Opinion
Nos. 73-1149, 73-1255, 73-1256 and 73-1588.
March 8, 1974.
John L. Briggs, U.S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., Claude H. Tison, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty., Tampa, Fla., for the United States.
John S. Matthews, Henry Gonzalez, Thomas J. Hanlon, Tampa, Fla., for Sam Vaglica and others.
Jack T. Edmund, Robert E. Pyle, Lake Alfred, Fla., for Alfonso Scaglione and others.
Barry Cohen, Paul Antinori, Jr., Raymond E. LaPorte, Richard A. Bokor, Henry Gonzalez, Tampa, Fla., Clinton A. Curtis, Kenneth L. Connor, Lake Wales, Fla., John D. Demmi, Tampa, Fla., J. Hardin Peterson, Lakeland, Fla., for Luis Henry Figueredo, Jr., and others.
Henry Gonzalez, Robert W. Knight, Tampa, Fla., for Salvatore Castellana and others.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before THORNBERRY, SIMPSON and CLARK, Circuit Judges.
In each of these appeals, which we consolidated for oral argument, the Government is challenging a district court's dismissal of an indictment count charging multiple defendants with conspiracy to conduct an illegal gambling enterprise in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 1955. The district court dismissed the count in each case on the ground that it violated Wharton's Rule. We have reserved our holding in these cases pending the court's disposition of an earlier-argued case involving exactly the same issue. We have now held in United States v. Pacheco, 5th Cir. 1974, 489 F.2d 554, that a two count indictment charging both a substantive violation of and a conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C. § 1955 does not violate Wharton's Rule. Therefore, we reverse the district court's dismissals and remand for trial. See United States v. Pacheco, supra.
". . . When to the idea of an offense plurality of agents is logically necessary, conspiracy . . . cannot be maintained . . ." 2 Wharton, Criminal Law § 1604, at 1862 (12th ed. 1932).
Reversed and remanded.