United States v. Etheridge

• Decision Date: 03 May 1930
• Docket Number: No. 8555.,8555.
• Citation: 41 F.2d 762
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. ETHERIDGE.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Oregon

41 F.2d 762 (1930)

UNITED STATES v. ETHERIDGE.

No. 8555.

District Court, D. Oregon.

May 3, 1930.

George Neuner, U. S. Atty., and J. W. McCulloch, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Portland, Or.

Pipes, Pipes & Pipes, of Portland, Or., for defendant.

BEAN, District Judge.

This suit was commenced in March of 1921, but not brought to trial until April 21 of this year. It is brought under section 15 of the Act of Congress of June 29, 1906 (8 USCA § 405), to set aside a certificate of naturalization issued to the defendant by this court in January, 1918, on the ground that he fraudulently concealed from the court facts material on the hearing. It is alleged in the complaint that the defendant, intending to mislead and deceive the court, fraudulently stated in his petition for naturalization that he entered the United States on February 15, 1903, when in truth and fact his entry was on February 20, 1904, and under the name of John Ladbrooke, and not his true name. (2) That prior to his entry he was convicted and sentenced in an English court for forgery. (3) That after his entry and on October 3, 1905, he was convicted in the state of New Jersey for obtaining money under false pretenses, and sentenced to serve eighteen months in prison at hard labor, and on the 22d day of November, 1907, he was again convicted in that state for a similar offense, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. It is alleged that these facts were concealed from the court and not known to the officers of the government at the time of the hearing of the application for admission, and not learned by them until long subsequent thereto.

The defendant in his answer admits that he entered the United States under the name of John Ladbrooke on the date alleged by plaintiff, but says that his misstatement of the date of his entry in his application for admission was an inadvertence and not fraudulent. The answer also admits that the defendant was convicted and sentenced in the New Jersey courts as alleged in the complaint. It denies, however, that he was convicted of forgery in England, but alleges that on the date and at the place stated in the complaint he was convicted and sentenced for applying for and obtaining the position of curate in the English Church by fraudulently stating and representing in writing that he was a curate of that church, and supporting such application by fictitious letters prepared by him or his associates recommending him for the position.

In view of the admissions in the answer concerning the proceedings in England, and the other admitted facts, it is deemed unnecessary to consider the objections urged to the admission of the purported record of the English court. That defendant intended to and did deceive the court in reference to his entry into the United States under a fictitious name, and perhaps in an attempt to avoid the effect of section 2 of the Act of Congress of March 3, 1903 (32 Stat. 1214), excluding from admission aliens who have been convicted of crime involving moral turpitude, is evidenced by his misstatement in his application of the date of his entry, and the fact that he intended to conceal from the court his convictions and sentences in the state of New Jersey is manifest by his answers to a questionnaire submitted by the Naturalization Department and answered by him prior to the hearing, in which he stated, among other things, that he had resided in Chicago from February, 1903, to October 1912, when as a matter of fact he was confined in prison in the state of New Jersey during a considerable portion of that time. And in answer to an inquiry whether he had ever been arrested or charged with a violation of any law of the United States or state or city ordinance, he answered, "Yes, once in Pennsylvania in 1915, for speeding with an...