Weniger v. United States

Federal law made it illegal to sell alcoholic drinks. However, in one Idaho town, city officials and city police officers conspired to collect fees and taxes from alcohol sellers in exchange for allowing the sellers to continue their illegal business. County Sheriff Rene Weniger and Deputy Sheriff Charles Bloom (defendants) also did not enforce the federal law against selling alcohol. Bloom sometimes drank alcohol at one of the illegal locations, and Weniger had been with people who were drinking alcohol at an illegal establishment. Federal law-enforcement agents came to the area to investigate the conspiracy among the city officials, city police, and alcohol sellers. When asked, Weniger and Bloom declined to assist the federal agents with their investigation efforts. In addition, two witnesses separately complained that Weniger gave them a hard time about being stool pigeons, i.e., giving information to the federal agents about the local alcohol activity. The city officials, city police officers, alcohol sellers, Weniger, and Bloom were all charged with conspiring to sell alcohol in violation of federal law. At trial, no evidence existed that Weniger or Bloom had been involved with the efforts to collect the fees and taxes from the alcohol sellers. Based solely on evidence that they had not enforced the federal law and had possibly criticized or harassed witnesses who were cooperating with the federal agents, Weniger and Bloom were convicted of the crime of conspiracy. Weniger and Bloom appealed, arguing that (1) the crime of conspiracy required showing that they had affirmatively agreed to conspire with the others to violate the law and (2) no evidence had been submitted that showed their involvement in any agreement.