Opinion ID: 520583
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Exclusion of Portions of Defendant's Tape Recorded Statements.

Text: 11 Defendant does not deny that the answers he gave to the grand jury questions contradicted his recorded statements and were false. His defense is that the government did not prove as required under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1623 that the false answers were made knowingly. 1 Defendant argues that in order to prove that the answers were made knowingly, the government had to show that when he denied making the recorded statements, he remembered the discussions he had with Federici and deliberately lied about them. Defendant points out that many of the grand jury questions did not focus on specific statements made on certain dates. Rather, the majority of the questions were broad and impersonal such as: Have you ever given cash for any reason to any public official? Do you have any knowledge, directly or indirectly, of anyone else giving cash gifts or anything of value to any public official? There were also more specific questions based on defendant's recorded statements about claimed contacts with former Mayor White and former Attorney General McCormack. 12 The excluded tape recorded conversations showed that defendant claimed personal contacts with a number of other persons: Cardinal Cushing; the Kennedy family; Howard Hughes; Nelson Rockefeller; Governor Dukakis; Dwight Evans and Carl Yastrzemski (Boston Red Sox); and the Anguillo and Patriarca families (reputed to be prominent in the New England mafia). It is defendant's contention that if the district judge had listened to the excluded tape recordings, he might have had doubts as to whether the defendant was a person who would remember particular discussions he had with Federici about former Mayor White, Attorney General McCormack and other persons. Defendant argues that the exclusion of a great deal of the tape recorded evidence narrowed and distorted the district court's perspective of the case. The recorded statements put in evidence made defendant appear to be an active and corrupt wheeler and dealer who would lie to the grand jury to protect himself and his alleged friends. But if all of the recorded conversations had been included in evidence, a different picture would have emerged. Defendant would have been revealed not to be a real wheeler and dealer but a Walter Mitty living in a fantasy world who could not possibly remember the statements he had made about persons he claimed to know. Therefore, defendant asserts, the excluded statements were relevant and it was reversible error to grant the government's motion-in-limine. 13 Defendant's argument construct is ingenious but founders on the rocks of reality. It is important to point out that defendant never told the grand jury that he could not remember making the statements about which he was questioned. He denied making them. It was his credibility, not his memory, that was at issue. We also note that defendant has not raised any issue as to his mental state. There was testimony by a psychiatrist at the trial to the effect that although defendant had a problem forming memories while intoxicated, 2 he had no psychotic disorder, knew the difference between right and wrong and would not make up something totally false. 14 Fed.R.Evid. 401 defines relevant evidence as: evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Rule 402 provides that relevant evidence is, subject to specific exceptions, generally admissible. Rule 403 is one of the specific exceptions to admissibility. It states: Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. The test for reviewing exclusion of evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 403 is abuse of discretion. United States v. King, 827 F.2d 864, 867 (1st Cir.1987); United States v. Jarabek, 726 F.2d 889, 903 (1st Cir.1984). 15 Although the district court did not specify the grounds for excluding a portion of the recorded conversations, it would not have been an abuse of discretion to exclude the evidence solely on the basis of the quoted language from Fed.R.Evid. 403. It had before it all that was necessary to decide the issue of relevancy and the applicability of Rule 403. Both counsel submitted memoranda of law and presented oral argument on the motion-in-limine. The court had the tapes of all the conversations between defendant and Federici and transcripts of five of the tapes. 16 We have transcripts of all the conversations between Federici and Foley; they were submitted by a joint motion dated October 24, 1988. Our review of the transcripts convinces us that the trial court had solid grounds for excluding part of the material on grounds of relevancy. As for the rest, a court's refusal to introduce collateral issues at trial has been characterized by Holmes as a concession to the shortness of life. Reeve v. Dennett, 145 Mass. 23, 28, 11 N.E. 938 (1887). 17