U.S. v. Bubar
| Decision Date | 03 October 1977 |
| Docket Number | 452-56,Nos. 415,D,444,s. 415 |
| Citation | 567 F.2d 192 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. David N. BUBAR, Peter Betres, Ronald Betres, Albert Coffey, Anthony A. Just, and Dennis Tiche, Appellants. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Michael J. TICHE, Appellant. ockets 76-1140, 76-1161, 76-1162, 76-1163, 76-1164, 76-1204 and 76-1306. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
J. Daniel Sagarin, Bridgeport, Conn., for appellant Peter Betres.
Alan Neigher, Bridgeport, Conn., for appellant Ronald Betres.
Paul W. Orth, Hartford, Conn. (Hoppin, Carey & Powell, Hartford, Conn., on the brief), for appellant Bubar.
Andrew B. Bowman, New Haven, Conn., for appellant Coffey.
Gregory B. Craig, Middlebury, Vt., for appellant Just.
Igor I. Sikorsky, Jr., Hartford, Conn., for appellant Dennis Tiche.
William J. Quinlan, Schenectady, N. Y., for appellant Michael J. Tiche.
Peter C. Dorsey, U. S. Atty., New Haven, Conn. (Thomas P. Smith and Diana Garfield, Asst. U. S. Attys., New Haven, Conn., and Jeremiah Donovan, Michal Cannon, James Waddock and Thurl Stalnaker, Jr., Law Student Interns, on the brief), for appellee.
Before MULLIGAN, TIMBERS and VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judges.
This case involves the appeals from the criminal convictions following the explosion and fire on March 1, 1975 which destroyed a four story plant of the Sponge Rubber Products Company in Shelton, Connecticut.
Appellants David N. Bubar, Peter Betres, Ronald Betres, Albert Coffey, Anthony A. Just and Dennis Tiche appeal from judgments of conviction entered upon jury verdicts returned in the District of Connecticut between January 19 and February 3, 1976 after a trial which extended over a three month period before Jon O. Newman, District Judge. 1 Appellant Michael J. Tiche, as to whom the jury in the first trial was unable to agree, appeals from a judgment of conviction entered upon a jury verdict returned in the Northern District of New York on June 18, 1976 after a retrial before Henry F. Werker, District Judge. 2
All appellants were found guilty of conspiring to violate the federal statute against interstate travel in aid of racketeering, 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 1952 (1970) (Count One), and on a substantive count of committing arson in violation of the same statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1952 (1970) (Count Two). Appellants Bubar, Peter Betres, Dennis Tiche and Michael J. Tiche also were found guilty of interstate transportation of dynamite in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(d) (1970) (Count Three) and of possession of an unregistered firearm in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) (1970) (Count Four).
Of the numerous claims of error raised on appeal, we find the following to be the principal ones: (1) Peter Betres, Ronald Betres and Coffey claim that certain in-court identifications of them should have been excluded as the products of an impermissibly suggestive photographic identification procedure, and Just raises a similar claim with respect to certain witnesses' testimony regarding out-of-court identifications of his photograph; (2) Bubar, Coffey, Just, Peter Betres and Ronald Betres claim that certain language in the prosecutor's rebuttal summation constituted commentary on their failure to testify; (3) Peter Betres and Dennis Tiche claim that there was no unregistered firearm to support their conviction for violating 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d); (4) Bubar claims that the incompetence of the counsel he selected to represent him in the district court deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel; and Coffey, Just, Dennis Tiche, Peter Betres and Ronald Betres claim that the trial of their cases should have been severed from that of Bubar because of prejudicial conduct on the part of Bubar's counsel; and (5) Michael J. Tiche claims that his indictment should have been dismissed on the ground that the delay in his retrial occasioned by the change of venue from the District of Connecticut to the Northern District of New York and the substitution of his counsel violated paragraph 7 of the District of Connecticut Plan for Prompt Disposition of Criminal Cases.
We affirm.
In view of the issues on appeal, 3 we summarize here the essential facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, regarding the massive arson which destroyed the plant of the Sponge Rubber Products Company (Sponge Rubber) at Shelton on March 1, 1975. Other more detailed facts necessary to an understanding of our rulings on the legal issues raised will be stated in connection with our discussion of those issues below.
The prime mover behind the scheme was Bubar, a religious figure and psychic who was the confidante and spiritual advisor of Charles O. Moeller, the president and majority shareholder of Sponge Rubber. 4 Moeller provided Bubar with a fund of $35,000 which Bubar used to finance the destruction of the Sponge Rubber plant. Bubar's contact with the other appellants was through Peter Betres who coordinated the destruction project and to whom Bubar distributed at least $21,000.
Peter Betres' base of operations was in Pennsylvania. The project's logistics entailed procuring destructive materials, transporting them from Pennsylvania to Shelton and setting them up in the plant. Dynamite, detonating cords, detonating caps and drums of gasoline were obtained by Dennis Tiche and defendant John Shaw. 5 A truck was rented to transport these materials to Connecticut. Albert Coffey signed the rental agreement. The truck was loaded at the place of business of Dennis Tiche in Pennsylvania. It then was driven to Connecticut by defendant Donald Connors. 6 It was Peter Betres who introduced Connors to Shaw and Dennis Tiche.
On February 28, 1975, the day before the arson occurred, Shaw, Dennis Tiche and Michael J. Tiche met Peter Betres at LaGuardia Airport. There Peter Betres gave $3,000 to Dennis Tiche. Shaw and both Tiches then left New York for Connecticut. Meanwhile, Coffey, Just and Ronald Betres met in a motel room in Danbury, Connecticut.
At midday on March 1 the two groups Shaw and the Tiches on the one hand and Coffey, Just and Ronald Betres on the other met with Bubar at a restaurant near the Sponge Rubber plant. Thereafter Bubar secured the entry into the plant of Shaw and the Tiches, together with the explosives, by telling the plant security personnel that the men were employees of the telephone company. That night Shaw and the Tiches set up the explosives on a time fuse. Early in the evening Bubar secured the entry into the plant of Coffey, Just and Ronald Betres. This latter group of three captured the three plant employees who had remained on the premises after hours. Coffey and Just took the three employees by car to an isolated location.
With the time fuse running, Shaw, the Tiches and Ronald Betres left the plant together in the latter's car. They rendezvoused with Coffey and Just on a road north of Shelton. Coffey and Just there abandoned the employees in the car they had used to remove them from the plant. Coffey and Just joined the others in Ronald Betres' car. The six, after driving by the burning plant, drove together to New York City. From there Coffey, Just and Ronald Betres drove to Pittsburgh. Shaw and the Tiches travelled to Pittsburgh by air.
The cornerstone of the government's case was the testimony of Shaw, including his in-court identification of each appellant. Shaw's testimony was corroborated by financial records, telephone records, airline ticket records, fingerprints taken at the Danbury motel and other circumstantial evidence.
The trial in the District of Connecticut began before Judge Newman on October 6 1975. The presentation of evidence continued through January 6, 1976. Following arguments of counsel and the court's charge, the jury returned verdicts convicting appellants as stated above during the period from January 19 to February 3.
On February 11 the jury reported that it was unable to reach a verdict as to Michael J. Tiche on any of the counts. Judge Newman accordingly granted his motion for a mistrial and in due course ordered that his case be transferred for retrial to the Northern District of New York. The retrial began in the Northern District on June 7 before Judge Werker and was concluded on June 18 when the jury returned a verdict of guilty against Michael J. Tiche on each of Counts One through Four.
The instant consolidated appeals have been taken by Michael J. Tiche from his conviction in the Northern District of New York and by the other six appellants from their convictions in the District of Connecticut.
Peter Betres, Ronald Betres and Coffey challenge on due process grounds the in-court identifications of them by Shaw. They claim the identifications were the product of an impermissibly suggestive photographic identification procedure.
On April 10, 1975, after Shaw was taken into custody, federal agents showed him what the government describes as "a stack of between six and fifteen photos, displayed one at a time." Photographs of Peter Betres, Ronald Betres and Coffey were included. Shaw identified all three, although he expressed doubt as to the photographs of Peter Betres and Coffey.
Normally the threshold question is whether the identification procedure was impermissibly suggestive. The procedure here combined characteristics of the photographic "spread" which may pass constitutional muster if properly done, cf. Boyd v. Henderson, 555 F.2d 56, 59-60 (2 Cir. 1977), and characteristics of the singly presented photograph which, absent exigent circumstances, see Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384-85 (1968), amounts to an impermissibly suggestive photographic identification procedure. E. g., Brathwaite v. Manson, 527 F.2d 363, 367 (2...
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