Salvatore J. Ciullo v. United States

McGOWAN, Circuit Judge.

Appellant was indicted on a charge of violating the false pretense statute, 1 convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment for one to three years. He contends that the trial court erred in refusing to charge the jury on the lesser included offense of passing a bad check. 2

The crime of false pretense has five elements: false representation, knowledge of falsity, intent to defraud, reliance by the defrauded party, and obtaining something of value. The first three are enough to violate the bad check statute when the representation involves a worthless check.

The Government in…