Healey

These are five appeals from judgments of criminal contempt in which four were given sentences of a year or more and one, Averbuck, was fined $10.00 for refusing to answer questions put to them in sessions of the grand jury. Each claimed the right to refuse to answer on the ground that the answers would tend to incriminate.

Each is one of the thirty persons selectively chosen and sought to be served around seven o’clock in the morning on the 25th day of October, 1948, for appearance before the grand jury on that day, as described in our opinion in Kasinowitz v. United States, 9 Cir., 181 F.2d 632 . Included in the same thirty persons are the appellants in Alexander v. United States, 9 Cir., 181 F.2d 480 . All these litigants had the same attorneys, who thus had knowledge of the facts proved in each of these cases. It is stipulated that the records in the Alexander and Kasinowitz cases, supra, are a part of the record before the District Court in the cases in which the instant appeals were taken.

The presentment states the questions were asked in the course of “an inquiry concerning certain employees of the United States Government, who had made false statements to an agency of…

(concurring).

In my opinion the same result is required wholly apart from what is said about the assurances given the witnesses by the prosecutor, and about the press releases of the Department. The court’s opinion suggests that the assurances were false. I think that if we assume they were true and that it was the Department’s present intention not to proceed against these witnesses, or to investigate them, their right to refuse to answer would be no less, for their privilege is not dependent upon the current intention of the prosecutor, which might change the next day.

Reasonable cause for apprehension existed by reason of (1) the existence of the Smith Act, plus (2) the fact that indictments of others had been returned under the “affiliation” clause of that Act. It was therefore unnecessary to bolster those facts with evidence of the Department’s press releases.

186 F.2d 164 HEALEY et al. v. UNITED STATES. No. 12283. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. December 6, 1950. Margolis & McTernan, Los Angeles, Cal., for appellants. Ernest A. Tolin, U. S. Atty., Norman W. Neukom, Herschel E. Champlin, Asst. U. S. Attys., all of Los Angeles, Cal., for appellee. Before DENMAN, Chief Judge, and STEPHENS and POPE, Circuit Judges. DENMAN, Chief Judge. 1 These are five appeals from judgments of criminal contempt in which four were given sentences of a year or more and one, Averbuck, was fined $10.00 for refusing to answer questions put to them in sessions of the grand jury. Each claimed the right to refuse to answer on the ground that the answers would tend to incriminate. 2 Each is one of the thirty persons selectively chosen and sought to be served around seven o'clock in the morning on the 25th day of October, 1948, for appearance before the grand jury on that day, as described in our opinion in Kasinowitz v. United States, 9 Cir., 181 F.2d 632 . Included in the same thirty persons are the appellants in Alexander v. United States, 9 Cir., 181 F.2d 480 . All these litigants had the same attorneys, who thus had knowledge of the facts…