Source: http://il.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19881215_0040051.C07.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2016-12-04 08:37:40
Document Index: 95912696

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 846', '§ 841', '§ 2', '§ 843', '§ 1405', '§ 2518']

| United States v. Zambrana
United States v. Zambrana
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE,v.JOHN ZAMBRANA, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division. No. 85 CR 27--Michael S. Kanne, Judge.
This is a direct criminal appeal from a jury conviction, pursuant to a sixty-one-count indictment. The defendant-appellant, John Zambrana, challenges his convictions on one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, one count of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2, and three counts of using a communication device to facilitate a violation of the Controlled Substances Act in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 843(b). Zambrana was sentenced to five years in prison, followed by a special parole term of five years, and ordered to pay a special assessment of $250 under the provisions of the Crime Control and Fine Enforcement Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C. § 1405. Appellant now raises three grounds for reversal on appeal, including his assertion that the government selected only certain drug-related conversations from court-authorized interceptions of telephone calls to introduce into evidence. He also contends that it was improper for the trial court to admit wiretapped conversations into evidence because they were inaccurately translated from Spanish into English. Finally, Zambrana argues that the jury did not give sufficient weight to the testimony of co-conspirator, Andre Sanchez. We affirm the convictions.
John Zambrana was charged, along with thirty-one other defendants, in a sixty-one-count indictment for their involvement in a drug trafficking operation. This was the same indictment involved in our decisions in United States v. Zambrana, 841 F.2d 1320 (7th Cir. 1988), and United States v. Vega, 860 F.2d 779 (7th Cir. 1988). John Zambrana's case was severed, on his own motion, from those of the other defendants named in the indictment.
Zambrana's indictment stemmed from a United States Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA") investigation, coordinated with local law enforcement agencies, of a cocaine-distribution network in northern Indiana. As part of the investigation, a court-authorized wiretap was placed on the telephone of Jesus Zambrana, the defendant's father, at his residence in Gary, Indiana, from March to July, 1985.*fn1 Pursuant to the wiretap, government agents were cautioned to minimize the interception of conversations that were not within the scope of the criminal investigation. As a result of conversations heard on the wiretap, the DEA learned that the Zambranas were conducting a sophisticated drug trafficking operation and were to receive a shipment of cocaine on April 25, 1985.
During this surveillance, the officers observed a 1984 rose-colored Oldsmobile Delta 88 being driven in an erratic manner. The officers followed the automobile for three or four miles and then directed the driver to pull over. Officer Downs asked the driver for his license and registration. The driver's name was Ernest Lonzo, an individual whose name appeared on the DEA's list of possible drug transfer drivers. Alter using Lonzo's driver's license for an identification check, Officer Downs arrested Lonzo for driving with a suspended license and took him and his passenger, Charles Cole, to the Lake County, Indiana, jail. Cole was not arrested and was released shortly thereafter.
As part of a large family-run distribution organization, Zambrana was responsible for taking drug orders from customers and then relaying the messages to his brother, Jay. He also assisted his brother in the distribution of cocaine in certain instances. As in many conspiracy cases, the evidence against the defendant was largely circumstantial. The court-authorized wiretap on Jesus Zambrana's telephone produced the bulk of the evidence that the government introduced to link John Zambrana with the drug conspiracy. At Zambrana's trial, the government introduced fourteen tapes in their entirety of conversations between various members of the conspiracy. Although the word "cocaine" was never used in the telephone conversations, the government introduced testimony at trial that the co-conspirators used code words such as "the white one" or "chocolate" as substitutes for the term cocaine.
At Zambrana's trial, the government played fourteen taped conversations, spoken in a mixture of Spanish and English, in open court for the jury. As an aid to the jurors while they listened to the tapes, the trial court allowed the jurors to use English transcripts of government-prepared translations of those portions of the conversations that were in Spanish. Ava Cooper, who was qualified at trial as an expert in the translation of Spanish into English, testified that the English transcripts of the Spanish conversations were accurate.*fn2 The court admitted the fourteen tapes into evidence, but not the government-prepared transcripts of those tapes. Since the transcripts were not evidence, copies of them were not sent to the juryroom. The names of those persons speaking on the tapes were noted in the margin of the transcripts, but the jury was cautioned that the identification of the speakers was not evidence in the case.
Furthermore, in conducting a wiretap, the government has a statutory duty to minimize interference with telephone calls outside the scope of the criminal investigation to the greatest extent possible. 18 U.S.C. § 2518(5). Section 2518(5) protects the parties' privacy by requiring the government to limit their surveillance of the parties' personal conversations.*fn3
"Courts possess wide discretion in determining whether to permit the jury to use written transcripts as aids in listening to tape recordings." United States v. Keck, 773 F.2d 759, 766 (7th Cir. 1985). While the defendant now challenges the accuracy of the government-prepared transcripts, he never contested their accuracy at trial. As previously mentioned, Zambrana did not even pursue his discovery request to obtain copies of the tapes so that he could produce his own translation of the conversations. Rather than challenge the accuracy of the transcripts or produce his own expert's translation of the tapes, the defendant made a deliberate, tactical decision to stipulate to the accuracy of all the government-prepared transcripts. 2 Tr. 154, 176, 187-91.
"Because the [defendant] had ample opportunity to either challenge specific portions of the government's transcript or to prepare an alternate version," he cannot now complain on appeal when he failed to pursue these avenues at trial. Zambrana, 841 F.2d at 1335. In resolving a dispute in which the defendant challenges the accuracy of transcripts containing an English translation of taped Spanish conversations, we apply the Fifth Circuit's approach. See id. In United States v. Llinas, 603 F.2d 506 (5th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1079, 100 S. Ct. 1030, 62 L. Ed. 2d 762 (1980), the Fifth Circuit held that "'[o]nce we have concluded that the defendants could have challenged specific portions of the Government's transcript or prepared an alternate version, it follows that they cannot be heard to complain on appeal because they failed to take advantage of their trial opportunity.'" Id. at 509 (quoting United States v. Wilson, 578 F.2d 67, 70 (5th Cir. 1978)).
Id. at 509-10 (quoting Wilson, 578 F.2d at 69-70); see United States v. Cruz, 765 F.2d 1020, 1023 (11th Cir. 1985). We believe that the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits' approach to resolving challenges to the accuracy of transcripts is appropriate. In this case, the defendant had the option either to stipulate to the accuracy of the transcripts or to present his own translation to the jury. Rather than select the latter option, Zambrana chose to stipulate to the accuracy of the government-prepared translations. Since he decided to stipulate to the accuracy of the transcripts at trial, he cannot now raise this issue on appeal.
Our own independent review of the record also convinces us that the transcripts were sufficiently clear and accurate to enable the jury to use them effectively in understanding the conversations about the ongoing criminal enterprise. A translation of a conversation from one language to another is sufficiently accurate to aid the jury if it expresses the same ideas or thoughts in different words. See Zambrana, 841 F.2d at 1337 & n.13. While a translation from Spanish into English can never be exactly precise, we believe that it is unrealistic to require such exactness before allowing a jury to use a translation. Id. at 1337 & n.14.
The defendant asserts that the transcripts were inaccurate because portions of the conversations were unintelligible. However, he never objected at trial to the fact that the tapes were so unintelligible as to be untrustworthy. In fact, "tape recordings which are only partially unintelligible are admissible unless the unintelligible portions are so substantial as to render the recording as a whole untrustworthy." Wilson, 578 F.2d at 69. It is up to the factfinder, here, the jury, to determine the trustworthiness of the tape recordings. See Cruz, 765 F.2d at 1023 & n.4; Wilson, 578 F.2d at 69.
In essence, Zambrana is asking this court to substitute its assessment of the credibility of the witnesses who testified at trial for the jury's assessment. This is something that this court cannot and will not do. "It is well settled law that a court of appeals does not stand in judgment of the credibility of witnesses. Rather, that question is left to the sound discretion of the trier of fact." United States v. Roman, 728 F.2d 846, 856 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 977, 104 S. Ct. 2360, 80 L. Ed. 2d 832 (1984).