Alexander L. Fulks and Oren C. Miller v. United States

This appeal is taken from judgment of conviction of the crimes of theft of government property exceeding $100 in val ue, 18 U.S.C. § 641 , and bribery of a government employee, 18 U.S.C. § 201 . The principal question presented is whether there is evidence to support findings of guilt. The case was tried to the judge without a jury.

Appellant Fulks was a Los Angeles dealer in small airplane parts. Appellant Miller was an employee of a brewing company in Los Angeles and in slack season worked as a truck driver for airplane parts dealers, including Fulks. In the latter part of 1958, Fulks, on a competitive bid, purchased from the United States a substantial quantity of airplane parts located at McLellan Air Force Base in Sacramento.

The charges against Fulks relate to two occasions on which he was present at a base warehouse while his trucks were being loaded. Rose, a warehouseman at the base, was the principal government witness. At the time of the events to which he testified, he was lending undercover assistance to the FBI in its efforts to reduce the incidence of theft at the base. There are serious conflicts between his testimony and that of Fulks, but there is no doubt that…