Joseph J. Parente v. United States

Appellant, together with Martin Bert Haley and Jones Chesley White were indicted for conspiring to violate sections 4704 and 7237 of Title 26 U.S.C.A. and section 174 of Title 21 U.S.C.A. Appellant and co-conspirator White were convicted. Parente appeals.

Appellant makes several assignments of error. They are interwoven to a considerable extent and a discussion of them will be better understood if we give, at this point, a resume of the evidence introduced. It was established that appellant Párente and his co-conspirator White were together in Las Vegas, Nevada. White then came to San Francisco. Later a telephone call was made from Las Vegas by a party named Joe to White, then rooming in a San Francisco hotel. A few days later appellant and White met in San Francisco. Later appellant and White rode to San Jose in appellant’s car, and appellant went into Haley’s bar in San Jose. Haley introduced appellant to one Cardella, a government informer. Whether it had been prearranged for appellant to meet Cardella at Haley’s bar is not quite clear, but it seems quite improbable that appellant would ride to San Jose with a narcotics peddler and then pick up a prospective customer without…