United States v. Theodore Caldes and Wellaine M. Lowery

Defendants were indicted in the District Court of Arizona and charged in a two count indictment with violating the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951 . They appealed after being convicted before a jury of both counts. Caldes was a field representative of AFL-CIO and Lowery was president of the Laundry and Dry-cleaning International Union, Local 369. The Laundry Workers Union and Mission Linen Supply Company (Mission) were involved in protracted negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement and these efforts were still in progress at the times of the incidents which were the basis of this indictment.

Mission is a corporation which engages in interstate commerce and is in the business of renting linen and other supplies to hospitals, hotels and other institutions. Jurisdiction is found in 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 1294.

The Hobbs Act provides in pertinent part that:

Appellants were accused of two incidents. On October 24, 1969, they followed one Ramon Herrera, a driver for Mission, whose job was to deliver linen to Mission’s customers. When Herrera stopped for a red light he saw Lowery throw an object into his truck from a car driven by Caldes. Herrera returned the truck to the…