U.S. v. Bibbs

• Decision Date: 19 December 1977
• Docket Number: No. 76-4195,76-4195
• Citation: 564 F.2d 1165
• Parties: 2 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 855 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William James BIBBS, Ivory Lee Wilson, and Roscoe Wilson, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1165

564 F.2d 1165

2 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 855

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William James BIBBS, Ivory Lee Wilson, and Roscoe Wilson Defendants-Appellants.

No. 76-4195.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Dec. 19, 1977.

Stanley M. Lane, Tampa, Fla. (Court-appointed), for Bibbs.

Robert E. Puterbaugh, Clinton A. Curtis, Lakeland, Fla., for Wilson.

Jack T. Edmund, Bartow, Fla., for Roscoe Wilson.

John L. Briggs, U. S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., Walter W. Barnett, Vincent F. O'Rourke, Attys., Drew S. Days, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge, SKELTON, Senior Judge ^*, and HILL, Circuit Judge.

JAMES C. HILL, Circuit Judge:

The defendants were convicted of holding certain persons to involuntary servitude in contravention of 18 U.S.C. § 2 and § 1584. Defendant Ivory Lee Wilson was convicted of holding Richard Lee Brown, Charles Vonzell Brown, Elliot Johnson, and Thomas Bethea to involuntary servitude. Defendant Roscoe Wilson was convicted of holding Richard Lee Brown and Elliot Johnson to involuntary servitude. Defendant William Bibbs was convicted of holding Richard Lee Brown, Charles Vonzell Brown, and Elliot Johnson to involuntary servitude. On this appeal, the defendants challenge their convictions, claiming that they are based on insufficient evidence; that the trial judge improperly admitted testimony concerning an inconsistent statement made by a defense witness subsequent to her testimony; and that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence of witnesses' and victims' criminal convictions more than ten years old. We hold that these allegations of error are meritless, and we affirm the district court.

Defendant Ivory Lee Wilson was in the agricultural products harvesting business. He negotiated contracts with farmers and agricultural product packing companies in North Carolina and in Florida to harvest their crops. From November 1975 to April 1976, Wilson employed his brother, defendant Roscoe Wilson. Roscoe Wilson employed his own crew and was paid based on the amount of produce it harvested. Defendant William Bibbs also worked for Ivory Lee Wilson as a truck driver, fruit loader, field walker, and work recruiter.

Ivory Lee Wilson required his crews to live in housing that he provided. He charged each crewman $14.00 per week for housing though Wilson's North Carolina employers supplied the crewmen's accommodations free to Wilson and though nine to eleven crewmen were forced to live in a three room apartment owned by Wilson when they worked in Florida. Ivory Lee Wilson required the crewmen to eat at a camp kitchen when they were in North Carolina. He charged each crewman $30.00 per week for meals consisting of sandwiches, grits, beans, pigs knuckles, and bologna. When the crews were in Florida, Wilson permitted them to shop in a local grocery store. Wilson did not permit the crewmen to pay directly for their groceries, however, but rather Wilson paid for the goods and then charged the crewmen for them. The crewmen were required to purchase any liquor they consumed from Wilson, who sold it at what the evidence discloses to have been exorbitant prices. Wilson also charged the crewmen for items such as pickers' sacks, gloves, clippers, water, and electricity. Wilson set off all these charges against each crewman's weekly paycheck. About 70% of the crewmen did not earn enough money during at least one week to pay the charges they incurred that week. Ivory Lee Wilson required these crewmen to endorse their entire payroll checks back to him.

In November 1975, defendant Bibbs hired victims Richard Lee Brown and Charles Vonzell Brown in Salisbury, North Carolina, promising them that they would be returned to Salisbury in a few days. The Browns quickly became indebted to Ivory Lee Wilson, and they attempted to leave his employ approximately 9 days after they began working for him. Defendants William Bibbs and Ivory Lee Wilson stopped the Browns with a gun. Wilson threatened to kill them and told them that they could not leave until they paid their debts. When Richard Lee Brown attempted to escape again with victim Elliot Johnson, Roscoe Wilson found them and had Bibbs and another man beat them. Although Brown suffered internal injuries in the beating, Ivory Lee Wilson forced him to work the next morning. Brown rode to the fields with the other workers, including Charles Vonzell Brown, and told them he had been beaten for attempting to escape. The Browns testified that they remained in Ivory Lee Wilson's employ because they feared for their lives.

Victim Elliot Johnson became indebted to Ivory Lee Wilson so soon after beginning work for him that Johnson never received a paycheck. When Johnson was beaten for attempting to escape with Brown, Johnson's arm was fractured and his back was injured. Although Johnson eventually spent $400.00 in medical fees for these injuries, he went to work the next morning because he believed that he would be killed if he did not. Like Richard Lee Brown, Johnson told the other workers about his beating. Johnson testified that he did not attempt to escape again because he feared he would be physically harmed.

Victim Thomas Bethea was hired to work in North Carolina. Because he became indebted to Ivory Lee Wilson, Wilson threatened to beat him if he did not go to Florida with the crew. Bethea knew that Richard Lee Brown and Elliot Johnson had been beaten for attempting to escape, and he had witnessed Ivory Lee Wilson beat another person. Bethea was prevented from leaving the camp twice, once by defendant Bibbs, and he had been threatened with beatings. Bethea testified that he remained in Ivory Lee Wilson's employ only because he feared that he would be physically harmed if he attempted to leave.

The defendants urge that the district court erred in failing to grant a judgment of acquittal from their convictions. The defendants argue that their convictions are not supported by the evidence because each victim admitted that he had one or more opportunities to avoid continued service with the Wilsons. The defendants' argument is premised on an incorrect interpretation of the elements of involuntary servitude and ignores the standard governing appellate review of a denial of a motion for a judgment of acquittal.

The primary purpose for outlawing involuntary servitude was to abolish "all practices whereby subjection having some of the incidents of slavery was legally enforced." United States v. Shackney, 333 F.2d 475, 485 (2d Cir. 1964). In a prosecution for involuntary servitude, the law takes no account of the means of coercion. Various combinations of physical violence and of threats of physical violence for escape attempts are sufficient. Pierce v. United States, 146 F.2d 84 (5th Cir. 1944), cert. denied, 324 U.S. 873, 65 S.Ct. 1011, 89 L.Ed. 1427 (1945); Bernal v. United States, 241 F. 339 (5th Cir. 1917), cert. denied, 245 U.S. 672, 38 S.Ct. 192, 62 L.Ed. 540 (1918). To hold otherwise would be to ignore reality. During the years slavery existed in this country, slaves often worked in the fields and went into town with little direct supervision, thereby offering them opportunities to escape. Yet it is beyond argument that the slaves were held in involuntary servitude. The slaves' servitude was enforced not only by state law, but also by the fear generated by public punishment of those who attempted to escape. See generally, B. Quarles, The Negro in the Making of America (rev. ed. 1970). Therefore, a defendant is guilty of holding a person to involuntary servitude if the defendant has placed him in such fear of physical harm that the victim is afraid to leave, regardless of the victim's opportunities for escape.

This Court must affirm the district court's denial of a motion for acquittal if, "viewing the evidence presented most favorable to the Government, a reasonable-minded jury could accept the relevant and admissible evidence as adequate and sufficient to support the conclusion of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." Sanders v. United States, 416 F.2d 194, 196 (5th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 952, 90 S.Ct. 978, 25 L.Ed.2d 135 (1970); Weaver v. United States, 374 F.2d 878, 881 (5th Cir. 1967). In the case on appeal, the Government presented more than sufficient evidence to satisfy this standard. The evidence established that each victim held to involuntary servitude attempted to escape Ivory Lee Wilson's employ on one or more occasions and was prevented from doing so by one or more defendants. Richard Lee Brown and Elliot Johnson were beaten for attempting to escape, and all the victims were threatened with bodily harm if they attempted to escape. Charles Vonzell Brown and Thomas Bethea, the victims who were not beaten, were aware that the defendants had beaten other persons who attempted to escape. Each victim testified that he did not leave Ivory Lee Wilson's employ because he feared that he would be physically harmed by the defendants. Finally, there was ample evidence that Wilson had a motive to keep each victim in his employ, to recoup money expended on them. Therefore, we hold that the defendants' convictions are supported by sufficient evidence.

The defendants next urge that their convictions be reversed because the district court admitted evidence on rebuttal concerning an inconsistent statement made by a defense witness. Defense witness Janet Boyd testified that she served T-bone steaks to the defendants' employees twice a week. Apparently this testimony was published in newspapers. On rebuttal, Raymond Coleman testified that Boyd told him on the morning after her appearance on the witness stand that she had not so testified. The defendants argue that Coleman's testimony was irrelevant and that Boyd should have been confronted with her...