Opinion ID: 421208
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: admissibility of the ledger

Text: 65 Over Gibson's objection, Logan's ledger was admitted into evidence under the business record exception of Fed.R.Evid. 803(6). The ledger, which contained records of drug transactions, implicated Gibson in the conspiracy. Gibson contends that the ledger was improperly admitted because the records were not kept in the course of regularly conducted business activity and because the entries were untrustworthy. 6 66 To be admissible as a business record under Rule 803(6), the record must have been kept in the regular course of a business activity. Clark v. City of Los Angeles, 650 F.2d 1033, 1036 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 927, 102 S.Ct. 1974, 72 L.Ed.2d 443 (1982). A record is considered as having been kept in the regular course of business when it is made pursuant to established procedures for the routine and timely making and preserving of business records, and is relied upon by the business in the performance of its functions. Id. 650 F.2d at 1037. 67 Logan testified that she kept a record of most of her large drug transactions. She stated that it was her regular practice to enter into the ledger the number of balloons that went out on a particular day and how much money she took in. The transactions were recorded contemporaneously, and Logan relied on them. This evidence was sufficient to satisfy Rule 803(6). 68 The fact that the ledger was an incomplete record of Gibson's drug dealings and contained several blank pages and unrelated entries did not render the ledger inadmissible. The accuracy of the remaining pages was not altered simply because Logan did not record every heroin sale that occurred. See United States v. Baxter, 492 F.2d 150, 165 (9th Cir.1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 940, 94 S.Ct. 1945, 40 L.Ed.2d 292 (1974). 69 Nor does the fact that the entries were made out of sequence destroy their accuracy. The entries were made at or near the time of the events described and they satisfied the regularity requirement. Their sequence was therefore irrelevant. United States v. McPartlin, 595 F.2d 1321, 1348 (7th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 833, 100 S.Ct. 65, 62 L.Ed.2d 43 (1979). 70 Gibson argues that the entries were nonetheless untrustworthy. However, because Logan had to rely on the entries, there would have been little reason for her to distort or falsify them. See id. 595 F.2d at 1347.