Source: https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/714-f-2d-238-596203402
Timestamp: 2020-03-30 17:16:24
Document Index: 96832838

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 841', '§ 952', '§ 841', '§ 2', '§ 952', '§ 952', '§ 952']

714 F.2d 238 (3rd Cir. 1983), 81-1745, United States v. Ammar - Federal Cases - Case Law - VLEX 596203402
714 F.2d 238 (3rd Cir. 1983), 81-1745, United States v. Ammar
Docket Nº: 81-1745, 81-1746, 81-1865 and 81-2064.
Party Name: UNITED STATES of America v. Ghassan L. AMMAR, Neil Roger McFayden, Judith Ammar, Ibraham Ammar, Abedeen Ammar, Naim Dahabi, Charles Rossi, Michael Dugan, Marshall Stillman. Appeal of Ghassan L. AMMAR, Neil Roger McFayden, Judith Ammar and Marshall Stillman.
Case Date: June 30, 1983
714 F.2d 238 (3rd Cir. 1983)
The conspiracy spanned the period from January 1980 to October 1980. It involved the importation of heroin from Lebanon
through Toronto and New York, and was centered on Ghassan Ammar, who lived with his wife Judith in Erie, Pennsylvania, where they had a leather importing business. The Lebanese sources of the heroin were Ghassan's father, Ibraham; his uncle, Abedeen; and Naim Dahabi.
On October 10, a superseding eight-count indictment was returned in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Count I charged the nine defendants (Ghassan, Judith, Ibraham, Abedeen, McFayden, Dahabi, Rossi, Dugan, and Stillman) and the unindicted
coconspirators (Welkie and Bunner) with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). Count II charged all defendants with conspiracy to import heroin into the United States, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952(a) and 960(a)(1). Counts III, IV and V charged Ghassan and McFayden with three substantive violations of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2 based on their sales of heroin to Schmotzer on May 2, May 20, and July 31. Count VI charged Rossi and Dugan with a substantive violation of 21 U.S.C. § 952(a) based on their importation of heroin in June 1980 from Amsterdam. Count VII charged Abedeen, Ghassan, Judith, and Dugan with a substantive violation of 21 U.S.C. § 952(a) based on their importation of heroin from Toronto in May 1980. Count VIII charged Ghassan, Judith, and Dahabi with a substantive violation of 21 U.S.C. § 952(a) based on their importation of heroin from Toronto in July 1980.
Appellants in their briefs have made some fifty separate claims of trial error, which are set out in the Appendix to this opinion. We have considered each claim, many of which we find to be patently without substance, and have determined that none warrants reversal of the judgments below. We examine separately only those issues which we believe merit further discussion. 1
One of the principal contentions of error concerns the admission of the testimony of out-of-court statements made by members of the conspiracy. The court permitted Rossi, Welkie, and other witnesses to testify about statements made by the other conspirators on the theory that these were coconspirator statements admissible under Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). 2