U.S. v. Craig, 77-1364
| Decision Date | 22 March 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 77-1364,77-1364 |
| Citation | 573 F.2d 513 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert CRAIG and Louis A. Markert, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Anna R. Lavin, Chicago, Ill., for defendants-appellants.
Thomas P. Sullivan, U. S. Atty., James F. Holderman, Asst. U. S. Atty., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before CUMMINGS and PELL, Circuit Judges, and CAMPBELL, Senior District Judge. *
Among the members of the House of Representatives of the Seventy-seventh Illinois General Assembly were the defendants-appellants herein, Robert Craig and Louis A. Markert, both of whom were found guilty by a jury of conspiring to commit extortion under color of official right in violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, and of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341. The events giving rise to the prosecution of these charges occurred during the Spring and Fall 1971 Session of the Illinois General Assembly, and concern the defendants' exacting $1,500 from a rental vehicle trade association known as the Illinois Car and Truck Renting and Leasing Association (CATRALA) by means of a "fetcher" bill. 1 We affirm.
The evidence showed that defendant Thomas J. Hanahan 2 introduced a bill entitled House Bill 2025 which was designed to amend the Illinois Vehicle Code. The amendment would require that the title certificate of a rental car carry an indication that the vehicle had been a rental vehicle. A title certificate so identified would result in reducing the resale price of a rental vehicle by five or six hundred dollars.
Shortly after introducing House Bill 2025, Hanahan and Craig met with Pete Pappas, an unindicted co-conspirator/co-schemer, who was chairman of the Motor Vehicle Committee of the House of Representatives. House Bill 2025 was to be assigned to Pappas' committee. It was agreed that the money generated by House Bill 2025 would be evenly divided, and that Pappas would not hold any committee hearings on the bill until Hanahan had time to negotiate with the CATRALA people.
On the last day of the Spring 1971 Session Doris Steigberg, the executive secretary and registered lobbyist of CATRALA, asked Craig about the status of House Bill 2025. Craig responded that he thought the bill could be stopped for $5,000. After Steigberg indicated that her people were having a difficult enough time paying her salary, and that she didn't know how she could raise that amount of money, Craig instructed her to "take it back to (her) people and see what they can do." Steigberg immediately telephoned Frank LoNano, the President of CATRALA, at his Schiller Park, Illinois, office, and told him that she had been approached for money on House Bill 2025. A short time later Steigberg explained to a CATRALA board meeting the potential damage to the rental car industry posed by House Bill 2025, and further stated that she had been approached by a person in Springfield for money.
House Bill 2025 was scheduled for a committee hearing on October 22, 1971. A few days prior thereto Steigberg told Craig that her people indicated that the $5,000 figure was absolutely too much. In response to Steigberg's inquiry as to the least amount that would be acceptable, Craig urged her to "try for $2,000." Steigberg then spoke with LoNano. On the day of the hearing Markert asked Steigberg if she had heard anything. Steigberg told Markert that $2,000 was too much money, and asked if he could "try for fifteen hundred." Shortly thereafter Markert told Steigberg that although they were unhappy about it, $1,500 would be acceptable. 3 Steigberg informed LoNano of the agreed amount. The hearing on House Bill 2025 was postponed.
On November 12, 1971, Steigberg telephoned Lee Workman, the Assistant Vice President, Chicago Zone Manager for Hertz Corporation (Hertz), whose office was located in Des Plaines, Illinois. Hertz was a member of CATRALA, and Workman was a member of the CATRALA Board of Directors. Steigberg told Workman that time was running out regarding House Bill 2025, that the financial burden of $5,000 would fall on the four largest rental car operators, and that Hertz's share was $1,500.
Workman prepared a check drawn on Hertz's petty cash account at a Chicago bank. The check for $1,500 was made payable to Steigberg, and its stub carried the notation that it was drawn for a CATRALA assessment regarding Illinois title law. The check was sent by special delivery mail from the Hertz office in Des Plaines to Steigberg in Springfield.
Steigberg received the check on November 14, 1971. A cover letter from Workman accompanied the check. Steigberg destroyed the cover letter, and telephoned Workman insisting that he also destroy his copy of the letter. 4 After cashing the check at a hotel in Springfield, Steigberg placed the money in an envelope. On the outside of the envelope she wrote "Robert Craig, personal."
Steigberg took the envelope to Craig's office in the State Capitol, but found that Craig had departed for home. Craig's secretary, Sherron Ackley, indicated that she would be flying to Craig's home with some other materials and would take the envelope for Craig with her. Steigberg left the envelope with Ackley.
Some time later Pappas telephoned Craig and asked if they had received the money from the rental car bill. Craig answered affirmatively, and said he'd mail Pappas his share. Two or three days later, Pappas received $600 in cash in the mail.
House Bill 2025 was tabled during the following Spring Session of the General Assembly.
This prosecution has resulted in two previous decisions by this court. United States v. Craig, 528 F.2d 773 (7th Cir. 1976) (Craig I ), and the en banc decision on rehearing reported at 537 F.2d 957 (7th Cir. 1976), cert. denied sub nom. Markert v. United States, 425 U.S. 973, 96 S.Ct. 2171, 48 L.Ed.2d 796 (1976) (Craig II ), dealt with an asserted testimonial privilege of a state legislator in the context of a federal criminal prosecution. In this appeal defendants contend that Craig II should be reexamined, and that the district court's refusal to dismiss the indictment on the ground that Congress did not intend the federal criminal statutes involved in this case to be applicable to state legislators should be reversed.
We recently rejected an identical contention in United States v. Craig, 573 F.2d 455, pp. 489-491 (7th Cir. 1977), a case involving the same appellant Craig as this case, but based on a different prosecution. We also reject the contention here. See also: In Re Grand Jury Proceedings, 563 F.2d 577, 582 (3rd Cir. 1977).
With respect to both counts of the indictment, defendants contend that there is insufficient proof. As to Count One, charging a violation of the Hobbs Act, (18 U.S.C. § 1951), 5 defendants' attack is three- pronged. First, noting that they were charged with conspiracy to obtain money unlawfully from companies belonging to CATRALA, defendants argue that under general conspiracy principles there was no evidence upon which to rest jurisdiction to conduct a trial on the charges in the Northern District of Illinois.
Conspiracy is a substantive federal criminal offense. 18 U.S.C. § 371. Generally, proper venue for a prosecution of the substantive crime of conspiracy lies in the district where the agreement was entered into, Hyde v. Shine, 199 U.S. 62, 25 S.Ct. 760, 50 L.Ed. 90 (1905), or at the place where an overt act to effect the object of one of the conspirators was performed. Hyde v. United States, 225 U.S. 347, 32 S.Ct. 793, 56 L.Ed. 1114 (1912). Pointing out that the evidence in this case showed neither an agreement among the defendants in the Northern District of Illinois, nor an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy in that district, defendants argue that prosecution of a Hobbs Act conspiracy offense in the Northern District of Illinois was based on improper venue. We do not agree.
Federal district courts have exclusive jurisdiction of all offenses against the United States. 18 U.S.C. § 3231. Venue for the prosecution of federal offenses is established by Rule 18, F.R.Crim.P. in the district in which such offense is committed. Rule 18 thus reflects Article III, Section 2, Paragraph 3, of the Constitution, which mandates that criminal trials be "held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed." The Sixth Amendment similarly guarantees a criminal defendant "the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed."
Venue for a Hobbs Act prosecution properly lies in any district where commerce is affected. United States v. Floyd, 228 F.2d 913, 918 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 351 U.S. 938, 76 S.Ct. 835, 100 L.Ed. 1466 (1956). See also: 18 U.S.C. § 3237. In this case the evidence showed that the federal offense of extortion occurred in the Northern District of Illinois because defendants' misdeeds affected commerce 6 in that district. The extorted money was shown to have come from the Hertz Corporation's petty cash fund in Chicago, in the Northern District of Illinois. Hertz Corporation was shown to be a company engaged in interstate commerce within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(b)(3). Because the extortion affected commerce in Chicago, the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois was empowered to entertain that charge, regardless of the fact that defendants may have been prosecuted in another district under venue principles pertaining to conspiracy.
Defendants secondly argue that there was a failure of proof in that Hertz Corporation was shown to be the victim of the extortion, but that Hertz was not named as a victim in the indictment. We understand this contention to mean that there was a fatal variance between the Hobbs Act charge of the indictment and the proof of that charge adduced at trial. We find no such fatal...
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