Opinion ID: 1967394
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the testimony of denise lamoureux

Text: The defendants both argue that a Superior or Court justice erred in declining to suppress the testimony of Denise Lamoureux concerning conversations that she had with both defendants on November 4, 1984. Ms. Lamoureux had been present during the robbery which took place on December 20, 1982. At that time she recognized the voice of one of the robbers as that of William Burke. She also recognized his profile under a stocking mask that he wore. On October 29, 1984, Ms. Lamoureux was working as a waitress at the St. James Hotel in Woonsocket. She was approached by Burke who asked her whether she knew that he was one of the robbers at Foley's Lounge. He then ended the conversation by saying, Well, you do what you have to do and I will do what I have to do. Burke then proceeded to watch her from the far end of the lounge for the rest of the evening. After reflecting on this conversation for a couple of days, Ms. Lamoureux went to the Woonsocket Police and told them that she was in fear of going to work and didn't know what to do. Officer Gordon Tempest suggested that she go to work, but that she wear a sound transmitter while working. The transmitter would be monitored by policemen in plainclothes. The next Friday, Ms. Lamoureux went to work and was approached by both defendants Crosby and Burke. She stated to Crosby, My gripe is not with you. It is with Billy and if I talk to somebody, it is going to be him. Burke was behind her and came over at Crosby's signal. Ms. Lamoureux asked Burke what he meant by the statement, You do what you have to do and I will do what I have to do. Burke responded that she had no reason to be afraid of him. He then asked her how much money she had lost in the robbery. The following colloquy ensued as set forth in Ms. Lamoureux's testimony at the trial. A. I said, `One hundred dollars.' It wasn't the same. I said one hundred dollars. Q. After you said that, did he say something? A. He said, `I will give you two hundred dollars if you forget you heard my voice.' Q. Did he say, `My voice.'? A. `If you forget you heard my voice.' Q. Did he say, `My' or did he use his name? A. He used his name. Q. What do you remember exactly what he said, Miss Lamoureux in reference to the money? A. All he said was, `I will give you two hundred dollars to forget you heard Billy Burke's voice that night.' And then I didn't say nothing and he proceeded to offer me three hundred, four hundred and five hundred dollars. It should be noted that the recording of Ms. Lamoureux's conversation was not used, although she did use the transcript of the recording in order to refresh her recollection. The testimony that she gave in court was her own testimony unassisted by and unsupplemented by the recording that had been made. Both defendants assert that the use of this testimony violated principles enunciated by the Supreme Court beginning with Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (1964), and further elucidated more recently in United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264, 100 S.Ct. 2183, 65 L.Ed.2d 115 (1980), and most recently, in Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. 159, 106 S.Ct. 477, 88 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). In Massiah, the Court determined that federal agents had violated the defendants' Sixth Amendment right to counsel when they arranged with a codefendant to record a conversation in the codefendant's car during the course of which Massiah made incriminating statements. The Court held that these statements were inadmissible at trial. In Henry, the Court reached an identical result when federal agents arranged with a cellmate (who was employed on a piecework compensation basis) to engage Henry in conversation about a robbery with which he was charged. The deliberate elicitation and use at trial of such information in the absence of Henry's counsel was held to be a violation of his Sixth Amendment right. In Moulton, the wiring of a codefendant's telephone by police after alleged threats by Moulton resulted in the recording of three conversations. During one of these conversations Moulton asked his codefendant to meet and plan a joint defense. With the consent of the codefendant, police equipped him with a body wire transmitter to record the conversation at the meeting. During the meeting incriminating statements were elicited by the codefendant from Moulton who provided details of the original crime. Even though the motivation of the police was to investigate a complaint of threats, the Court held that it was constitutionally impermissible to use incriminating statements made in the absence of counsel by pre-arrangement with a codefendant. This court implemented the principles set forth in Moulton, Henry, and Massiah recently in State v. Mattatall, 525 A.2d 49 (R.I. 1987), in which the police by pre-arrangement recorded telephone conversations made by the defendant to one John Carney. The recording of the conversations was also motivated by alleged threats made by the defendant to Carney. Although the telephone conversations produced no evidence of threats, Carney, by questioning the defendant, elicited certain incriminating statements which were used against Mattatall at trial. The common thread of all of the foregoing cases is that the police or federal agents in each instance deliberately elicited information with the clandestine cooperation of an informant that incriminated a defendant who had been charged with a crime, either by indictment or formal judicial proceedings, and whose counsel had either been retained or appointed to represent him. The Court held in each case that the codefendant or informant had done more than passively listen. Cf. Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U.S. 436, 106 S.Ct. 2616, 91 L.Ed.2d 364 (1986) (wherein the mere passive listening by a cellmate, without more, did not violate the Sixth Amendment right to counsel). In any event, the rationale underlying the cases appears to be that when the right to counsel attaches to a defendant formally accused of a crime, the police are inhibited from utilizing codefendants, cellmates, or other persons who are in a confidential relationship with the defendant in order to draw incriminating information from him, in the absence of his counsel who presumably has a right and a duty to assist and protect the defendant from any such surreptitious interrogation. In the case at bar, however, we are confronted with a novel proposition not encountered in any of the cases to which reference has been made. Here defendants had been accused by Ms. Lamoureux of an implicit threat to a witness. Tampering with a witness, like planning to utilize perjured testimony, is not a matter in which counsel may be called upon to assist. In Nix v. Whiteside, 475 U.S. 157, 106 S.Ct. 988, 89 L.Ed.2d 123 (1986), the defendant asserted a violation of his right to effective counsel by reason of the fact that his attorney declined to allow him to use perjured testimony at his trial. In fact, the attorney advised Whiteside that if he did testify falsely, it would be counsel's duty to advise the court that the defendant was committing perjury. Thus, Whiteside asserted that he was forced to modify his anticipated testimony as a result of his counsel's threat to expose his perjury. Surprisingly, the Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit agreed with Whiteside and held that even the communication of an intent to commit perjury did not alter a defendant's right to effective assistance of counsel, and that counsel's threatened violation of his client's confidence did not comport with the effective representation standard set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). On certiorari, however, the Supreme Court of the United States, through Chief Justice Burger, for the first time delineated and articulated a lawyer's ethical duty in the face of a communicated intent to commit perjury. The Court stated unequivocally that one who intends to commit perjury is not entitled to either the assistance or protection by confidence of his counsel in furthering such proposed enterprise. The Court observed: Similarly, we can discern no breach of professional duty in Robinson's admonition to respondent that he would disclose respondent's perjury to the court. The crime of perjury in this setting is indistinguishable in substance from the crime of threatening or tampering with a witness or a juror. A defendant who informed his counsel that he was arranging to bribe or threaten witnesses or members of the jury would have no `right' to insist on counsel's assistance or silence. Counsel would not be limited to advising against that conduct. An attorney's duty of confidentiality, which totally covers the client's admission of guilt, does not extend to a client's announced plans to engage in future criminal conduct. (Emphasis added.) Nix v. Whiteside, 475 U.S. at ___, 106 S.Ct. at 998, 89 L.Ed.2d at 139. It should be noted that in stating that a defendant had no right to the assistance of counsel in committing perjury, the Court equated such a plan with an intention to threaten or tamper with a witness or a juror. In that situation, as in the design to commit perjury, the defendant has no right to rely upon counsel's assistance or silence. In the case at bar, the police were not seeking incriminating evidence per se, but were seeking to expose the attempt by at least one of the defendants to intimidate or persuade a witness against testifying for the prosecution. Neither defendant had any right to expect silence, cooperation, or assistance from Ms. Lamoureux. She had been a victim of a crime which they were accused of having committed. She was in an adversary relationship to both. If defendants or either of them had communicated to their respective counsel their plan to tamper with or intimidate a witness, they would have been entitled neither to counsel's assistance nor silence. Consequently, in embarking upon this enterprise defendants divested themselves of the protection of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. It should be noted that no information was obtained from Crosby save his assistance in beckoning to defendant Burke. No information was obtained from Burke except his consciousness of guilt by offering to bribe Ms. Lamoureux to forget that she heard his voice during the commission of the crime. This was a classic case of tampering with a witness. Witness tampering like perjured testimony tends to subvert the entire judicial process and its principle function of ascertainment of the truth. When a defendant in a criminal case chooses to subvert this process, which is at the core of all liberties, he may forfeit otherwise applicable constitutional safeguards. See Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222, 91 S.Ct. 643, 28 L.Ed.2d 1 (1971); Walder v. United States, 347 U.S. 62, 74 S.Ct. 354, 98 L.Ed. 503 (1954). Unfortunately for defendants in this case, testimony concerning witness tampering was directly admissible and relevant in order to show on their part a consciousness of guilt. State v. Payano, 528 A.2d 721, (R.I. 1987); see People v. Perez, 169 Cal. App.2d 473, 337 P.2d 539 (1959); State v. Graves, 301 So.2d 864 (La. 1974); State v. Pierce, 474 A.2d 182 (Me. 1984); People v. Hooper, 50 Mich. App. 186, 212 N.W.2d 786 (1973); State v. Reuschel, 131 Vt. 554, 312 A.2d 739 (1973). We are, therefore, of the opinion that the justice who heard the motion to suppress testimony of Denise Lamoureux concerning attempts by defendants to persuade her not to testify in their trial did not err in declining to grant defendants' motion to suppress. [1]