United States v. Alfred Ponticelli, Civ. A. 77-3785

A jury convicted Ponticelli of two counts of making a false declaration before a grand jury in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623 (1976), and the court sentenced him to a year and a day in custody on each count, the terms to run concurrently. We have jurisdiction over this appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1976). Finding no reversible error, we affirm. The facts of the case will be discussed in relation to Ponticelli’s objections on appeal.

I.

Ponticelli’s principal attack on his conviction is that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury’s verdicts. The evidence and its inferences, of course, must be viewed in a light most favorable to the government as prevailing party. See Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 124 , 94 S.Ct. 2887 , 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974). The two counts on which Ponticelli was convicted both involved Ponticelli’s testimony in July, 1976, before a federal grand jury investigating the loansharking activities of one Werber. Among the questions posed to Ponticelli were inquiries concerning a handwritten list of four names, labeled Government’s Exhibit No. 1 at trial. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) found Exhibit No. 1 on Ponticelli’s person…