Opinion ID: 539884
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admission of statement about Laskowski's prior marijuana dealing.

Text: 33 Petersen testified that in late 1980, Teddy Graves, a co-conspirator who sold marijuana and cocaine to Petersen and Raffanti, set up a meeting between Petersen, Raffanti, and Laskowski. Laskowski had a kilogram of cocaine to sell. Petersen had never met Laskowski, and was somewhat apprehensive about dealing with a new source. In an effort to reassure Petersen, Graves told him that he could trust Laskowski because Laskowski was Graves' million dollar marijuana customer. 34 Laskowski contends that the district court abused its discretion in allowing this testimony at trial. Laskowski argues that the statement was hearsay, and not admissible under any exception to the hearsay rule. The government counters that the testimony was admissible under Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). Rule 801(d)(2)(E) provides that a statement by a coconspirator of a party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy is not hearsay. 35 Laskowski posits two reasons why Petersen's testimony about Laskowski's marijuana dealing was not admissible under Rule 801(d)(2)(E). First, Laskowski argues that the statement was not in furtherance of the conspiracy. (Laskowski does not argue that Graves was not a member of the conspiracy.) The district court, however, did not abuse its discretion in finding Graves made the statement to further the conspiracy. Graves was introducing Laskowski to Petersen and Raffanti as a potential source of cocaine for the partnership. Petersen needed assurance that he could trust Laskowski. Graves' statement about Laskowski's marijuana dealing was meant to provide that assurance, so that Laskowski could deal with the partnership. Although Petersen and Raffanti did not buy cocaine from Laskowski at the initial meeting, they did, beginning a little more than a year later, deal with Laskowski as a buyer. By reassuring Petersen that Laskowski was a source Petersen could trust, and thus helping to facilitate Laskowski's dealings with Petersen and Raffanti, Graves was furthering the conspiracy. Cf. United States v. Rahme, 813 F.2d 31, 35-36 (2d Cir.1987) (statements between conspirators which provide reassurance, [or] serve to maintain trust ... further the ends of the conspiracy); United States v. McGuire, 608 F.2d 1028, 1032-33 (5th Cir.1979) (puffing by drug dealers about their source's reliability to obtain a potential customer's confidence furthered conspiracy). 36 Laskowski also argues that Graves' statement was not admissible under Rule 801(d)(2)(E) because Laskowski was not yet a member of the conspiracy when Graves made the statement. That is irrelevant. Laskowski does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to convict him of conspiracy, and thus implicitly concedes that he eventually did join the conspiracy. Under Rule 801(d)(2)(E), a conspirator's statement is admissible against conspirators who join the conspiracy after the statement is made. United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 393, 68 S.Ct. 525, 541, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948); United States v. Balistrieri, 778 F.2d 1226, 1230-31 (7th Cir.1985). Since the conspiracy existed when Graves made the statement, and Laskowski later joined the conspiracy, Graves' statement about Laskowski's marijuana dealing was admissible under Rule 801(d)(2)(E). 37 Laskowski contends that even if Graves' statement was admissible under Rule 801(d)(2)(E), the district court should have excluded it under Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). Rule 404(b) generally excludes evidence of a defendant's prior bad acts to prove that because the person committed the prior bad act, he likely committed the act at issue. According to Laskowski, Graves' statement does not meet the requirements this circuit has established for introducing evidence of prior bad acts under Rule 404(b). 2 38 As we have seen, Graves made his statement about Laskowski in furtherance of the conspiracy. The statement served to ease Petersen's fears, and to smooth the way for Laskowski's eventual entry into the conspiracy. The statement, in short, was intricately related to the facts of this case. United States v. Hawkins, 823 F.2d 1020, 1023 (7th Cir.1987). As such, the statement was not evidence of a prior bad act within Rule 404(b)'s meaning, and we need not determine whether it met all the requirements for admitting evidence under Rule 404(b). See United States v. D'Antoni, 874 F.2d 1214, 1216-17 (7th Cir.1989); Hawkins, 823 F.2d at 1023. 39 Even though Graves' statement did not have to meet all of Rule 404(b)'s requirements, we still must determine whether the district court abused its discretion in determining under Fed.R.Evid. 403 that the statement's potential for unfair prejudice did not substantially outweigh its probative value. The potential for unfair prejudice is obvious: the chance existed that the jury would draw the forbidden inference that because Laskowski had been involved in marijuana trafficking in the past, he was probably involved in the cocaine trafficking the government alleged. On the other hand, although the statement was not absolutely essential to the government's case, it was important for the government to show why Petersen and Raffanti would deal with Laskowski; the jury could reasonably wonder, absent some explanation, how or why Laskowski became involved in the conspiracy, and this, in turn, could cause the jury to be less likely to believe Laskowski was involved in the conspiracy. The balancing question seems close; and since the balance is close, the district court did not abuse its discretion by finding that the danger of unfair prejudice does not substantially outweigh the statement's probative value. Cf. United States v. Chaverra-Cardona, 879 F.2d 1551, 1554 (7th Cir.1989). 40 Laskowski complains that the government referred to Graves' statement in its opening and closing arguments. Although he does not develop the point, Laskowski seems to imply that the government sought to take advantage of the inference that Laskowski was more likely to have dealt cocaine because he had previously dealt marijuana, and that this shows that the danger for unfair prejudice outweighed the statement's probative value. Laskowski points us to two brief references by the government--one in its opening statement and one in its closing argument--to the effect that Laskowski had been introduced to Petersen as a million dollar marijuana dealer, and that Laskowski was looking to get into the cocaine business. 41 Although it is possible to interpret these statements as arguing the inference that Laskowski was more likely to deal cocaine because he had previously dealt marijuana, these statements do not warrant reversal. The government's arguments were factually accurate and directly tracked the testimony. The government did not argue that Laskowski was a marijuana dealer; the government argued, as Petersen testified, that Laskowski had been introduced as a marijuana dealer. Moreover, the government did not directly argue the inference that Laskowski's prior marijuana dealing made it more likely that Laskowski dealt cocaine. Perhaps most importantly, Laskowski never asked the district court to limit the purposes for which the jury could consider Graves' statement, and never objected to the government's argument. Indeed, far from objecting, Laskowski's trial attorney attempted to use Graves' statement in his own closing argument to highlight what he perceived as the weakness of the government's case. 42 Trial counsel called the statement a cheap shot, and questioned why the government had not produced Teddy Graves to testify if the accusation about marijuana dealing was true. The implication is apparent: if the government has to stoop so low to try to convict Laskowski, it cannot have much of a case. This was reasonable trial strategy. But Laskowski cannot have it both ways: he cannot fail to object to the government's statements and try to use them to his own advantage at trial, and then ask us to reverse his conviction on appeal because of those statements. 43