United States v. Hill

• Decision Date: 01 October 1982
• Docket Number: Crim. No. 79-161.
• Citation: 550 F. Supp. 983
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Paul HILL.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

550 F. Supp. 983

UNITED STATES of America v. Paul HILL.

Crim. No. 79-161.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

October 1, 1982.

Howard Klein, John Rosenberg, Asst. U.S. Attys., Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff.

Hardy Williams, Philadelphia, Pa., for defendant.

OPINION

DITTER, District Judge.

Paul Hill was convicted for a second time of five counts of distributing heroin. His post-trial motions contend the second trial was barred by collateral estoppel and double jeopardy, and that there was error in pre-trial and trial rulings. For the reasons which follow, his motions must be denied.

Because the facts have been discussed in my prior opinion, 481 F.Supp. 558 (E.D.Pa. 1979), reversed and remanded, 655 F.2d 512 (3d Cir.1981),¹ I will only mention them briefly. Hill was employed as a clothing salesman for Krass Bros. in Philadelphia. On March 9, 1979, Hill was approached by Ian Daniels, a government informant, who inquired about purchasing heroin. Thereafter, on March 13, 1979, Hill gave Daniels a small sample of heroin. Daniels gave the sample to his superiors at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who, after chemical analysis, determined Hill had access to high quality heroin. Because heroin of such quality usually comes from someone close to the source of importation, the DEA, through Daniels and other government agents, arranged purchases of heroin from Hill and Leonard Newton on March 14, 29, April 23, June 12, and June 18, 1979. Hill and Newton were arrested during the June 18, 1979, sale.²

Hill was indicted on six counts of distributing heroin and aiding and abetting in violation of Title 21, United States Code, section 841(a)(1), and Title 18, United States Code, section 2(a), and one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin.³ Rather than deny the acts which constituted the offense, Hill claimed he was entrapped by government agents. In September, 1979, a jury found Hill not guilty of conspiracy (Count 1) and one distribution count relating to March 13, 1979, (Count 2), and guilty on the remaining five counts (Counts 3-7). Ruling that I had "misapprehended" the nature of an offer of proof and "applied too restrictive a view to such offered testimony," the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case for a new trial. United States v. Hill, 655 F.2d 512, 514 (3d Cir. 1981).

Shortly after the mandate from the Court of Appeals was filed on October 6, 1981, the Government expressed its intention to retry Hill on the five distribution counts. On February 1, 1982, literally on the eve of the second trial, Hill filed a motion to dismiss based on the doctrine of collateral estoppel as it applies to criminal cases, and double jeopardy. I denied that motion as frivolous. After an eight day trial, Hill was found guilty on all counts.

Hill first asserts I erred in ruling against his collateral estoppel contentions. His basic argument as to collateral estoppel was advanced in three ways:

First, Hill moved to dismiss the indictment maintaining that the jury's verdict of not guilty on the conspiracy count constituted a finding that he had been entrapped and remained entrapped during the time span of the alleged conspiracy which encompassed each of the distribution counts. Because of his contention that the issue of his criminal intent during the conspiracy was found in his favor at the first trial, Hill argued the second trial forced him to relitigate that issue.⁴ Additionally, and as part of his motion to dismiss, Hill maintained that the not guilty verdict as to the conspiracy would require preclusion at trial of all evidence that tended to prove the conspiracy regardless of whether it tended to prove the five distributions, because of necessity, he had defended against that evidence successfully at the first trial.

Second, Hill made basically the same argument in objecting to the introduction of evidence at trial, contending that any evidence which would tend to show the existence of matters referred to in the conspiracy count could not be offered because of the not guilty verdict at the first trial. Preclusion of such evidence would have effectively barred reprosecution on all five distribution counts and would have led to a directed verdict for Hill at the second trial.

Third, Hill asserted that any evidence which would show there had been a conspiracy or that would show there had been a distribution on March 13, 1979, could not be received because all facts pertaining to those charges were resolved in his favor at the first trial, he was not being tried on those matters, and therefore evidence concerning them was irrelevant.⁵

I denied his motion to dismiss and overruled his objections to the evidence, but did rule that any evidence which pertained solely to the conspiracy or solely to the distribution on March 13 could not be received.⁶ There was no error in these rulings.

Collateral estoppel "has the dual purpose of protecting litigants from the burden of relitigating an identical issue with the same party or his privy and of promoting judicial economy by preventing needless litigation ..." United States v. Keller, 624 F.2d 1154, 1157 (3d Cir.1980), quoting Parklane Hosiery Co. v. Shore, 439 U.S. 322, 326, 99 S.Ct. 645, 649, 58 L.Ed.2d 552 (1979). In Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970), the Supreme Court "found a constitutional basis for the collateral estoppel doctrine in the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy."⁷United States v. Keller, supra, "As applied in criminal cases collateral estoppel has been used to bar not only reprosecution, ... but also evidence of crimes of which the defendant had been acquitted in prior prosecutions." United States v. Keller, supra, 624 F.2d at 1157.

Where a previous judgment of acquittal was based upon a general verdict, as is usually the case, this approach requires a court to examine the record of a prior proceeding, taking into account the pleadings, evidence, charge, and other relevant matter, and conclude whether a rational jury could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consideration.

Ashe v. Swenson, supra, 397 U.S. at 444, 90 S.Ct. at 1194, quoting Sealfon v. United States, 332 U.S. 575, 579, 68 S.Ct. 237, 240, 92 L.Ed. 180. Evidence introduced in the trial leading to acquittal can be reintroduced in a second trial provided the court finds the fact "which defendant sought to bar was not previously determined in defendant's favor by the acquittal verdict." United States v. Keller, supra, 624 F.2d at 1158-59 n. 4; see also United States v. Venable, supra; United States v. Castro-Castro, 464 F.2d 336 (9th Cir.1972), cert. denied 410 U.S. 916, 93 S.Ct. 971, 35 L.Ed.2d 278 (1973).

As I previously noted, Hill first moved to dismiss the indictment and when that motion was denied, moved to preclude the introduction of all evidence, advancing what was essentially the same collateral estoppel argument in support of both motions. In essence, he contended that the not guilty verdict on the conspiracy count proved he had been entrapped during the entire time period of the conspiracy which encompassed the distributions subject to retrial because each of them was alleged as an overt act in the conspiracy count. Thus, Hill argued, no evidence could be received as to his criminal intent on the five distribution counts for which he was being tried because all issues pertaining to the conspiracy had been resolved in his favor by the jury at his first trial. Of course, Hill made this argument despite the fact that that jury had also found him guilty as to these same five distribution counts.

In view of Hill's assertion that collateral estoppel precludes the introduction of evidence as to matters decided at the first trial, I must examine the "pleadings, evidence, charge, and other relevant matter" to determine exactly what was decided there. If a rational jury at the first trial could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than the one that Hill sought to foreclose at his second trial, that issue should not have been foreclosed. Ashe v. Swenson, supra. It is apparent that an articulation of Hill's argument demonstrates its fallacy. Hill wanted me to foreclose all evidence at the second trial, not just evidence as to those issues decided in his favor. What was foreclosed by the jury's verdict on the conspiracy count and the March 13, 1979, distribution count was a retrial of the essential elements of each. But that is all. The same jury which said he was not guilty on those two counts said he was guilty on the other five. Although it is true that entrapment was the sole basis of Hill's defense at the first trial, the not guilty verdicts on counts I and II did not establish that he was entrapped and thus foreclose that issue from consideration at retrial. First, I charged as to the essential elements of conspiracy and distribution, telling the jury it had to be satisfied as to the proof of each element of each offense beyond a reasonable doubt if there was to be a conviction. Thus, the jury may simply have decided one or more elements of these two offenses had not been established. See e.g. United States v. Venable, supra, 585 F.2d at 78. Secondly, the jury may have simply reached a compromise to resolve conflicting viewpoints in the jury room. Thirdly, it is quite possible that the jury concluded it would be unfair to convict Hill of a serious crime in view of the fact that only a small amount of heroin was given to Daniels on March 13 and no money was exchanged. The fourth possibility is that the jury concluded Hill was entrapped on March 13 simply because Daniels was the first to bring up the subject of heroin. The point is that it is impossible to say the jury's verdicts established Hill must have been entrapped as to Counts I and II — much less can they form the basis for an extension of those verdicts to the other five counts....