United States v. McFarland

• Decision Date: 29 December 1966
• Docket Number: Docket 30695.,No. 245,245
• Citation: 371 F.2d 701
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Henry B. McFARLAND, Appellant,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

371 F.2d 701 (1966)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Henry B. McFARLAND, Appellant,

No. 245, Docket 30695.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued December 7, 1966.

Decided December 29, 1966.

Maurice Edelbaum, New York City, for appellant.

Charles J. Fanning, Asst. U. S. Atty. (Robert M. Morgenthau, U. S. Atty., for the Southern District of New York, Jack Kaplan, Douglas S. Liebhafsky, New York City, on the brief), for appellee.

Before LUMBARD, Chief Judge, and HAYS and FEINBERG, Circuit Judges.

FEINBERG, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Henry B. McFarland was convicted of two counts of perjury before a grand jury in violation of 18 U. S.C. § 1621, after trial by jury in the Southern District of New York. Finding no error in his trial, we affirm the judgment.

Since appellant does not argue insufficiency of evidence, only a brief statement of facts is required. Since 1951, appellant had been the warden of the Hudson County Jail in Jersey City, New Jersey. In January 1965, a grand jury in the Southern District of New York was investigating the transportation of prostitutes from that district to the Hudson County Jail and the use of telephones in connection therewith. Appellant appeared before the grand jury on January 26, 1965, and the following December was indicted for perjury.

The indictment charged, inter alia, that the grand jury was investigating possible violations of the Mann Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2421-2422, and the Federal Communications Act, 47 U.S.C. §§ 203, 501, to determine if those statutes had been violated by transporting women from the Southern District for the purpose of prostitution to the Hudson County Jail, and by the use of interstate telephone facilities in connection with such transportation; that the jury was also investigating possible obstruction of the aforesaid investigation; that it was material to the investigations to ascertain appellant's relationship with one Marilyn Jean Fraser and whether appellant had accepted money from inmates of the jail for granting them special treatment such as use of telephone facilities, special meals and sleeping quarters, and visiting privileges including visits from prostitutes; and that appellant knowingly and under oath stated material matter which he did not believe to be true. There were four counts to the indictment, consisting of specifications of perjury relating to whether appellant (1) knew Miss Fraser; (2) permitted inmates, in return for money, to make telephone calls other than notification to their families that they were in custody; (3) permitted inmates, in return for money, to have special favors, such as special meals, special quarters, and visits from women; and (4) permitted prostitutes to visit one Harold Konigsberg and other inmates. Before the grand jury, appellant flatly denied knowing Miss Fraser or giving such permission. At trial, before the case was submitted to the jury, the first and fourth counts were dismissed for insufficiency of proof. On the second and third counts, there was ample evidence (if believed by the trial jury) that appellant, in return for money, had permitted inmates to make telephone calls and have special favors.¹

Appellant asserts that the dismissed counts were the only ones directly dealing with prostitution² and that their elimination, combined with the alleged irrelevance of the Federal Communications Act to any of the activities under investigation by the grand jury, made the remaining two counts inherently unsuitable for a federal perjury prosecution. Our vagueness in recounting appellant's principal point reflects the cloudiness of the argument. As best we can tell, appellant's claim is that since the Mann Act vanished from the case at the trial stage, the remaining questions and answers could not have been material or constitutionally proper at the grand jury stage because they were only an excursion into non-federal matters.

We think appellant is grossly mistaken as to the purpose and the proper application of the perjury statute that the trial jury found he had violated, 18 U.S.C. § 1621. Essentially, the statute punishes lying under oath before a federal official or tribunal. No claim is made that the Government does not have a constitutionally enforceable interest in prohibiting such perjury. To be within the reach of section 1621, the lies must be material, which in this case means that "the false testimony * * * must have a natural effect or tendency to influence, impede or dissuade the grand jury from pursuing its investigation." United States v. Marchisio, 344 F.2d 653, 665 (2d Cir. 1965), quoting Carroll v. United States, 16 F.2d 951, 953 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 273 U.S. 763, 47 S.Ct. 477, 71 L.Ed. 880 (1927).³ Appellant's crime is thus committed in front of the grand jury, and materiality must be established only as of the time his answers were given. Materiality cannot "vanish" from the case "by the time it is submitted for the Trial Jury's consideration," as appellant contends; "materiality" refers merely to the relationship between the interrogation and the grand jury's objective at the time. Cf. United States v. Siegel, 263 F.2d 530, 533 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 359 U.S. 1012, 79 S.Ct. 1147, 3 L.Ed.2d 1035 (1959). Moreover, despite appellant's casual use of the term, there is no such concept as a "Mann Act perjury" case under section 1621; a charge of lying under oath brought under that provision does not carry a burden of characterization of the lies according to another criminal statute. Once it be conceded that the grand jury was investigating matters within its jurisdiction, materiality to that investigation is the only link the Government must establish between the testimony and the federal criminal law.

Applying these principles to this case, it is apparent that whether appellant was accepting money for allowing inmates unusual telephone privileges (the second count) and special favors (the third count) would have a bearing on an investigation into whether prostitutes were being illegally transported to the jail. Appellant does not seem to deny that the grand jury was investigating possible Mann Act violations. In any event, there is no doubt but that the second and third counts concerned material testimony. It is therefore unnecessary to deal with appellant's additional involved contention that the questions and answers contained in the second and third counts were also not material to possible violations of the Federal Communications Act, an argument that apparently calls for us to overrule United States v. Harris, 334 F.2d 460, 463 (2d Cir. 1964), rev'd on other...