Opinion ID: 513191
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Esperanza Saa

Text: 51 While the question is a closer one, we conclude that the trial judge's refusal to order disclosure of the identity of the confidential informant and his permitting the Government to argue the adverse inference against the defendants in rebuttal summation were also harmless as to Esperanza Saa. The only evidence against Esperanza Saa to which these errors relate is that of her activity in the third-floor apartment after the drugs arrived on April 28--that is, the evidence going to the questions of whether, as Detective Franceschi testified, she brought the cocaine into the dining room of the third-floor apartment on April 28 after the cocaine had been removed from its hiding place, whether she was present when the cocaine was displayed to the buyers, and whether she provided one of the knives used by the undercover agents to test it. 52 While mounting no challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence against her, Esperanza Saa contends, as she did at trial, that the jury could have found that she was simply a knowledgeable bystander. She argues that she performed roles such as answering the telephone, taking telephone messages and letting people into the building in her capacity as Gabriel Saa's wife and as a member of the household who lived at 10 East 67th Street, and not as a participant in the conspiracy. We agree that such an explanation is consistent with much of the evidence against her. But there were several pieces of uncontradicted evidence that place her role in a more incriminating light. On the evening of April 28, after she received a telephone call from Andrade or Vega, who said they were at 67th Street and Lexington Avenue, she and Barona left to try to find them and bring back the cocaine. Furthermore, after Andrade and Vega had arrived and then left the building, she told the waiting buyers that the cocaine had arrived, and that they should come upstairs. Finally, she played a role in transmitting messages by telephone while Gabriel Saa was trying to locate Andrade and Vega in Queens, and knew where the cocaine was hidden after Andrade and Vega had left 10 East 67th Street. In view of this evidence of Esperanza Saa's participation in the conspiracy, the jury's conclusion would not have been altered by testimony from Robert that she was not present in the third-floor apartment after the cocaine arrived. Cf. United States v. Gotay, 844 F.2d 971, 977 (2d Cir.1988). 53 We have considered the other arguments raised by appellants, and have found them without merit.