United States v. Carl S. Petersen, Defendant- United States of America v. Joseph Arthur Zappia, Jr.

Before MERRILL and TRASK, Circuit Judges, and JAMESON, District Judge.

These consolidated appeals are from conviction at a jury trial of conspiracy to dispose of property of the United States without authority in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (conspiracy to defraud) and 18 U.S.C. § 641 (embezzlement or theft of property of the United States).

The case arose out of transactions instituted by the manager of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory facility at Mt. Hopkins near Amado, Arizona. The manager, Charles Tougas, was a co-defendant below but is not joined in this appeal. Tougas was assigned in 1966 to develop the site of the Mt. Hopkins facility. To this end he had authority to obtain excess property from government installations. Petersen was an operator of a Tucson salvage yard, and Zappia was a truck driver.

Tougas arranged for the acquisition of excess government property. Some of it was not taken to the Amado facility for Mt. Hopkins but was brought to Petersen’s yard where it was exchanged or sold. Zappia drove to government installations in the Western states with a truck he leased in the name of the Smithsonian Institute and, using government forms…