United States v. Chicarelli

Summary

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the convictions of Eugene Napolitano, Lawrence R. Greenhalgh, and James T. Greenhalgh for possessing goods stolen from interstate shipment. The court rejected claims concerning a government witness serving as a jury bailiff and the trial judge’s handling of the jury’s request to review testimony. It held that no reversible error or prejudice had been shown.

Holdings

1. A Government witness's limited service as a jury bailiff did not require reversal where the witness's testimony was formal and noncentral, was not controverted, and the witness did not have continuous and intimate contact with the jury.
2. A trial judge has wide discretion to decide whether to read testimony back to a jury at its request, and the court did not abuse that discretion by refusing to read the requested testimony after defense counsel objected.
3. An objection to potentially curable language in a trial judge's statements to the jury, first made after the verdict, generally cannot support a new trial absent plain error affecting substantial rights.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the appellants were entitled to a mistrial or new trial because a Government witness also acted as bailiff for the jury on two occasions.
2. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by declining to read requested testimony back to the jury and by informing the jury that it had to rely on its own recollection after defense counsel objected.
3. Whether the appellants could obtain a new trial based on the trial judge's statement attributing the refusal to read back testimony to defense counsel when the objection was first raised after the verdict.

Disposition

affirmed