United States v. De Cavalcante, 440 F.2d 1264 (3d Cir. 1971)

Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Nos. 19310 to 19312, opinion by Judge Adams; Judge Aldisert concurred. Samuel Rizzo De Cavalcante, Gaetano Dominick Vastola and Daniel Annunziata were indicted on May 22, 1968, tried in September 1970, and after an eight-day jury trial convicted of conspiracy to extort in violation of the Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1952; De Cavalcante was also convicted on two substantive counts. He “received the maximum sentence of three consecutive terms of imprisonment of five years each.”

The court’s summary of the facts: in September 1966 six men were running a game “using crooked dice” at the Americana Motel in Trevose, Pennsylvania. Vastola and Annunziata played, complained, and robbed them at gunpoint. “On September 30th, the six men met with De Cavalcante and Vastola at De Cavalcante’s office in Kenilworth, New Jersey.” De Cavalcante said Vastola wanted $20,000, left the room with him, and came back saying he had persuaded Vastola “to accept $12,000 in ‘settlement’”; he offered to pay Vastola for the gamblers and be repaid. The defense argued that De Cavalcante “was merely a friendly arbitrator in a dispute between two groups of hoodlums.” One gambler testified that another man “always told” him that De Cavalcante “was the big boss of rackets in New Jersey”; the court held that such statements could not be attributed to De Cavalcante because no conspiracy had been proved.

“Accordingly, the convictions of Vastola and Annunziata under count one, and of De Cavalcante under counts one and two will be reversed. The conviction of De Cavalcante under count three will be vacated and the case remanded for a new trial.” The opinion makes no finding about organized-crime membership. A library catalog gives a district-court number for the case, but the opinion does not print it, so it is not used here.