Charles C. Finn and George C. Finn v. United States

The defendants were the subjects of a two count indictment in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division.

Count one reads as follows:

The foregoing count charges an offense under 18 U.S.C. § 372 which is:

Count two said:

The second count charges an offense under 18 U.S.C. § 111 which is as follows:

Here it should be pointed out that there is no crime of false arrest per se in the United States Code and there is no suggestion that there was any per-sonation by the defendants of federal officers.

After an extended jury trial both defendants were convicted on each count. Each was sentenced to one year of imprisonment on each count, the sentences to run-concurrently.

The incident resulting in the indictment was a bizarre one. While leaving a bar association luncheon at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after noon on Thursday, January 21, 1954, Laughlin E. Waters, United States District Attorney for the Southern District of California was stopped by the defendants, informed that he had violated the civil rights of the defendants, and that they were making a citizens’ arrest of him. They had a sheaf of papers with them which…