United States v. Lawrenson, Crim. No. 24975.

• Decision Date: 25 October 1962
• Docket Number: Crim. No. 24975.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Charles Edward LAWRENSON.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

210 F. Supp. 422

UNITED STATES of America v. Charles Edward LAWRENSON.

Crim. No. 24975.

United States District Court D. Maryland.

October 25, 1962.

Joseph D. Tydings, U. S. Atty., Robert W. Kernan and Benjamin R. Civiletti, Asst. U. S. Attys., Baltimore, Md., for plaintiff.

Morgan L. Amaimo, Baltimore, Md., for defendant.

THOMSEN, Chief Judge.

Lawrenson has now filed several new motions, namely: (1) a second motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, in which he seeks to remedy the weakness of a former motion for a new trial, which was denied by this court, with the denial affirmed on appeal; (2) a motion under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 to vacate and set aside the judgment and sentence, which raises a number of points, most of which are similar to the points included in his former motion to vacate and correct the sentence; (3) a motion for leave to examine the grand jury records and for other discovery under Rules 16 and 6, F.R.Crim.P.; and (4) a supplementary motion under sec. 2255 raising questions as to his sanity at the time of the crime and of his competency to stand trial.

The evidence at the original trial and the evidence at the hearing on the former motion for new trial are summarized in the opinion of the Fourth Circuit, which disposed of the direct appeal, the former motion for a new trial and the former motion to vacate and correct the sentence. United States v. Lawrenson, 4 Cir., 298 F.2d 880 et seq. A petition for certiorari therefrom was denied. 370 U.S. at 947, 82 S.Ct. 1594, 8 L.Ed.2d 812. See also, Lawrenson v. Anderson, 370 U.S. 932, 82 S.Ct. 1621, 8 L.Ed.2d 832 and Lawrenson v. Reid, 370 U.S. 962, 82 S. Ct. 1620, 8 L.Ed.2d 829 and United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. v. Lawrenson, 4 Cir., 298 F.2d 890, cert. den. 370 U.S. 913, 82 S.Ct. 1260, 8 L.Ed.2d 406.

At the trial and on appeal Lawrenson was represented by court-appointed counsel. At the hearing on the present motions he was represented by counsel of his own choosing. He conferred with his counsel before each session and during the examination of witnesses, and argued some points himself.

(1) Motion for New Trial

The evidence which resulted in Lawrenson's conviction is set out in the opinion of the Fourth Circuit on the former appeals in this case. United States v. Lawrenson, 298 F.2d at 882, 883.

The present "motion for a new trial based on the ground of newly discovered evidence" is based on a statement signed by Robert Cutler. The previous motion, which was denied by this court with the denial affirmed on appeal, 298 F.2d at 886-888, was also based on a statement made by Cutler. When Cutler was called as a witness at this hearing on the pending motion, as at the former hearing, he claimed his Fifth Amendment privilege on all questions relating to the giving of the statement and its contents. However, counsel for the Government and counsel for Lawrenson, with Lawrenson's approval, agreed that the Court should receive and consider all statements made by Cutler orally or in writing to any of Lawrenson's witnesses or to agents of the FBI, and to determine therefrom whether Lawrenson is entitled to a new trial under the controlling rules of law, which are stated in Mills v. United States, 4 Cir., 281 F.2d 736, 738, and United States v. Lawrenson, supra, 298 F.2d at pp. 886-887.

On the evidence offered by Lawrenson and by the Government on the present motion for new trial, I find the facts as set out below.

After the hearing in this Court on the first motion for new trial, and pending the appeal therefrom, Mrs. Lawrenson kept in touch with Cutler and sent him money on several occasions, once to get him out of the jail in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

On January 9, 1962, the opinion of the Fourth Circuit on Lawrenson's original appeal was filed. The contents of Cutler's former statement, which was sworn to by him, and the circumstances under which it was obtained, are set out in the opinions, 298 F.2d at pp. 886-888. Speaking through Judge Bell, the Fourth Circuit said: "All that Cutler's statements in the affidavit tend to prove is that he (Cutler) participated in the preparations for the robbery. It shows, if true, that he put the clothes, the pistol and gas pistol in defendant's car, and that he (Cutler) got Couch to purchase ammunition for the pistol, the receipt for which was later found on defendant's person. This mere implication of Cutler in the preparations for the robbery is not sufficient to disprove defendant's participation in it. It merely shows that there were three persons involved instead of only two. Defendant claims that since only two persons entered the bank, Cutler's testimony would necessarily have excluded defendant as a participant. This is not so, for it does not appear from the affidavit that Cutler would have, or could have, testified that he took part in the actual robbery." 298 F.2d at 887 (emphasis in original).

Lawrenson promptly took steps to obtain an affidavit which would cure those defects. He was then in the District of Columbia jail. Also detained there was a lawyer named William L. Burke, and Mrs. Lawrenson was a frequent visitor. Mrs. Lawrenson communicated with Cutler, who was then in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and promised to pay him $3,000.00 if he would sign a statement that Lawrenson had nothing to do with the robbery, but that it had been staged and planned by Couch and himself (Cutler). She promised to pay an additional $17,000.00 if and when Lawrenson should be released. Burke got out of jail in February, prepared a form of affidavit, and mailed two copies thereof to Cutler. In sending the paper to Cutler, Burke did not refer to Mrs. Lawrenson's offer. Cutler signed one copy and sent it to Mrs. Lawrenson under her alias of Ruth Harris. He did not swear to the statement because he did not wish to be guilty of perjury.¹ The letter which Cutler wrote and forwarded with the statement, and which was offered in evidence by Lawrenson, asked for money for his expenses to Washington, and continued: "As you see I stand 5 years from Ohio, 1-5 years in Texas and whatever happens up there. I have a wife and I lover her and if anything happens to me on this bak robery you are going to send her mony ever week." Mrs. Lawrenson sent Cutler a plane ticket from El Paso to Washington and $35 for his expenses "across the river", but he has never received the $3,000. Lawrenson attached a copy of Cutler's statement and letter to his present motion for a new trial, which he filed herein on April 12, 1962.

Before that date, however, Cutler had been arrested in Texas for a felony theft committed there in November 1961, and on April 5, 1962, he made a voluntary statement to Special Agent Quiroz of the FBI at El Paso. Cutler said in substance: that he wished to complete his prison term as rapidly as possible in order to begin a new life with his Mexican wife in Mexico; that he was willing to testify in court (a) that the following persons were conspirators in the robbing of the Mechanicsville Bank, namely, Robert Couch, Edward Lawrenson, Katherine Merrick, a cab driver, a delicatessen store worker and Paul C. McCray, and (b) that Mrs. Lawrenson had agreed to pay him $3,000 (plus a conditional $17,000 if her husband were released) for a statement indicating that Edward Lawrenson was innocent, which he said he had signed on February 28, 1962, but which he said was not true and which he had signed "just to get the money".²

The Baltimore office of the FBI requested that a signed statement be obtained from Cutler, and such a statement was obtained on May 2, 1962. Material parts thereof are set out below.³

At the hearing on the present motion, Lawrenson testified and called as witnesses Cutler, Mrs. Lawrenson, three of his former court-appointed attorneys and Robert L. Venable. The Government called Special Agents Gerald N. Smith, of Baltimore, who was assigned to the Lawrenson case, and Robert A. Wiatt, of Houston, who obtained the May 2 statement from Cutler. It is unnecessary to summarize all of this testimony. On the stand Cutler refused to answer questions about either the robbery or his statements, claiming his Fifth Amendment privilege on advice of counsel. Mrs. Lawrenson told of an oral statement which she said Cutler made to her, and denied having made the promises which Cutler told the FBI she had made. I do not believe her testimony. Much of it was inconsistent with other evidence, improbable or both. She was not a credible witness.⁴ Lawrenson testified to a conversation he said he had had with Cutler in the lock-up during the hearing on his former motion for new trial. Lawrenson made no reference to such a conversation with Cutler at the hearing on that motion or on his appeal. I find Lawrenson's testimony incredible. He admitted three previous convictions, two for forgery and one for "violation of the FHA act".

Lawrenson's former attorneys, called as witnesses by him, denied that Cutler had ever admitted to them that he (Cutler) had committed the robbery with Couch, or told them that Lawrenson had not participated therein.

Venable was in the lock-up, having been arrested on several robbery charges, when Cutler was brought back there from the courtroom. Venable testified that Cutler had said: "`When you get over there tell him for $3,000 I will get him a new trial and get him kicked loose'". Venable continued: "I said, `What makes you think you can get him a new trial?' He said, `Well, the guy is not good for the rap, but I am going to make him pay anyhow.' That is the extent of it." Of the three possibilities — that Cutler made those remarks, made no such remarks, or made a different remark which Venable misunderstood — I find the last to be most probable.

For a number of reasons I find the signed statement sent by Cutler to Mrs. Lawrenson on February 28, 1962, to be utterly incredible and untrue. I am satisfied that the statement which Cutler gave to Reno, one of Lawrenson's court-app...