U.S. v. Bertrand
| Decision Date | 05 April 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-5216,78-5216 |
| Citation | 596 F.2d 150 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Liston Alphonso BERTRAND, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Thomas E. Clay, Louisville, Ky. (Court-appointed CJA, for defendant-appellant.
Albert Jones, U. S. Atty., James H. Barr, Barry L. Master, Louisville, Ky., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before EDWARDS, Chief Judge, LIVELY and ENGEL, Circuit Judges.
This is a direct appeal from a conviction and sentence after jury trial in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Appellant Bertrand had been indicted on two counts charging violation of 18 U.S.C. § 505 (1976). The statute in question reads:
Whoever forges the signature of any judge, register, or other officer of any court of the United States, or of any Territory thereof, or forges or counterfeits the seal of any such court, or knowingly concurs in using any such forged or counterfeit signature or seal, for the purpose of authenticating any proceeding or document, or tenders in evidence any such proceeding or document with a false or counterfeit signature of any such judge, register, or other officer, or a false or counterfeit seal of the court, subscribed or attached thereto, knowing such signature or seal to be false or counterfeit, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Count I of the indictment, which charged appellant with forging a signature of a United States District Court Clerk, was dismissed on motion at the close of the case for the government. Appellant was convicted on Count II, which charged:
On or about the 10th day of June, 1977, in the Western District of Kentucky, LISTON ALPHONSO BERTRAND did wilfully and knowingly concur in using the forged and counterfeit signature of Larry G. Brown, Deputy Clerk, United States District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky, on a document styled United States District Court, Western District of Kentucky, at Louisville, Kentucky, Operation Fair Labor, Inc. et al., Plaintiff, vs. Officers and Representatives, Local 576, International Union, et al., Defendants, Order No. 77-84, and stamped Filed, $315.00, June 09, 1977, June 09 PAID, and stamped a True Copy Attest, Davis T. McGarvey, Clerk, U.S. District Court, By: Larry G. Brown, D.C., for the purpose of authenticating said document.
In violation of Section 505, Title 18, United States Code.
On appeal appellant presents two issues. The first we believe is frivolous. In it appellant claimed entitlement to a judgment of acquittal because "the United States failed to prove Larry G. Brown and Davis T. McGarvey are officers of the court." Brown was a deputy clerk and McGarvey was Clerk of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Brown testified at this trial and identified himself and McGarvey by their titles. This being so, we have no doubt that the District Judge committed no error in his charge to the jury by identifying Brown as an officer of the court, within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 505 (1976). See 28 U.S.C. §§ 751, 951 (1976).
The second appellate issue, however, presents a claim of failure of proof that the admittedly false signature of Brown on Government Exhibit # 1 was forged with fraudulent intent. This issue requires consideration of the proofs offered at trial stated from the point of view favorable to the government which the jury adopted by its verdict. Glasser v. United States,315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942).
On the evening of June 10, 1977, a meeting attended by 17 or 18 persons was held at the residence of Don and Louise Swanson to discuss the filing of a lawsuit by dissatisfied members of a labor union. At the meeting appellant Bertrand read what purported to be a complaint filed in the Western District of Kentucky. This document (Government Exhibit # 1), was stamped with the name of Larry G. Brown, who is deputy clerk of the Eastern District of Kentucky, and contained what purported to be Brown's signature 1 and the words "$315 paid." Bertrand collected this sum as reimbursement from the union members at the meeting. Subsequently, some of the members discovered that the complaint which had been displayed at the June 10, 1977, meeting had Not been filed and that subsequently Bertrand, on June 13, had filed a complaint in the Western District of Kentucky and paid the filing fee of $15.
These facts were, of course, ample to allow the jury to find that appellant's scheme was executed with fraudulent intent. But it is appellant's claim that there is no testimony as to the fraudulent...
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United States v. Reich, Docket No. 06-1445-cr.
...the common-law element of intent to defraud. Levinson v. United States, 47 F.2d 470, 471 (6th Cir.1931);7 see also United States v. Bertrand, 596 F.2d 150, 152 (6th Cir.1979) (referring to Levinson and finding that the appeal was governed by stare decisis). The Tenth Circuit, however, drew ......
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U.S. v. Cowan
...111 S.Ct. 461, 472-76, 112 L.Ed.2d 449 (1990) (Scalia, J., dissenting), so did § 505. The subsequent decisions in United States v. Bertrand, 596 F.2d 150 (6th Cir.1979), and United States v. London, 714 F.2d 1558 (11th Cir.1983), followed Levinson 's rationale. In United States v. Barber, 3......
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U.S. v. Barber
...includes the element of intent to defraud. See United States v. London, 714 F.2d 1558, 1563 (11th Cir.1983); United States v. Bertrand, 596 F.2d 150, 151 (6th Cir.1979); United States v. Dyer, 546 F.2d 1313, 1316 (7th Cir.1976). Mr. Barber proposed the instructions to the jury include the f......
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United States v. McComber, Case No. SA CR 13-00166 DDP
...an intent to defraud into the statute, McComber cites Levinson v. United States, 47 F.2d 470, 471 (6th Cir. 1931); United States v.Bertrand, 596 F. 2d 150 (6th Cir. 1978); United States v. London, 714 F.2d 1558 (11th Cir. 1983); and United States v. Dyer, 456 F.2d 1313 (7th Cir. 1976). Howe......