Handy v. State

Orth, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. DOROTHY HANDY and CARLO BUCCI were jointly tried at a bench trial in the Criminal Court of Baltimore on charges relating to the gambling laws. Handy was convicted of four offenses and Bucci of thirteen. Consecutive fines of $250 and costs were imposed on each conviction.

Both appealed. I The charges against appellants were filed in the District Court, which was deprived of jurisdiction upon demand of the accused for a jury trial. Courts Art. § 4-302 (d). Handy was convicted under an arrest warrant and three statements of charges.

Bucci was convicted under thirteen statements of charges. Maryland District Rule 702 a. The charges were all of the same nature. Both Handy and Bucci were accused of aiding and abetting violations of the bookmaking laws of Maryland as prohibited by Code, Art. 27, § 240.

Handy was charged with aiding and abetting one William Crofoot (also ²⁴¹ sometimes spelled Crowfoot) to violate said laws on the 13th, 20th and 27th days of September and the 4th day of October 1973. Bucci w’as charged with aiding and abetting Crofoot to violate said laws on the 17th and 19th days of September and the 2nd day of October 1973, aiding and abetting one Salvatore D’Amico to violate said laws on the 11th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 28th and 29th days of September 1973 and aiding and abetting Crofoot or D’Amico to violate said laws on the 15th day of September 1973. The charging documents set out that the accused “Was overheard to commit the below stated crime over the telephone number 685-9264 at 847 Fawn Street, Baltimore, Maryland. This interception was made pursuant to the execution of an Order of the Honorable Charles D. Harris, Dated September 10, 1973.” Copies of the Petition, Affidavit and Ex Parte Order were incorporated in the charging document by reference. 1 II The State’s case was presented on a statement of facts.

The Assistant State’s Attorney gave the court the following “factual basis” for the charges placed against the accused: “On September 10th, 1973 Judge Charles D. Harris of the Criminal Court of Baltimore City signed an ex parte order authorizing the interception of oral communications over telephone number 685-9264 which telephone was subscribed to by the Little Italy Democratic Club and is physically located at 847 Fawn Street, Baltimore, Maryland. Interceptions commenced on September 11, 1973 and terminated on October 4th, 1973. During that period of time conversations involving the defendants before you were intercepted and recorded specifically for the charges placed or being tried at this time. Conversations involving Carlo Bucci were intercepted on September 11th, 14th, ²⁴² 17th, 18th, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 17th, 19th, and the 2nd of October.

Conversations involving Dorothy Handy were intercepted and recorded on September 13th, September 20th, September 27th, and October 4th. The general pattern of activity as observed by the electronic surveillance of the above listed telephone number was as follows. Everyday, Monday through Saturday, at approximately twelve p.m. the telephone 685-9264 began to be used to receive calls involving wagers placed upon horse races that were occurring either in Florida, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and other tracks that were located in the United States of America. During the course of the day there would be an incoming call placed to 685-9264 which would be a one ring call.

After one ring the call would stop and immediately thereafter on most occasions an outgoing call was then placed by a person from 685-9264 to a number 744-9010. The records of the telephone company would reflect that the number 744-9010 is located at 709 Frederick Road and is subscribed to by the Acme Nfews Service. The general pattern of activity after the call was placed to 744-9010 is as follows. A person either identified as Salvatore D’Amico or William Crowfoot would make a statement to the person answering the phone at the Acme News Service either by voice recognition or by beginning the statement what do you have or do you have a result of a certain race.

The person on the other end would then give information which included the scratches for the day at certain race tracks, the post time at certain race tracks, if a race had been completed, the winning horses by number and amounts paid. The State wishes to bring to the court’s attention the significant part of the information provided by the sports service is the amounts of money which were paid which on every date that the State has called included the term the limit. For example, if a horse would pay $2.40 the person giving the information ²⁴³ in the Acme News Service would say two forty, one eighty, whatever it would be. However, on every date which the State has later charged, the person giving the information would give some monetary figures but also the term the limit.

The State has available to testify persons who have participated in the investigation who have had experience both practical and educational in the field of bookmaking and persons that would testify would state to His Honor that the term the limit has only one application to a horse racing industry. That term is to advise a bookmaker as to the maximum amount of money that should be paid out by the bookmaker on a bet that had been taken by the bookmaker. For example, experts, including Michael Gray, of the Baltimore City police are assigned now to C.I.D. Vice would testify that normally with the bookmaking operation in Baltimore City, there is a limit that a bookmaker will pay out on a daily double. The maximum odds normally paid out by bookmakers on the daily double would be fifty to one odds.

The maximum that would be paid out by a bookmaker on a race other than a daily double would be approximately twenty to one odds. The difference in five one compared to two one is that in a daily double you have to have two winning numbers in the first and second race which decreases your chance of winning and the bookmaker would be free to give the higher odds with the less expected chance of paying out on those odds. Every call would indicate what post time was involved with a particular race. Now, the terminology used would be testified to by Michael Gray and others is that it was very important to a bookmaker to know if the post time had already elapsed or if it was coming up.

The term for example, fifty-three was, means that the post time when the race went off, for example, was two fifty-three. The term fifty-three is means, for example, a race will go off at two fifty-three. The ²⁴⁴ importance of the stating of the post time — I don’t know if His Honor saw the Sting or not — but the purpose of stating the post time is to prevent a bookmaker from being stuck with bets taken in after the horse race has either started or has been completed. For example, this would be evidenced by certain calls in which Mr. Bucci was a participant.

For example, on 9/22/1973, Salvatore D’Amico was talking to Carlo Bucci about a bet that he thought occurred with the post time at fifteen after the hour when, in fact, there was some discussion as to whether or not it was eighteen after the hour. Salvatore D’Amico had been taking bets up to eighteen after the hour which meant that the race really took off at a quarter after the hour and he was stuck with several bets on winners that had already run. Mr. D’Amico got very excited when he found out that the true time was at fifteen after instead of eighteen after and he told Mr. Bucci, well, whoever placed the bet, he ain’t got no fucking bet. He was very upset that he had taken past posted bets.

On other occasions the same conversation between Mr. Bucci and Mr. Salvatore D’Amico with reference to past posting of times occurred on 9/26/73, call number twenty-eight, in which after finding out the correct post time or the time of the race, Mr. D’Amico exclaims to Mr. Bucci, again using similar language, that the person doesn’t have any bet. On 9/18/73, a call twenty-four, Mr. Bucci is talking to Mr. D’Amico in which Mr. Bucci asks what horse has to be bet in and which Mr. Salvatore D’Amico tells him that he will break even on a certain race that they were discussing at the time. On 9/23/73 Mr. Bucci checks his personal betting figure with William Crowfoot and finds he is down approximately $30.00. Mr. Crowfoot informs Mr. Bucci that he hopes Mr. Bucci wins because they, Crowfoot and D’Amico, don’t want Bucci’s money.

There was discussion on 9/22/73, call number fourteen, in which Mr. ²⁴⁵ D’Amico was talking to Mr. Bucci as to the working schedule of both Mr. Bucci and Miss Handy. There seems to be a problem with Miss Handy as the person who gives the race results because Mr. D’Amico is very upset that she would be working say on a Thursday. Mr. D’Amico said he worked everyday except Thursday because the last time in reference to the lady or to the effect that the lady caused him $7200 worth of play. He lost that when she was working the phones that day.

There were occasions in which Mr. Bucci and Mr. Crowfoot were talking, specifically on 9/23/73, call number twenty-one, in which Mr. Bucci was joking about the possibility of hitting the daily double himself that he played with the bookmakers at the Casa Bianco and Mr. Crowfoot tells Mr. Bucci, well, it looks like he is the only one that is not going to hit the daily double to which Mr. Bucci explains, well, I had the first horse already. On 9/21/73, call number twenty-four, Mr. Crowfoot talks to Mr. Bucci about beginning a service with the person known as Walt. This person, Walt, had conferred with both D’Amico and Crowfoot with regards to obtaining the wire service from Acme News. The person referred to as Walt had a guilt complex.

He was calling in getting free service when, in fact, he should have been paying for this service. Mr. Bucci informed Mr. Crowfoot to have Walt give him a call at the service so they could start billing him for the service. Periodically throughout the day the bookmakers would also have information or a need to know what the amount of money was placed on certain bets so there could be a determination of three digit illegal lottery number posted. During the course of the day both Mr. Bucci and Miss Handy would inform the caller as to what digit was up.

So far the references would be that the first girl is nine. The second girl is a three or nine across or whatever and there would also be some type of coding system. They would ring at the Casa Bianco ²⁴⁶ at which time no one answered and then a call back to the sports service. On occasion Salvatore D’Amico would have a conference with the person answering the sports service line saying that he got the signal but he didn’t need anything so he didn’t call back.

So, the important things for the court to take into consideration are one the signal arrangement that the legitimate sports service has with its customers, a one call to the recipient followed by a return call to the sports service, the posting time so there would be no acceptance of bets after a horse was run, the term the limit. Now, counsel has, I think, it is a News American paper with him. Why don’t you show the court all of the figures in the News American and I would venture to say that — I didn’t look at it that carefully — but I doubt if there is any term the limit anywhere. They [the newspapers] would give the [parimutual] results.

The limit refers to the result that the bookmaker shouldn’t pay out over certain odds. All right, the counsel for the defense wants the State to put on the record that the bets of Mr. Bucci, in fact, placed were not made from Acme News. Since the State employed what is known as a touch tone decoder and a pen register, we only know the calls that were made out to a certain number. The State cannot dispute the fact as to Mr. Sutley’s [defense counsel] position that he might have called from his personal home.

The thing the State wants the court to take into consideration is that the calls by Mr. Bucci occurred with reference to his bets in the early morning hours of the day in ²⁴⁷ which he might have been working that day, but he did talk to the same people that he gave the results to. I think basically that would be the statement of facts showing the allegations at the Acme News Service by way of Miss Handy and Mr. Bucci, in fact, were aiding and abetting the gambling operation located at the Casa Bianco Restaurant.” Defense counsel denied that there was a signal given. His point was that it was not shown who placed the unanswered one ring call. Larry D’Anna, who identified himself as the President and the owner of Acme News Service, a corporation, testified on behalf of appellants.

He described in general what Acme News Service does. “We give out racing news. We are not a wire service. We give out news after the event is over. . . . Racing news.

We give out racing news, basketball scores. At one time we printed a racing, not a racing sheet, but a sports news sheet with our number on it.” He denied that they gave any “pre bet information”. He was asked to describe the difference between pre bet information and post bet information. “Pre bet information I would have to say is aiding and abetting for the simple reason they give you odds, change of jockeys, scratches, prior to any race being run. They give you all types of information.

You can call, I guess, the Sun and you can get or see the news in the morning. They give you odds.” He claimed that Acme’s employees were supposed to give out “the one, two, three of a race result and the total mutual.” Asked where Acme got the information, he said, “We have numerous radio stations that we pick up on tape and then we play it back and put our numbers on it.” He mentioned local stations and stations all over the country that give out race results, some as often as every fifteen minutes. He denied categorically that Acme took wagers or shared in the proceeds of any bookmaking operation. He said the number of Acme’s customers varied between twenty-five to “maybe” forty. “They send us money orders.

Well, the way we get them actually is through our telephone number which has been advertised on our sheets. People call us and naturally ²⁴⁸ word of mouth and the public can call us at any time that they desire to have service. We say, well, we will give you service if you send us a money order or mail us the money and we charge them so much a week or if they want to come in just for one day we charge them daily.” He was asked how a customer is identified when he calls and asks for the service. “How can you prevent just anybody