United States v. Bradwell, 230

• Citation: 388 F.2d 619
• Decision Date: 19 January 1968
• Docket Number: Docket 30762.,No. 230,230
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Robert BRADWELL, Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)

388 F.2d 619 (1968)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Robert BRADWELL, Appellant.

No. 230, Docket 30762.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued January 3, 1968.

Decided January 19, 1968.

Gerald F. Stevens, Milford, Conn., for appellant.

Samuel J. Heyman, Asst. U. S. Atty. (Jon O. Newman, U. S. Atty., J. Daniel Sagarin, Asst. U. S. Atty., New Haven, Conn.), for appellee.

Before LUMBARD, Chief Judge, and MOORE and FRIENDLY, Circuit Judges.

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge:

Robert Bradwell, after being acquitted in the District Court for Connecticut of various violations of the Mann Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2421, 2423 and 371, because of lack of proof of interstate transportation, was indicted in the same court, and convicted after trial before Chief Judge Timbers and a jury, of having endeavored to obstruct the administration of justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503. His first indictment had resulted from a Bridgeport grand jury's investigation of interstate transportation, including prostitution, in aid of racketeering enterprises, begun in August 1965, in which Bradwell had been a prime suspect.

An FBI agent testified at the trial below that he had several interviews, near the end of November 1965, with James McElroy, a former employee of Bradwell, who provided "very pertinent information" about him; that, as a result, McElroy was called before the grand jury on December 7; that the agent instructed he might be recalled before the grand jury or at trial of the Mann Act charges; and that he was so recalled in March 1966. McElroy testified that while he was sitting at a Bridgeport snack counter on the evening of December 18, 1965, Bradwell and a woman entered, and the former said, "Some of you niggers are going to get killed if you don't stop talking to the Feds." Later Bradwell returned alone and told McElroy, "I know what you said — told the Grand Jury, every word to word." Against this, Bradwell testified he had been hunting with two friends on December 18, had returned home after 8 P.M. and did not leave his house that evening. One of the friends corroborated this up to 9 P.M., and another male acquaintance carried the confirmation up to 10 P.M.

Bradwell's first complaint, that the judge allowed the jury to learn that the grand jury investigation and the first indictment concerned his promotion of prostitution, requires little discussion. In order to show that a defendant has intimidated a witness in a grand jury investigation, it is appropriate for the Government to establish a motive by connecting him with the objects of the investigation. See United States v. Knohl, 379 F.2d 427, 438-439 (2 Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 973, 88 S.Ct. 472, 19 L.Ed. 2d 465 (1967). Moreover, in order that the jury may assess the intensity of his motive, it should know the nature of the offense under investigation and the extent of the defendant's involvement; limiting the Government to a mysterious statement that the defendant was somehow connected with an investigation into some unidentified crime would unduly hamper its presentation. While allowing such proof in an obstruction case inevitably entails danger that the jury may convict the defendant for the crime previously investigated, this is a matter for cautionary instructions by the judge and here these were given in ample measure.

Bradwell's second point concerns the evidence of Jean Brice, another former employee. She testified, over proper objection, that in February 1965 FBI agents interviewed her in Baltimore concerning her work as a prostitute for Bradwell in Bridgeport and that, pursuant to subpoena, she gave evidence on that subject before the grand jury in August 1965 and at Bradwell's Mann Act trial in March 1966. She said also that a nephew of Bradwell came to see her in Baltimore a few weeks after her grand jury testimony; that they returned together to Bradwell's "house" in Bridgeport; and that Bradwell told her she was getting herself "into a lot of trouble by talking so much" to the FBI. The "trouble" allegedly would come from friends of another prospective defendant against whom she had also testified; Bradwell told Brice he knew how they operate and, in her descriptive words, "I could find myself in the East River one morning and nobody would ever know what had happened to me." Bradwell then discussed her grand jury testimony about him and said she "was definitely wrong in one particular phase of my testimony, that he had not picked me up at one particular time but had picked me up at another," and suggested that she straighten out this and another statement. Later Bradwell and the nephew escorted Brice to the office of a lawyer — not the attorney who has capably represented Bradwell in this case — and she dictated a statement along the lines he had suggested.¹

Before admitting this testimony the court asked defense counsel if he was willing to have the case submitted to the jury on the simple issue of Bradwell's having made the statement...