United States v. Masiello
Decision Date | 18 July 1956 |
Docket Number | No. 336,Docket 23917.,336 |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Phillip MASIELLO and Francis Lester Stickel, Defendants-Appellants. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Ferdinand Pecora, New York City (Schwartz & Frohlich, Ludwig Teller, and David H. Horowitz, New York City, on the brief), for defendants-appellants.
Peter Megargee Brown, Sp. Asst. U. S. Atty., S. D. N. Y., New York City (Paul W. Williams, U. S. Atty., New York City, on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee.
Before CLARK, Chief Judge, and FRANK and HINCKS, Circuit Judges.
Certiorari Denied October 22, 1956. See 77 S.Ct. 100.
Defendants appeal from a judgment upon a jury verdict convicting them of conspiracy to affect interstate commerce by extortion in violation of the Anti-Racketeering Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, and sentencing them to five years in prison. Masiello was a business agent, and Stickel the Secretary and Treasurer, of Local No. 445 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL. The members of this local union were employees of milk haulers, who were engaged in transporting milk received from the farms of six neighboring states to the New York metropolitan area. Since these milk haulers were dependent for the uninterrupted progress of their operations upon the receipt of a union contract and upon continuing union good will, they were vulnerable to threats of a work stoppage, made even more portentous because of the perishable nature of their product.
Masiello and Stickel were indicted on a single count of conspiracy, and no evidence implicating other persons was introduced at the trial. Hence, as the jury was told, the government had to prove the guilt of both defendants, or the case against both failed. The evidence that Masiello committed substantive acts of extortion is abundant, as defendants conceded; but they contend that the evidence tending to incriminate Stickel is too tenuous to support the jury's verdict, and that hence both convictions must be reversed. See Turinetti v. United States, 8 Cir., 2 F.2d 15. We cannot agree, for we think that a study of all the evidence reveals a pattern of events from which an intelligent jury could rationally and as a matter of common sense undoubtedly would find Stickel an active participant in this continuing and profitable conspiracy.
By 1949 Stickel was in control of teamster Local No. 445. Although the union had a number of committees, the record indicates that Stickel was in charge of executing collective bargaining contracts with over-the-road milk haulers, members of the Dairy Transport Association, Inc. (DTA). Stickel announced when the contracts would be signed, where, and under what circumstances. He was in a position to exert control over the haulers by the use of crippling strikes against their operations. His was the authority and power necessary to enforce a successful scheme of extortion.
In identical letters, dated May 27, 1949, and sent to the haulers, Stickel stated that an agreement had already been reached between the DTA and Local No. 445. He enclosed copies of the uniform contract and instructed the haulers to come to the union office on June 1 to sign the contract. The letters, signed personally by Stickel as a union officer, ended with the warning that he "expected" the recipient to "sign for us" and "clear up the issues which are holding up completion of our negotiations."1 Although there was evidence that some negotiating had taken place in the spring, there was no evidence that at the time the letters were sent any negotiations lay uncompleted or any issues remained to be cleared up unless it be the claimed payoff to Masiello and Stickel, as asserted by the government.
Four hauler-witnesses testified that Masiello communicated with them at various times before the meeting of June 1 and demanded that they make payments of sums in cash in amounts of either $300 or $500 as the price of receiving the contract. On the appointed day the haulers — those testifying and others — appeared at the union office and were called one by one into a room about 10 × 20 feet in size wherein Stickel was seated behind a table with the contracts piled in front of him. Masiello was also present in the room and, according to some of the witnesses, was seated at the table with Stickel. As one witness put it, the two men were "within handshaking distance" of each other. After Stickel and the hauler had signed the agreement, the hauler either handed a plain white envelope containing the requested cash to Masiello or placed the envelope on the table where the men were seated. Although according to this testimony Stickel did not actively participate in the transfer of cash or take overt notice of it, there was no effort made to conceal the transfer from him.
After the meeting of June 1 Masiello visited one of the participating haulers and told him that a mistake had been made in the amount of money he had handed over in the envelope. This hauler then paid over more cash. Similarly another hauler paid $500 more that year.
In the following three years similar conferences between Masiello and the haulers were followed by the receipt of a union contract by the haulers and the receipt of cash by Masiello. One employer, Turco, paid $2,000 in 1950, $2,500 in 1951, and another $2,500 in 1952. In early 1953, when he temporarily fell behind in his 1952 payments, he was exhorted to hasten his payments by Masiello, who complained that Stickel was anxious to receive the money.
Another hauler, Gilnack, received the letter of May, 1949, but failed to appear at the meeting of June 1. Shortly thereafter a strike of his milk hauling operations began and he hurried to the union headquarters, where Stickel presented him with a contract to sign. Masiello was not then present; but a few weeks later he told Gilnack that Stickel was "impatient" for his money, and Gilnack paid about $750 over a period of several months.
Late in 1949 or early in 1950 Stickel and Masiello visited Gilnack's garage and instructed him to hire an additional employee, one Richard Winters. Gilnack refused on the ground that he needed no further employees; and as a result his operations were struck for four or five days. Then Masiello advised Gilnack to hire one Pizzo, a labor relations counselor, to "straighten the thing out." Later in the presence of Stickel and Masiello, Pizzo told Gilnack that he would have to hire Winters as a shop steward, a union-designated position.
At this time the subject of retroactive pay for Gilnack's employees arose. Pizzo told Gilnack in the presence of both Stickel and Masiello that he would have to pay $1,200 in "retroactive pay." Masiello later at different times and places collected this sum from Gilnack in cash installments. The evidence did not show that any of it ever reached Gilnack's employees, and the inference remained strong that it was of a piece with the other payments made Masiello. Additionally and in a manner similar to that of other employers, Gilnack made further payments of about $750 a year to Masiello in 1950, 1951, and 1952.
Paul F. Hillman, another hauler, in 1949 received a demand from Masiello for $500 as the price of the new contract; and when he received Stickel's letter of May 27 there was "no question" in his mind what its final sentence meant. Still he refused to report for the payoff, and his milk hauling operations were struck at 3:00 a. m. Faced with business disaster unless he got the milk rolling, Hillman reported to Stickel to sign the contract and was then taken downstairs by Masiello, who demanded the money. Feeling "over a barrel" Hillman consented and some time later paid $250 in cash and also an additional sum later in the year. He made other substantial extortion payments in subsequent years.
In 1953 there was a meeting between Stickel and Masiello and Hillman to discuss the transfer of certain union drivers from another local to Local No. 445. In discussing the comments of another union official about such a transfer, Stickel said that this official wanted $10,000 for the transfer of certain Hillman employees; Stickel observed that the official was "crazy asking anything like that."
Then Masiello and Stickel offered their help to Hillman in effecting the necessary transfer. Stickel told Hillman that he (Stickel) "knew everything that Masiello knew." Masiello, in turn, advised Hillman that he (Masiello) "knew everything that Stickel knew." After lunch Masiello took Hillman from the hotel dining room, where they had been sitting, to the lobby, where he demanded $125 per man for the transfer. As a result of the conversation Hillman paid Masiello $500.
In the summer of 1953 after certain of the haulers had complained to the International Union, a telegram was sent to Stickel ordering him to cease negotiations on all milk contracts. After this the conspiracy terminated and no further payments were made.
In December, 1953, Thomas L. Hickey, a vice president of the International Union, took over control of Local No. 445 as a trustee and informed Stickel that the officials of the local union were suspected of running it for their own benefit. Then Masiello told Hickey in the presence of Stickel that he (Masiello) would take the "rap" if Hickey would "lay off Stickel." Later Stickel approached Hickey with the suggestion that he go along with the "deal" offered by Masiello. Elaborating, Stickel specified that Masiello would "take the rap" if Hickey would "lay off Stickel" and "let Stickel go free."
The question presented is whether or not on the basis of all the evidence, of which the above is a summary of the more important elements, it was proper to submit the case for the determination of the jury. The defense offered no evidence and the defendants did not take...
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