United States v. Robert William Gilley, United States of America v. Benjamin Louis Rodriguez

During the late spring of 1984, one Robert Lippert informed local agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations at Oakland, California that he was being harassed by a “bookie” named Robert Gilley and had indeed suffered a physical beating and been threatened with death unless he paid Gilley his gambling debts.

The ensuing investigation resulted in criminal charges being filed against the Appellants Robert Gilley and Benjamin Rodriguez. The indictment, in six counts, is generally as follows

Count One: that Gilley and Rodriguez during and over a period from October of 1983 to January of 1985 conspired to conduct an illegal gambling business in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 ;

Count Two: that Gilley and Rodriguez during and over the same period did in fact conduct, finance, manage, supervise, direct or own an illegal gambling business in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1955 ;

Count Three: that Gilley and Rodriguez during and over a period from April of 1984 to January of 1985 conspired to use extortionate means to collect extensions of credit in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 ;

Counts Four, Five, and Six: that on specified dates, Gilley and Rodriguez used extortionate means to collect…