United States v. Jones

William Jones (defendant) was charged with illegally tapping telephone calls, which required the prosecution to prove the tapped phone was provided by a common carrier. At trial, the prosecution showed the phone came from South Central Bell Telephone Company but never proved, or asked the court to judicially notice, that Bell was a common carrier. Jones was convicted, then won a new trial when the district court agreed the prosecution hadn't made a prima facie showing on that element. The prosecution appealed, asking the court of appeals to take judicial notice of Bell's common-carrier status under FRE 201(f) (now 201(d)), which allows notice at any stage of a proceeding.