Opinion ID: 1494139
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Drug Trafficking Trial

Text: Johnson raises two, interconnected issues in connection with his appeal from the drug trafficking trial. First, Johnson argues that the trial court should have reviewed the audio tape recordings of the controlled drug buys before deciding whether to play the tapes to the jury. Next, he argues that the tapes should not have been admitted because they were inaudible. While we agree that the trial court should have reviewed the tapes before playing them for the jury, there is no showing that this failure should result in reversal of this case. On August 16, 1999, defense counsel made a motion to exclude the audio tape recordings on grounds that they were inaudible. The trial court did not rule on the motion until defense counsel renewed the motion mere minutes before the trial was set to begin. In renewing the motion, defense counsel argued that the trial court needed to listen to the tapes prior to ruling on their admissibility. The trial court concluded that the audio quality, or lack thereof, of the tapes went to the weight of the evidence and not to the admissibility of the tapes. Thus, the trial court allowed the jury to hear the tapes without reviewing them first. The trial court should have reviewed the tapes before admitting them. But failure to do so is not error in and of itself. See United States v. Bryant, 480 F.2d 785, 789 (2nd Cir.1973). Rather, the reason why a trial court should listen to an audio tape before ruling on its admissibility is to prevent error from occurring at trial. Id. That is, reviewing allows the trial court to rule on any objections and to cure any error through redaction or complete suppression before a tape is played for the jury. In a case, such as this one, where the only stated grounds for suppression is inaudibility of the audio tapes, the trial court's review should focus on whether the tape recordings were sufficiently audible to be probative. Id. at 790, quoting United States v. Weiser, 428 F.2d 932, 937 (2nd Cir.1969), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 949, 91 S.Ct. 1606, 29 L.Ed.2d 119 (1971). It is well settled that the admission of tape recordings at trial rests within the sound discretion of the trial court. United States v. Robinson, 707 F.2d 872, 876 (6th Cir.1983). But in this case, by failing to review the tapes before letting them be played for the jury, the trial court failed to exercise its discretion. A trial court's failure to exercise its discretion, however, does not equate to an abuse of that discretion. Rather, before the failure can even be argued as error, there must be a showing of some error or undue prejudice flowing from the failure. In this case, none is argued on appeal and none is shown in the record. We have reviewed the tapes in question. While many parts of the tapes are completely inaudible, some parts of the tapes, especially the first tape, are sufficiently audible and probative of the charges against Johnson. Thus, we conclude that the tapes were not so incomprehensible as to the render them wholly untrustworthy. See id. at 876, quoting United States v. Jones, 540 F.2d 465, 470 (10th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1101, 97 S.Ct. 1125, 51 L.Ed.2d 551 (1977). Therefore, we hold that, under the facts of this case, the trial court did not err in admitting the tapes. For the reasons set forth above, the judgment of the Campbell Circuit Court is affirmed. All concur.