United States v. Haller

• Decision Date: 07 July 1964
• Docket Number: No. 339,Docket 28617.,339
• Citation: United States v. Haller, 333 F.2d 827 (2nd Cir. 1964)
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Karl HALLER and Maria Haller, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

333 F.2d 827 (1964)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Karl HALLER and Maria Haller, Appellants.

No. 339, Docket 28617.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued April 6, 1964.

Decided July 7, 1964.

Charles A. Stillman, Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City (Robert M. Morgenthau, U. S. Atty. for the Southern District of New York, and Peter Fleming, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City, on the brief), for appellee.

George J. Kambur, New Orleans, La. (Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine, New York City, on the brief), for appellants.

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

LUMBARD, Chief Judge.

These appeals by Karl and Maria Haller from their convictions in the Southern District of New York for mail fraud, fraud by wire, and conspiracy, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1343 and 371, and from sentences of one year's imprisonment, raise three questions: (1) whether the proof was sufficient to support the convictions, (2) whether the defendants were denied their right to a speedy trial, and (3) whether the court should have granted a continuance to permit the defense to take the deposition of a foreign witness. We find ample proof to support the jury's verdict. As we find that the delay in trial was almost entirely at the behest of the defendants, and that the trial judge committed no error in refusing to grant a further continuance, we affirm the convictions.

The record contains ample evidence to support the convictions, as the jury could have found the facts to be as we now summarize them: The advertisement which Karl Haller placed in late August 1958 in the Staats Zeitung and Herold, and which solicited private investment of from $5,000 to $10,000 in a business venture, came through the mail to a fellow employee of Walter and Maria Roos. When the Rooses responded by mail the Hallers visited them and explained that Karl Haller wanted to open a candy factory in New York, that they already had a factory located on the Hudson River, that they were then operating a candy factory in Los Angeles but summer heat and transportation costs made shipments to New York impractical. They gave the Rooses a bag of candy which they said had come from the Los Angeles factory. The Hallers said they needed the money within two days and the Rooses withdrew $4,456 which they had in two savings banks and paid it to the Hallers on September 11, 1958. In return the Rooses received Karl Haller's promissory note and a contract written in German which provided they might withdraw their money after twelve months.

All of these representations and many more were false and known to the Hallers to be false. This was in large part confirmed by Karl Haller, who testified in his own behalf. He said that he did not know what had been done with the money, but that it had been given to his wife, never used for the business in which the Rooses thought they were investing, and never returned. Maria Haller did not testify.

The Hallers' subsequent evasions led the Rooses to complain to the postal inspectors. Finally, on December 8, 1958, when the Hallers appeared in Lindenhurst at an attorney's office to confer with one Cavaglieri with respect to renting, with an option to buy for $50,000, a factory Cavaglieri had used for manufacturing noodles and sauces, they were met by postal inspectors who accompanied them to Manhattan where they were held to answer charges in an indictment which had been filed in the Southern District of New York on November 14.

The Hallers...