The Supreme Court has upheld the conspiracy conviction of a former Baltimore police officer for his role in a repair shop extortion scheme.
The court’s 5-3 decision Monday holds that Samuel Ocasio took part in a conspiracy when he received cash payments for steering people with cars damaged in accidents to a body shop.
Ocasio was among 10 Baltimore officers who were convicted for their arrangement with Majestic Auto Repair Shop in Baltimore County to send customers to the shop. Officers would receive $150 to $300 for each referral from the two brothers who owned the business.
The case probed whether Ocasio’s agreement with the body shop owners amounted to an extortion conspiracy under the federal Hobbs Act.
Ocasio argued that he couldn’t be charged with conspiring with the business owners to receive money from them. Their actions would amount to a conspiracy only if they were trying to extort money or property from a third party, Ocasio said.
But Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court that Ocasio’s argument “is contrary to age-old principles of conspiracy law.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, saying that what took place in this case cannot be called a conspiracy under federal law. Joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Sotomayor wrote that “the everyday understanding of their agreement is that they intend to obtain property from someone outside of their conspiracy.”
Justice Clarence Thomas also dissented.
The case is Ocasio v. U.S., 14-361.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
One wonders if these policemen are related with the Clayon County, GA, police. The police in Clayton County, GA, set up an innocent couple with a car theft charge, then offered the couple dismissal of charges for a secretive payment. The FBI is allegedly investigating the police of Clayton County, GA. The FBI findings could be interesting.
For details, see: http://mimesislaw.com/fault-lines/springtime-for-bribery-in-georgia/9342
the courts arguments demonstrate why we need Trump and new justices Alito, Stevens, Breyer Ginsberg, and the other asshole have turned the Constitution into whatever they are feeling at the moment.
A conspiracy has to be an illegal act. the opinion of a cop about which body shop is the best is simply a lay,mans opinion. Under the misguided ruling of the court . any actor who receives money to endorse a product is guilty of the same conspiracy. even worse any ad agency that accepts money to taunt a customers products must be also. But why stop there if you, joe citizen, tell someone that the body shop where your son or nephew works is a good shop that does superior work, well you my friend are guilty of the same thing. ( because you see your family received benefit from your steering of business) The cops hold no power, exercise no coercion, to direct a motorist to a particular repair facility. if they offer an opinion that one shop is a ” good shop” the government would have to prove that they knew that the shop engaged in fraudulent behavior to make a conspiracy to defraud case. Since any person who has been in an accident and has the common sense to get in out of the rain, always knows to get at least 2 estimates the cops have no blame. Aso every state has a license bureau where consumers can direct complaints about shoddy and improper work
It was a no brainer that Roberts or Thomas could see this. It is a good sign that for once Sotomeyer has allowed her basic good judgement to override the urge to be PC, which she often does not. As for the others we can only pray that death will intervene before they can fuck up even more of the Constitution.
Prior to reading your post, I was on the fence, leaning (barely) toward guilty. Congratulations for making a good case. You swayed me far toward “not guilty” by a good margin.
Sounds like “affiliate marketing” to me. May be unethical, or even illegal, depending on cop rules, but I don’t see how one can construe it as “extortion.”
Every time I hear/read about Baltimore in the news I think of the HBO Show “The Wire.” This show hits the nail right on the head about everything wrong with Baltimore. It’s hard to imagine why the citizens of Baltimore haven’t ousted every politician at every government level.