Opinion ID: 2982291
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Dorsey

Text: Dorsey was convicted of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, and of aiding and abetting the possession with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. He argues the government failed to present sufficient evidence because it relied almost exclusively on his presence at the scene of the May 7, 2009, arrest and on testimony by Rush and Sanders, who were not credible witnesses. As discussed above, and as defense counsel surely knows, the role of this Court is not to replace the jury as an arbiter of credibility, but to review the record as it appears before us. Based on this record, the government presented sufficient evidence to convict Dorsey. Rush testified that Maddox brought Dorsey and Miller to Tennessee from New York in 2004, 2005, or 2006 so that they could sell drugs for him. Though Dorsey was living with Rush and Maddox at the time, Rush’s testimony and an April 29, 2009, phone call between Rush and Maddox showed that Maddox was arranging for Dorsey and Miller to live in and monitor a “stash house” down the street from Maddox’s apartment where Maddox could cook crack cocaine and store drugs and money. Sanders also testified that Maddox informed him that Dorsey had come to Tennessee to sell drugs. As for the police search of Maddox’s apartment on May 7, 2009, Dorsey was more than an innocent bystander present at the house; the government’s evidence showed Dorsey took actions to safeguard the cocaine in the trunk of Ebberts’s rental car. Before Ebberts arrived at Maddox’s apartment, police officers observed Dorsey leave the apartment several times to look down the road while on the phone. Rush testified that Maddox called Dorsey to warn him that Maddox and Rush had been pulled over by police on their way back from Atlanta. During that call, according to Rush, Dorsey informed Maddox that police were simultaneously at Maddox’s - 41 - Case Nos. 11-5829/5837/5860/6191/6192/6196/6198, United States v. Miller, et al. apartment door, and Maddox told Dorsey not to let the police enter. Maddox told Rush that he instructed Dorsey to flush the keys to Ebberts’s rental car. For her part, Ebberts testified that Dorsey and Miller were at the apartment when she arrived. When she learned the police were at the door, she called Rush and passed the phone to Dorsey, who left the room with it; Miller then returned with the phone and asked Ebberts to hide the rental car keys. After police officers searched the apartment and arrested Dorsey, Miller, and Ebberts, they found more than one kilogram of cocaine and 67 grams of marijuana in the trunk of the rental car. Finally, the government introduced evidence that Dorsey and Maddox contacted each other 90 times in the week before the arrest. This circumstantial evidence supports an inference that Dorsey served a role in the plans surrounding the Atlanta cocaine buy. Ultimately, the totality of the evidence supported his convictions.