidence summarized above the jury could not reasonably find that they participated in any joint endeavor with McKee and the others to accomplish an unlawful purpose, but that Celentano did no more than purchase the service and Pacileo was party, at most, to Celentano's...
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