An appellate court is not a performing bear, required to dance to each and every tune played on an appeal. Here appellant raises twenty-nine challenges to a judgment of conviction. However, we find the challenges to fit into five categories and will discuss each category. Any of the twenty-nine issues raised and not discussed in any of the five categories can be deemed to lack sufficient merit or importance to warrant individual attention.
I. CHALLENGES TO SUFFICIENCY OF INDICTMENT.
The indictment by the grand jury stated that “the offense charged and the acts stated were contrary to sec.
The charging portion of the indictment charged that the defendants and the coconspirators “did feloniously engage in an unlawful combination and conspiracy intended to restrain competition in the supply or price of an article or commodity.” Before the first trial,
2
the Honorable W. L. JACKMAN held that waste removal was not “an article or commodity” and therefore was not within the scope of the second sentence, but that the indictment alleged acts which, “if true, would constitute a violation of sec. 133.01(1), particularly, the first sentence.” Before the second trial, the trial judge, the Honorable NORRIS MALONEY, granted the state’s motion to amend the indictment to state that “the defendants . . . did . . . engage in an unlawful combination and conspiracy to restrain trade or commerce in this state.” This amendment did no more than incorporate into the language of the indictment Judge JACKMAN’S earlier order that the indictment charged an offense under the first sentence of sec. 133.01 (1). In effect, the amendment
The amendment here permitted was in the nature of a formal deletion of words, not a substitution of one charge for another. Deleted was the reference to the second sentence of sec. 133.01(1). Eemaining was reference to the first sentence of that statute. The test in this state is whether the defendant was prejudiced by this change. 3 As with an information, an indictment must inform the accused of what particular acts he is alleged to have committed. 4 Notice to the accused, not perfection in draftsmanship, is the key. Thus, where an indictment enables the defendant to understand the offense charged so that he can prepare his defense, “designation even of a completely wrong statute has been held not to vitiate an information or indictment.” 5 Similarly, our court refused to quash an indictment which cited a relevant statute but failed to include one element of the crime where the defendant and the jury were apprised of the elements that the state would need to prove to get a conviction. 6
The important question is whether the indictment charged a crime under the first sentence of sec. 133.01 (1), Stats. The defendant contends that the state antitrust statute cannot be applied to customer allocation or price fixing in service industries because of the existence of the second sentence.
7
It is contended that because the second sentence prohibits restraints in the supply or price only of articles or commodities, garbage haulers, and others in service industries, can fix prices and allocate territories with impunity. This contention was raised in the
Milwaukee Braves Case.
8
While the
Braves
decision ultimately rested on other grounds, as to the claim that the second sentence restricts the meaning of the first, this court concluded: “[T]he insertion of the second sentence in 1921 did not limit the broad language of the
It is true, as the defendant asserts, that in the
Braves Case
the court also said: “[T]he first sentence of sec. 138.01(1), Stats., still embraces other types of restraint of trade not specifically enumerated or described.”'
10
But to read this sentence as meaning that all restraints “enumerated” in the second sentence are excluded from the first is not consistent with the
Braves Case
as a whole. The Major League’s concerted refusal to deal with the Milwaukee Brewers was one act for which the League was convicted, and that act was a restraint on the supply of a service-baseball in Milwaukee. In the
Braves Case
we did not find that the first sentence prohibition against this restraint on trade was erased by the fact that this practice also affected the price or supply of a service. While the
Braves Case
held only that the second sentence did not, by reason of its reference to articles or commodities, limit the subject of the first sentence, we now hold that the specific activities prohibited by the second sentence are also prohibited by the first. This holding is particularly apt where, as here, the conspiracy alleged goes well beyond an agreement to fix prices. While impact upon prices is involved, conspiracy here alleged was basically an allocation of customers. One party to the conspiracy was to be given territorial-type rights to a particular customer, including state and federal agencies of government, while the other parties were to submit noncompetitive bids to insure that this allocation of “turf” was not upset. In holding that the second sentence of the statute is but one non-exclusory example of conduct prohibited by the first sentence, we are in accord with a long line of state cases holding that the broad variety of anticompetitive
II. ILLEGAL ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE.
Before the first and second trials there were extensive evidentiary hearings on defendant’s claim of illegal electronic surveillance by the state. At the first such hearing witness Jim Pellitteri testified that on advice of his attorney he taped his telephone conversations with the defendant which he later turned over to the state and on three occasions wore a microphone given him by the state to monitor conversations with employees of the defendant. On this and other evidence adduced at the hearing Judge JACKMAN concluded that the tapes were lawful one-party consent tapes made by Pellitteri and that no other electronic surveillance was conducted by the state. Before the second trial a second evidentiary hearing was held. Jim Pellitteri also took a polygraph test to determine whether his version of the making of tapes was true. On the basis of the two hearings and the polygraph test, Judge MALONEY found that the
On this appeal defendant claims that both trial courts erred in finding no proof that the state engaged in illegal electronic surveillance. As in the granting or denying of a motion to suppress evidence, the findings of fact of the trial courts here will be sustained unless they are against the great weight and clear preponderance of the evidence. 13 This court will not substitute its judgment for that of the trial court in matters of credibility. 14
The general rule is that evidence obtained by the state by means of an illegal electronic surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment and must be suppressed. 15 In the case before us, two trial courts found that the challenged tapes were made by Pellitteri. This finding of fact is not challenged on appeal. They are, as both trial judges found, one-party consent tapes which are not “searches” within the compass of the Fourth Amendment. 16 As to the existence of further illegal electronic surveillance by the state, both trial judges found that this did not occur. While there is contradictory evidence in the records of the two evidentiary hearings, we cannot conclude the trial courts’ findings of no electronic surveillance by the state to be against the great weight and clear preponderance of the evidence.
Our holding that the witness was entitled to tape his telephone conversations with the defendant’s employees to protect himself from prosecution leaves the defendant little room to argue that the witness was not entitled to turn those tapes over to law enforcement authorities, as he did, in exchange for a grant of immunity. But defendant contends that this turnover is prohibited by sec. 968.29, Stats. Subsections (1), (2) and (5) of that
In holding that one-party consent tapes are lawful in Wisconsin, a holding we here reaffirm, our court stated: “Interception is one
thing;
disclosure as evidence in court is another. In declaring interceptions with consent of one party ‘not unlawful’ the act recognizes the need of this investigative tool to detect crime, but in denying its use as evidence the statute recognizes in the balance the right of privacy of free people.”
18
Therefore, in
Arnold
our court held that the admissibility of the contents of electronic surveillance was governed exclusively by sec. 968.29(3), Stats. Although one-party consent tapes are lawful, they are not “authorized by ss. 968.28 to 968.33” and therefore the contents cannot be admitted as evidence in chief.
19
But it is to the use of the contents as evidence that the limitation upon disclosure in sec. 968.29(3), Stats., applies. It is to the use of the contents as evidence that the “only under oath” requirement applies. As was held in the
Arnold Case,
it is the “admissibility into evidence of the contents of eavesdropping interceptions”
The prosecutor in his opening statements to the grand jury referred to the fact that the witness Pellitteri made tapes that he turned over to the state. The defendant claims that this reference also violated sec. 968.29(3), Stats. However, this reference to the existence of the tapes was not a disclosure of the contents of tapes, and for the same reasons that the transfer of the tapes to the state did not violate sec. 968.29(3), Stats., the prosecutor’s reference to the tapes did not violate that statute.
Nonetheless, the reference was improper. Because under
Arnold
the tapes themselves could not be used in evidence, it was unfair for the prosecutor to refer to them.
22
However, the judge instructed the jury to disregard all comments of the attorneys, and the indictment the jury handed down is supported by testimony sufficient to establish probable cause.
23
Under these circum
III. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE TO CONVICT.
This defendant was convicted of a conspiracy in restraint of trade under the first sentence of sec. 133.01 (1), Stats. To its contention that the state failed to prove an overt act in furtherance of such conspiracy, the short answer is that the state was not required to prove overt acts. Except for the fact that the state act applies to intrastate commerce while the federal act applies to interstate commerce, what amounts to a conspiracy in restraint of trade under the Sherman Act amounts to a conspiracy in restraint of trade under the Wisconsin antitrust act. 24
The long-standing construction of the Sherman Act, first stated by the United States Supreme Court in Nash v. United States, is that proof of a conspiracy in restraint of trade does not require overt acts: “Coming next to the objection that no overt act is laid, the answer is that the Sherman Act punishes the conspiracies at which it is aimed on the common law footing — that is to say, it does not make the doing of any act other than the act of conspiring a condition of liability.” 25 Thus we need not examine this record to determine whether, as the state contends, overt acts were here established by credible evidence. The state in the case at bar was required to prove only a conspiracy in restraint of trade, not overt acts in furtherance of such conspiracy.
The amended indictment, as did the original indictment, charged the defendant with engaging in a single conspiracy with coconspirators Pellitteri and Beecher. Judge MALONEY instructed the jury that a verdict of guilty required a finding of a single conspiracy. The defendant contends that the state failed to establish a single overall conspiracy, which has been defined by the federal court in
United States v. Varelli
to be: “Various people knowingly joining together in furtherance of a
Pellitteri testified that he and the defendant had an agreement to rig bids, allocate customers and fix prices, and that while this conspiracy continued,
32
Beecher, at Pellitteri’s suggestion, contacted an employee of the defendant, Peter Abeles, and joined this conspiracy. The defendant had recently bought out two other local haulers, Eckel Sanitation and Phil Pellitteri Trucking. There was evidence that first Pellitteri, and later Beecher, entered into an agreement with the defendant in order to protect the defendant’s business position during the consolidation period in return for similar favors from the defendant. This constitutes a single and continuing
But even if a finding of one overall conspiracy is not supported by the record, the result is nothing more than a variance between the indictment and the proof, and the verdict must be set aside only if this variance prejudiced the defendant. 34 The defendant concedes that there was evidence, though it calls the evidence “slim,” of one conspiracy to restrain trade between the defendant and Pellitteri and a second conspiracy between the defendant and Beecher. Each conspiracy is contrary to sec. 133.01 (1), Stats.
The defendant argues that if multiple conspiracies were proved, the United States Supreme Court case of
Kotteakos v. United
States
35
requires the conviction to be set aside. In
Kotteakos
thirty-two defendants were indicted as coconspirators in a single conspiracy to make fraudulent federal loan applications. Some of the defendants were convicted while other defendants were not. The government conceded that although one overall conspiracy was alleged, multiple conspiracies were proved. The Court held that it was prejudicial error to try all the defendants together, because, since the law of conspiracy permits the acts and declarations of one conspirator to bind other members of the conspiracy,
36
But here the charging of the defendant and one of its agents, Standridge, did not trigger the Kotteakos problem. Here the acts of the defendant Standridge were attributable to Waste Management, not on a theory of conspiracy but on a theory of agency. Where the only two defendants are a corporate conspirator and its agent, the Kotteakos problem of prejudice does not arise. No prejudice would have resulted from charging Waste Management and its agent with one conspiracy, but proving multiple conspiracies at trial.
IV. ERRORS IN THE GRAND JURY PROCEEDINGS.
Since none of the six challenges to the grand jury proceedings involve significant issues of law, discussion of them will be summary. (1) The defendant complains that the state improperly elicited testimony of the witness Jerry Beecher that because he had heard the defendant was “a Chicago run outfit” and “linked with Mafia or whatever,” he was afraid of it. The indictment was amply supported by other credible evidence. This bit of testimony was not prejudicial and is no basis to attack the indictment. (2) The defendant contends that the court’s admonition to the grand jury witnesses “to inform no one of the questions asked of you and the answers given by you, except your attorney,” interfered with its ability to prepare a defense. Such an admonition was proper. In this state grand jury proceedings are secret in order to protect the jurors and the public.
38
V. ERRORS DURING THE TRIAL.
The claims of error during the trial raised by defendant on this appeal include the following: (1) The defendant complains that the jury list for the trial did not contain the names of jurors numbered in the panel list from 87 to 141. This, the defendant claims, denied him a jury chosen by lot.
43
On the record the trial judge explained that, with the knowledge of the other circuit judges, he divided the panel list into two working units so that one unit could work for one portion of the term, and the second for another. The defendant does not allege any deliberate discrimination in the removal of fifty-five consecutive names. Even if this procedure departed from the statutory mandate, the defendant must be actually prejudiced thereby
44
and he has failed to allege or prove prejudice. (2) During the defendant’s closing argument counsel referred to the lack of corroborative evidence regarding two pieces of paper on which,
As to the other challenges to the instructions, as well as to the other challenges to the judgment of conviction, we find no basis for reversal.
By the Court. — Judgment and order affirmed.
Notes
At the time the indictment was handed down sec. 133.01(3), Stats. 1973, provided: “Whoever violates sub. (1) may be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than 5 years or both.” This penalty section has since been amended to distinguish between corporations and private persons. Ch. 224, sec. 111c, 1975 Wis. Laws, effective May 5, 1976.
The first trial resulted in a hung verdict, and the trial judge presiding declared a mistrial.
See: Sec. 971.26, Stats., which provides: “No indictment, information, complaint or warrant shall be invalid, nor shall the trial, judgment or other proceedings be affected by reason of any defect or imperfection in matters of form which do not prejudice the defendant.”
Liskowitz v. State,
Wagner v. State,
State v. Nowahowshi,
Id. at 716.
Id at 715.
For legislative history of the enactment of the Wisconsin antitrust act, and the addition of the second sentence of sec. 133.01(1) in 1921,
see: State v. Milwaukee
Braves,
Inc.,
The court stated the position of defendants to be that: “[T]he exhibition of major league baseball games is the supply of a service, not an article or commodity, and that sec. 133.01 prohibits only restraints of trade or commerce in articles or commodities. The claim is that the second sentence in the section restricts the meaning of the first and third sentences.” Id. at 714. The court rejected this position.
The Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C., sec. 1 et seq. (1973), has been recognized to apply to restraints in services as well as commodities since
Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers v. United States,
We have stated many times that the construction of sec. 133.01(1) is controlled by federal decisions under the Sherman Act.
Madison v. Hyland, Hall & Co.,
Bies v. State,
Turner v. State,
See;
Katz v. United States,
United States v. White,
In
Meredith v. Gavin,
State ex rel. Arnold v. County Court, supra, n. 15, at 442.
Id. at 444.
Id. at 442.
State v. Smith,
Gaertner v. State,
State ex rel. Welch v. Waukesha Co, Cir, Court,
John Mohr & Sons, Inc. v. Jahnke, supra, n. 12. See also, other cases cited in n. 12, supra.
Nash v. United States,
United States v. Consolidated Laundries Corp.,
Addyston Pipe & Steel v. United States,
Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar,
Northern Pacific Ry. Co. v. United States,
Id. at 742.
Both sides agree that when Pellitteri agreed to turn over the tapes to the state on January 15, 1972, his conspiracy with the defendant terminated.
United States v. Varelli, supra, n. 30, at 742.
Kotteakos v. United States,
Id.
Id.
at 770. For the Wisconsin statement of the rule that evidence of the acts and declarations of one conspirator bind a coeonspirator,
see: State v. Adams,
id. at 771.
State v. Krause,
State v. O’Connor,
See: Nelson v. State,
Sec. 255.13(1), Stats., provides: “Every grand jury shall when ordered by the judge ordering such grand jury, employ one or more competent reporters to attend their sessions and to make and transcribe a verbatim record of all proceedings had before them.” [Emphasis supplied.]
See also: Steensland v. Hoppmann,
Sec. 255.04, Stats.
Pamanet v. State,
Hoppe
v. State,
See: Garcia v. State,
See n. 36, supra.
