United States v. Judith Reinsdorf Douglas

Douglas was convicted of having committed fraud by the use of a telephone in interstate commerce, an alleged violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 . The trial was conducted by the district judge, upon stipulated facts and without jury.

Douglas was a subscriber to the services of the Central Telephone Company of Las Vegas, Nevada and, as such, was provided by the company with a telephone and an assigned number. Her fraudulent scheme involved the use of a mechanical device, commonly called a “blue box” in telephone parlance. The device, when attached to a subscriber’s system, enables the telephone user to avoid the payment of charges for long-distance calls. To do this, the user dials the toll free “800” network and when reaching normally inoperative telephones on such network may activate telephone company switching equipment so as to reach the operative number that is actually desired.

The calls here involved were several from Nevada to Massachusetts and at least one reaching from Nevada to a telephone switching station in Oklahoma. At oral argument counsel for appellant, with commendable candor, conceded that three of the contentions made in his brief are answered by our…