United States v. Stephen A. Gonsalves

The Government appeals from the District Court’s order of December 17, 1980, granting the motion to dismiss the indictment on behalf of appellee-defendant Stephen Anthony Gonsalves. Appellee had been charged along with twelve other defendants and seventeen unindicted co-conspirators for violation 21 U.S.C. § 963 , Conspiracy to Import a Controlled Substance, and 21 U.S.C. § 846 , Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance. Gonsalves’ alleged role was to act as a money courier in one of the numerous financial transactions that took place during the course of the charged conspiracy.

Four years earlier, the District Court had ordered a judgment of acquittal in favor of three of appellee’s co-conspirators who had been brought to trial on the same indictment. Gonsalves had not been arrested as of that time. However, on August 28,1980, he surrendered to the United States Magistrate in Las Vegas, Nevada. On September 26, 1980, he filed a motion to dismiss the indictment on the same grounds that had supported the previous judgment of acquittal in favor of three of his alleged co-conspirators.

The District Court, relying on its inherent supervisory power to…