310 F. Supp. 523 | S.D.N.Y. | 1970
This is a motion pursuant to section 2255 of Title 28 to vacate a judgment of conviction entered May 15, 1957, upon petitioner’s plea of guilty while represented by counsel. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for three years. The motion is made thirteen years after the plea was entered before the late Judge William B. Herlands, eight months after he passed away, and eleven years after the sentence was served. Since petitioner has completed his sentence, the application is treated as one in the nature of a writ of coram nobis,
Petitioner was indicted together with eleven other defendants in a four-count indictment. The first count charged a conspiracy to obstruct interstate commerce in the pickle industry through extortion. The remaining three counts charged the substantive crime of extortion under the Hobbs Act.
The gist of petitioner’s claim is that at that hearing he denied his guilt; the use of violence, threats or extortion; that consequently the plea of guilty entered four days earlier was not a valid plea, and accordingly he is entitled to have it vacated. A reading of the record reveals the speciousness of the contention. Petitioner was represented by his trial counsel, an experienced lawyer in the field of criminal law for almost fifty years. Petitioner himself was not without prior substantial criminal experience. At the hearing, representations by the Assistant United States Attorney, which Judge Herlands was meticulous to assure were supported by prior trial testimony, grand jury testimony and documents in the government’s file, indicated a typical case of labor-management racketeering and strong-arm tactics. It was a sordid picture of intimidation of employers and betrayal of employees. Petitioner had been business manager of the New York Pickle and Condiment Dealers Association, purporting to represent a group of pickle peddlers. The Association, in conjunction with two bogus unions, put pressure upon and extorted money from
Petitioner did not deny his role as a conspirator. His denials at the hearing related to specific acts charged to other co-conspirators; petitioner conveniently disregards that such acts in furtherance of the common enterprise were also chargeable to him as an admitted member of the conspiracy. The record abundantly establishes that there was a factual basis for petitioner’s guilty plea; that he voluntarily acknowledged his guilt with intelligent understanding of the nature of the charge and the consequences of the plea; and that the plea was entered when he was represented by exceptionally experienced and competent counsel.
The motion is denied.
. 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a) (1964).
. United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502, 511-512, 74 S.Ct. 247, 98 L.Ed. 248 (1954).
. 18 U.S.C. § 1951 (1964).
. Minutes of Plea, April 5, 1957, at 16; Minutes of Presentence Hearings, April 8-12, 1957, at 1-2; Minutes of Sentencing, May 15, 1957, at 33, 57, 60. A number of defendants had themselves requested the hearings.
. In all, more than 700 pages of testimony were taken at these presentence hearings.
. Sentencing minutes, at 85.
. Hearing minutes, at 327.
. Hearing minutes, at 310.
. The prosecutor’s view that petitioner was the most culpable of the defendants was expressed at the hearing and repeated at the time of sentencing, in the presence of petitioner. After sentence petitioner moved, under § 2255 of Title 28, to vacate his 3-year sentence upon the ground that at the presentenee hearing a codefendant in his absence had also expressed the view that he was the most culpable and that the court was influenced by it in imposing sentence; petitioner further contended that the court, in conducting the presentence hearing, had deprived him of the benefit of the services of the probation department. The motion was denied as frivolous, as indeed it was.
. Cf. Kercheval v. United States, 274 U.S. 220, 223-224, 47 S.Ct. 582, 71 L. Ed. 1000 (1927).