Opinion ID: 504457
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: admission of jennie roberts' statement

Text: 32 The government had possession of a statement given by Jennie Roberts to police. In it she said that the four defendants were in the kitchen of her apartment the morning of July 21, and at times she saw them handling money. The government expected her to testify. Soon after the trial began, it appeared that she was reluctant. When called to the stand, she gave her address, and then consulted her counsel. Through counsel she insisted on immunity. Immunity from federal prosecution was granted, and the state promised immunity as well. Ultimately she was ordered to testify, she refused, was found in contempt, and committed for four months. She did not testify further. 33 The government offered her statement, authenticated by the questioning officer, and defendants objected on the ground that it was hearsay, and if admitted would deprive them of their right of confrontation. The court reserved ruling, but admitted the statement at the end of the trial. 34 Some of the facts concerning the taking of the statement were already before the jury, but additional details were made known to the court. 35 Police officers stopped the Camaro, which Ms. Roberts was driving, at about 11:00 AM. At first she gave a different name and address, and an explanation of her possession of the Camaro inconsistent with later statements. She had about $400.00 in a wad in her purse. After one of her children gave an officer the correct address, she was placed in the squad car and given Miranda warnings. About this time it was learned that other officers were making arrests of other persons in the vicinity. Ms. Roberts agreed to cooperate. She consented to a search of her apartment, opening the door for the officers. She gave information consistent with the statement received in evidence. 36 Later she was taken to the courthouse and gave the statement in question and answer form. It was transcribed and she read it, initialed each page, and signed it. She was not under oath. This occurred about 3:20 PM. 37 In addition to her observations of the four defendants in her kitchen, she asserted in substance that she and her children had been awakened that morning by loud noises. As she got up to see who it was, her brother, Jeff, looked into the bedroom and said, It's only me. From a remark Jeff made about a window being unlocked, she understood he and his companions had been able to reach through the window and unlook the door to get in. She and her sons bathed and dressed and got ready to leave. Jeff asked her if she wanted to go shopping and he handed her some money which she did not count. Brian (actually Richard Lumbar) asked if she wanted to use the Camaro. She took the car and drove with the boys to K-Mart, where she spent $124.00 on clothing for the children. They returned to the apartment and Jeff asked her to go and get pop and garbage bags. They did so, making several stops, including one at a 7-11. On the way back she was stopped by the police. She had no direct knowledge as to what offense the four might have committed. 38 The government argues (1) that the Roberts statement was not excludable as hearsay under Rule 804(b)(5) Other Exceptions of Federal Rules of Evidence and (2) that there were particularized guarantees of trustworthiness sufficient to avoid conflict with the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. When the statement is offered against a defendant in a criminal case, the two contentions are close to parallel. 39 Rule 804(b)(5) operates where the declarant is unavailable as a witness; the statement, though not specifically covered by exceptions 804(b)(1), (2), (3), or (4), has equivalent circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness; the statement is offered as evidence of a material fact; it is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts; and the general purposes of the rules and the interests of justice will best be served by admission. There is also a requirement of fair notice, but defendants have not relied on lack of greater notice in this case. 40 The applicable principle as to Confrontation is stated in Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 66, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 2539, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980): 41 In sum, when a hearsay declarant is not present for cross-examination at trial, the Confrontation Clause normally requires a showing that he is unavailable. Even then, his statement is admissible only if it bears adequate indicia of reliability. Reliability can be inferred without more in a case where the evidence falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception. In other cases, the evidence must be excluded, at least absent a showing of particularized guarantees of trustworthiness. 42 Jennie Roberts was unavailable. See Rule 804(a)(2). The presence of the four defendants in the place where the loot was divided, and their handling of it, were material facts. In considering probative value, her personal observation of the defendants in her kitchen and their handling of the money, added something, although not much, to the circumstantial evidence which demonstrated they must have been there and that the currency had been separated from checks, change, and bank paraphernalia and divided into almost equal shares. No one has suggested that similar testimony could have been given by her two small sons. 43 Thus the essential quetion under Rule 804(b)(5) is whether the statement has circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness equivalent to those in the other exceptions. The ultimately controlling question is whether it has the particularized guarantees of trustworthiness required for purposes of the Confrontation Clause. If these questions are answered affirmatively, the admission of the statement will serve the interest of justice. 44 The government argues three guarantees of trustworthiness: (1) It was against Jennie Roberts' penal interest to admit she had received part of the bank robbery proceeds; (2) Her statement incriminated her brother, and no reasonable person would do so unless she thought it were true; (3) All the essential elements of the statement were corroborated. 45 1. We give little weight to the proposition that the statement was against her penal interest. She had been found driving a car which had shortly before then been the getaway car, and in possession of an unusual amount of cash. She had probably been in custody when she gave agreed to cooperate, although perhaps not when she gave her statement. The circumstances point more obviously to strong motivation to give an innocent explanation of her possession of the car and cash than to speak the truth. She had initially given a different and untrue explanation of her possession of the car. 46 In Olson v. Green, 668 F.2d 421 (8th Cir.1982), this court considered a statement made by a person in custody and implicating another in the crime of which the declarant was accused. This court found that the statement did not carry the particularized guarantees of trustworthiness that will satisfy confrontation requirements, and observed: 47 In United States v. Riley, 657 F.2d 1377, 1384-85 (8th Cir.1981), this court ruled that an accomplice's custodial statement implicating the defendant, although ostensibly against the declarant's interest, did not qualify for admission under Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(3) because the circumstances did not clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statement. Similarly, in United States v. Love, 592 F.2d 1022, 1026 (8th Cir.1979), we noted the inherent unreliability of custodial statements implicating a third person when we observed that a strong incentive to speak, whether it be truthfully or falsely ... does not indicate sufficient reliability to bring the statement within the [penal interest] exception to the hearsay rule. 48 668 F.2d at 428. 49 2. Under the circumstances the statement tended to incriminate Jennie's brother, Jeff. We agree that it is probably true that a declarant would not incriminate a sibling unless the accusation were true. The circumstances of this case fortify that conclusion as to Jennie. At trial, when by reason of the grant of immunity she had no ground to fear prosecution, she was willing to spend four months in jail rather than give testimony against him. We think this factor can be given some weight. 5 50 3. It is true that many of the details in the statement were corroborated, and even independently established by inference. Ms. Roberts' account of her journeys in the Camaro was corroborated by McDougall and the police, including police who observed her at the 7-11 and followed her to where she was stopped. K-Mart bags and newly purchased clothing were found in her apartment. Cash found in her purse corroborated the assertion that she had been given money. All the bank materials found in her kitchen, the arrest of the four defendants in the near vicinity, and the finding there of three of the portions of the loot, together with all the other circumstantial proof incriminating defendants, corroborate her assertion that she observed them handling money in her kitchen. 51 There is some question whether corroboration or independently established veracity of the assertions in a statement, if standing alone, demonstrate the type of trustworthiness referred to in Rule 804(b)(5) or Ohio v. Roberts. 52 In United States v. Ward, 552 F.2d 1080 (5th Cir.1977), the court held that a statement to an agent met the standards of Rule 804(b)(5). The court considered a number of details in the statement which were proved by other evidence, and said the statement is strongly corroborated by a number of factors which, we are convinced, supply 'equivalent circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness.'  552 F.2d at 1083. 53 The Third Circuit took a somewhat different view: 54 We do not feel that the trustworthiness of a statement offered pursuant to the rule should be analyzed solely on the basis of the facts corroborating the authenticity of the statement. Since the rule is designed to come into play when there is a need for the evidence in order to ascertain the truth in a case, it would make little sense for a judge, in determining whether the hearsay is admissible, to examine only facts corroborating the substance of the declaration. Such an analysis in effect might increase the likelihood of admissiblity when corroborating circumstances indicate a reduced need for the introduction of the hearsay statement. We do not believe that Congress intended that trustworthiness be analyzed in this manner. Rather the trustworthiness of a statement should be analyzed by evaluating not only the facts corroborating the veracity of the statement, but also the circumstances in which the declarant made the statement and the incentive he had to speak truthfully or falsely. Further, consideration should be given to factors bearing on the reliability of the reporting of the hearsay by the witness. 55 United States v. Bailey, 581 F.2d 341, 349 (3d Cir.1978). 56 This court has held that statements met the requirements of trustworthiness under Rule 803(24), Other Exceptions, the declarant being available, and has considered the degree of corroboration by other evidence as well as the character and circumstances of the interview. United States v. Dorian, 803 F.2d 1439, 1445 (8th Cir.1986); United States v. Cree, 778 F.2d 474, 477 (8th Cir.1985). The court found the right of confrontation had been waived in Cree, but the requirements of trustworthiness for that purpose fulfilled in Dorian. 57 In the case before us, Ms. Roberts gave her statement within a few hours of the events she related as occurring in her presence in her home. Care was taken so that she had a full opportunity to state the facts she had observed, and clarifying questions were asked of her and answered. Her assertions were reliably preserved. Her assertions were thoroughly corroborated by other evidence and her assertion of greatest significance to this case, that the four defendants handled the money in her kitchen, was virtually established by circumstantial evidence independent of her statement. 58 Defendants state that because the statement was offered and ruling reserved after the testimony of the police officer who took the statement, they chose not to cross-examine him to show the false statements initially given by Ms. Roberts. Because the court ruled the statement admissible after the close of testimony they argued that they were foreclosed from showing these impeaching facts to the jury. We think it was their burden to have moved to reopen the record for the purpose of recalling the officer and bringing out these facts if they wished to do so. In view of the degree of corroboration of the transcribed statement, Ms. Roberts' initial lies do not destroy the reliability of her later statement. 59 We hold, therefore, that the statement was admissible under Rule 804(b)(5) and did not violate the Confrontation Clause. In deciding that the statement has the required guarantees of trustworthiness, we rely on the degree of corroboration, and the manner in which the statement was taken and preserved, and give some weight to the improbability, to which we have referred, that Ms. Roberts would accuse her brother if it were not true. 60 Finally, even assuming that the statement denied defendants their right of confrontation, we think it clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of the statement at trial was harmless error because of the other compelling evidence of guilt. Cf. Olson v. Green, 668 F.2d 421, 430 (8th Cir.1982), quoting Schneble v. Florida, 405 U.S. 427, 430, 92 S.Ct. 1056, 1059, 31 L.Ed.2d 340 (1972).