U.S. v. Hathaway

Citation534 F.2d 386
Decision Date24 March 1976
Docket NumberNos. 75-1352,75-1353,s. 75-1352
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Stephen HATHAWAY, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Howard BAPTISTA, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

C. Thomas Zinni and Morris M. Goldings, Boston, Mass., with whom Corinne Gehr, and Alan Rindler, Boston, Mass. (of counsel), were on brief, for appellants.

Steven J. Brooks, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom James N. Gabriel, U. S. Atty., Edward J. Lee, Kevin J. O'Dea, and Alan D. Rose, Asst. U. S. Attys., Boston, Mass., were on brief, for appellee.

Before COFFIN, Chief Judge, and McENTEE and CAMPBELL, Circuit Judges.

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge.

Defendants Hathaway and Baptista were charged in a six-count indictment with substantive and conspiracy violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1951, the Hobbs Act, and 18 U.S.C. § 1952, the Travel Act. Both were convicted of all charges after an eight-day jury trial.

The Government contended that defendants extorted money from Meridian Engineering, Inc. (Meridian), in return for the award of two contracts by the New Bedford, Massachusetts, Redevelopment Authority (Authority), of which Baptista was Executive Director. Meridian was a design, engineering, and construction management firm with its principal office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1971, the Authority awarded Meridian a no-bid contract for the West End Urban Redevelopment Project (WEP), and in the summer of 1972 it awarded Meridian a contract for the Neighborhood Development Project (NDP). Both of those contracts were allegedly arranged at meetings between Baptista and Thomas A. Graham, the President of Meridian.

Graham, testifying under a grant of immunity, 18 U.S.C. § 6003, was the Government's chief witness. He testified that Meridian first came in contact with the Authority in early 1971, when Meridian worked on WEP as a subcontractor for the project consultant, Lucas & Edwards, Inc., a New York planning firm. Meridian became interested in doing its own engineering and design work for the Authority as a "follow-on" to the planning services performed by Lucas & Edwards, Inc. Graham therefore met with William Lucas of Lucas & Edwards, Inc., to discuss a WEP contract for Meridian. From Lucas, Graham gained the impression that to procure a WEP contract for Meridian, he would have to pay a sum of money to Baptista, whom he had never met. A meeting of Graham, Lucas and Baptista was arranged, and Graham and Lucas flew to New Bedford.

At the meeting, the topics of discussion were the WEP contract and the payment of money by Meridian to Baptista for that contract. Graham testified that he proposed the sum of $25,000, slightly in excess of 10% of the contract amount, and that Baptista agreed to it. Prior to the meeting, Graham had drawn up a schedule for the payments, which would number four, laying out four payment dates, the amounts to be paid to Baptista on each date, and a Meridian project to which the amounts would be charged. Baptista gave Graham four blank invoices, bearing Hathaway's letterhead, for the purpose of charging and covering up these payments.

During the meeting, Baptista mentioned another Authority project, the NDP. He told Graham that the contract would be coming up in the following year and that he was interested in Meridian doing a good job on WEP so that it could be considered for the later project.

Graham testified that he agreed to make the payments because otherwise Meridian would not have received the WEP contract.

After returning to Philadelphia, Graham caused the blank Hathaway invoices 1 to be filled in with Meridian's address, a statement of work "performed", i. e., labor, materials, or equipment that Hathaway allegedly furnished, and the amount due. The amounts were charged against other Meridian jobs. The project managers for each of those jobs testified that no Stephen Hathaway supplied any materials or did any work on those jobs. The invoices and the schedule which Graham had drawn up were given to Meridian's comptroller, who placed them in a cash flow file with instructions to mail the checks on the dates noted and to file the entries against the invoices. In all, four checks were made out to Stephen Hathaway pursuant to the invoices and were signed by Carl Sinibaldi, the head of Meridian's accounting department and Graham's brother-in-law. The company practice was to enclose copies of invoices with all checks. It was testified that the checks were then sent to 59 Raymond Street in Manchester, Massachusetts, the address on the invoices, although Margaret R. Hathaway, who resided at that address during 1971 and 1972, herself testified that Stephen Hathaway had left that residence permanently in 1964, and that no mail had come for him there since 1970.

Graham testified that he saw Baptista again in July, 1971, at Baptista's office, and asked if the first check had been received and if the procedure being used was satisfactory. Baptista stated that it was and that he had received the first payment.

Work was begun on the project even before the contract was actually signed. Graham testified that although it was very rare to begin so early, Meridian went ahead as he had received a letter of assurance from Baptista that Meridian would be awarded the contract at the next board meeting. The Authority did in fact award the contract to Meridian at that board meeting in August, 1971.

The following summer, in early August, 1972, Graham again met with Baptista at his Authority office in New Bedford to discuss the NDP contract. This meeting was arranged by either Graham or one of his staff, not by Baptista. Graham testified that before leaving Philadelphia he prepared a schedule similar to the one used in 1971. 2 At the meeting, according to Graham's testimony, he told Baptista that he had learned from Caesar Wheeler, Meridian's WEP project manager, that Meridian was not going to receive the NDP contract. Baptista replied that he was under local pressure to award the contract to a local firm. Graham suggested that they work out an arrangement as before and offered $5,000, using the same procedure. Baptista replied that he thought he could swing the contract for Meridian, and that $5,000 would be satisfactory. Graham asked for another set of blank invoices, and Baptista gave him some more with Hathaway's letterhead. Graham showed Baptista the schedule he had prepared, listing four payments totalling $5,000 and the projects to which the amounts would be charged. Graham testified that he again agreed to pay the money since he believed that Meridian would not receive the contract otherwise. The Authority approved Meridian for the NDP engineering work in September, 1972.

As before these invoices were filled out and given to Meridian's accounting department to pay. Again, the managers of the projects to which the charges were billed testified that Stephen Hathaway was in no way involved. Checks were made payable to Stephen Hathaway and sent to the address on the invoices, Box 121, West Roxbury Post Office, West Roxbury, Massachusetts. The first check was sent to that address but was lost. 3 A replacement check and the remaining three checks were sent to the old Manchester address.

The records of the West Roxbury post office gave no indication of Box 121 ever having been assigned to Stephen Hathaway since 1969; nor was there any notation that any mail had been forwarded to Stephen Hathaway since 1969. However, the postal clerk in charge of box mail at the post office between 1970 and 1974 testified that he was personally familiar with the name Stephen Hathaway, although not the person, and recollected that Hathaway had been a box holder of Box 121. He also recalled having forwarded Hathaway's mail to South Road in Deerfield, New Hampshire, although the last time had been four or five years earlier. The postmaster of Deerfield testified that she knew Hathaway, that he had received mail there within the past six years, and that she had forwarded his mail to Biddeford, Maine, where Hathaway was listed as a postal patron.

However uncertain the chain of mail delivery, it was clearly established that all eight Meridian checks bore a single endorsement, the name Stephen Hathaway, and that all were cashed at the Southeastern Bank in New Bedford. Hathaway had no account at that bank but he was known to the bank employees since he often cashed checks there, probably more than forty since 1969. The bank allowed non-depositors to transact business there if they were first introduced by someone known to the bank. It was brought out that Hathaway had originally been introduced to Robert LeVesque, Senior Vice-President and Controller of the bank, by Baptista, a director and officer. LeVesque testified that Hathaway's normal routine when cashing checks there was to have Jackie McDonald, Baptista's secretary, first call ahead and tell the bank that he was coming over and to have the amount of the check ready for him. Hathaway cashed checks there ranging anywhere from $200 or $300 to.$19,000 or $20,000. Ms. McDonald testified that she did not do this only for Hathaway, but that she communicated with the bank quite often on behalf of various contractors and tenants of the Authority who were also non-depositors there.

Francine Tavares, the head teller, testified that she had personally cashed two of the Meridian checks, identifying her stamp on them. She also identified Hathaway in the courtroom. She recalled on one occasion seeing Hathaway speaking with Baptista in the bank lobby, and she saw Baptista there a number of times.

Hathaway in fact never performed any work for the Authority. There was no evidence of personal contact between Graham and Hathaway, and Graham testified he was not even certain that Hathaway existed until the investigation of the case was under way.

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