United States v. Coonan, 839 F.2d 886 (2d Cir. 1988): mandamus petition during the Westies trial

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, argued February 5, 1988, opinion filed February 11, 1988, with a dissent. The Government had asked the court to order Judge Whitman Knapp to take a general verdict on the racketeering counts and to charge the jury on every element of those offenses, in place of the special verdicts he proposed. The court denied the petition from the bench on February 5, 1988, and this opinion gives its reasons. It is a ruling on how the jury was to be instructed, not on the evidence.

The opinion describes the case as it then stood: “The fifteen-count indictment, Indictment S 87 Cr. 249 (WK), was filed on September 17, 1987 and charged ten defendants with having committed various crimes in connection with their alleged membership in “the Westies,” a group hailing from the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan.” The racketeering counts set out thirty-two predicate acts, which the court lists as “eight murders, three attempted murders, five conspiracies to commit murder, four kidnappings, and various acts of loansharking, extortion, narcotics trafficking, illegal gambling, mail fraud and counterfeiting.” It says that trial of eight defendants (the other two being fugitives) began on October 5, 1987.

Those numbers are the indictment’s allegations as the court summarizes them, not proof of any act. The 1995 opinion in United States v. Bokun gives October 9, 1987 as the date the eight defendants went to trial; the two dates are left as each opinion prints them. The CourtListener caption spells one defendant “Bokum”; the later opinions spell the name Bokun.