Opinion ID: 2994298
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Tape-Recorded Evidence

Text: The defendants appeal the district court’s decision to admit the tape recordings made by Whitacre on two grounds. First, they claim they were denied due process because evidence showed that the FBI and Whitacre engaged in selective taping and destroyed exculpatory tapes, which rendered the tapes unreliable, misleading and the product of bad faith. Second, they allege that the tapes were made in violation of the federal wiretap statute, 18 U.S.C. sec. 2511. The district court considered and rejected these arguments, and we review that decision for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Bradley, 145 F.3d 889, 892 (7th Cir. 1998). The abuse of discretion standard for evidentiary rulings presents a high hurdle for defendants, allowing reversal only when no reasonable person could agree with the trial judge, United States v. Sinclair, 74 F.3d 753, 756-57 (7th Cir. 1996), and only if the error was not harmless. See Holmes v. Elgin, Joliet & E. Ry. Co., 18 F.3d 1393, 1397 (7th Cir. 1994).
The defendants claim the admission of the tapes violated their due process rights because the FBI failed to supervise Whitacre adequately, badly mismanaged the two-year taping operation and because Whitacre had ulterior motives for acting as a mole, thereby rendering the tapes so unreliable as to make them constitutionally defective. See United States v. Feekes, 879 F.2d 1562, 1564 n.2 (7th Cir. 1989); United States v. Faurote, 749 F.2d 40, 44 (7th Cir. 1984). After holding an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied the defendants’ motions to suppress the tape recordings. In Feekes, we expressed in dicta that government conduct in managing an undercover taping investigation could be so outrageous as to run afoul of the constitutional guarantee of due process. Feekes, 879 F.2d at 1564 n.2. As examples, we mentioned selective taping and editing of conversations and deliberate destruction of certain tapes. Id. However, we also noted that credibility determinations regarding an informant belong to the jury, not the court, and that it was equally important to consider the total circumstances of the undercover operation in assessing the supposed outrageousness of the government’s conduct. Id. at 1565. In conducting criminal investigations, law enforcement frequently must rely on unsavory characters, such as Whitacre, whose motives are less than pure. As with all due process analyses, the touchstone consideration is whether the proceeding was fundamentally fair, and selective recording without more does not offend the Constitution. See United States v. Chaudhry, 850 F.2d 851, 857 (1st Cir. 1988). Whitacre’s behavior while acting as a cooperating witness can be characterized as troublesome and, at times, criminal. That is to say, he lied, cheated, stole and then lied some more. He failed to follow orders and had delusions of grandeur that would make Napoleon blush. Still, this Court cannot fathom how that affected the accuracy of his recording equipment. The tapes themselves reflect complete conversations and are internally consistent and corroborated by other witnesses. While evidence that an informant selectively failed to record exculpatory evidence would raise due process concerns, the defendants produced no such evidence. Rather, they rely merely on an assumption that because Whitacre was dishonest and sought to benefit from having his superiors convicted, then he must have selectively failed to record exculpatory conversations. The defendants contend that the FBI granted Whitacre unfettered discretion to choose what to tape, but this mischaracterizes the FBI’s instructions to Whitacre. Andreas and Wilson say Whitacre was told to tape incriminating conversations, not conversations regarding legitimate ADM business, and this amounts to an instruction not to tape exculpatory remarks. The FBI’s actual instructions were to tape all conversations regarding the conspiracy, which would include inculpatory and exculpatory statements, but to omit conversations about other ADM business. Had the subjects of the investigation had a conversation related to the conspiracy that was exculpatory, Whitacre was under orders to record it. His discretion was not unfettered, nor was he told to do anything improper. In Faurote, we reaffirmed the principle that the party seeking to introduce taped evidence bears the burden of establishing its truth, accuracy and authenticity, and that the trial judge has broad discretion in deciding whether this standard has been met. 749 F.2d at 43. Defendants cannot mount a serious challenge under this standard. The government established the accuracy of the recordings through witnesses who attended the meetings, and defense counsel took full advantage of the opportunity to voir dire and cross-examine these witnesses on the truth, accuracy and meaning of the tapes. A tape expert testified that although some of the tapes had been reused, none of the conversations on the tapes had been altered or edited in any way. We see no extraordinary circumstances (in fact, no circumstances whatsoever) that would cause us to reverse the trial court’s decision to admit the tapes. Finally, the defendants contend that the FBI ordered Whitacre to destroy exculpatory tapes, which would undoubtedly violate due process if true. See California v. Trombetta, 467 U.S. 479, 488-89 (1984); United States v. Watts, 29 F.3d 287, 290 (7th Cir. 1994). To establish such a violation, the defendants must show that (1) the government acted in bad faith by not preserving evidence, (2) the exculpatory nature of the evidence was apparent before its destruction and (3) the defendant cannot obtain the same evidence elsewhere. See Trombetta, 467 U.S. at 488-89; Watts, 29 F.3d at 290. The defendants produced no credible evidence that any evidence was actually destroyed. Whitacre never claimed he destroyed tapes; rather, he offered but then recanted an allegation that a friend to whom he sent some tapes destroyed them after the FBI told Whitacre to get rid of the tapes. That friend, David Hoech, denied destroying any tapes. It follows that because no evidence was destroyed, its exculpatory nature could not have been apparent before its destruction. Furthermore, because Whitacre recanted his allegation that the FBI ordered him to destroy tapes--an allegation that was far from credible even when made--no evidence indicates bad faith by the government.
The defendants further contend that the tape recordings violated federal wiretap laws, and therefore must be excluded from trial based on 18 U.S.C. sec. 2515, which prohibits the evidentiary use of any illegally obtained tape recording. Two exceptions to sec. 2515 potentially apply. First, sec. 2511(2)(c) allows the use of tape recordings made by a participant to the conversation who was acting under color of law. 18 U.S.C. sec. 2511(2)(c). Second, sec. 2511(2)(d) allows the use of recordings made by participants in a conversation unless that party had a criminal or tortious purpose in making the recording. 18 U.S.C. sec. 2511(2)(d). Because we find that Whitacre acted under color of law, we do not need to reach the second possibility. The government asserts that Whitacre was acting as a cooperating witness, and therefore under color of law, from November 1992 through the end of the conspiracy. See Obron Atlantic Corp. v. Barr, 990 F.2d 861, 864 (6th Cir. 1993) (allowing use of tape recordings made by corporate executive in price-fixing investigation); United States v. Haimowitz, 725 F.2d 1561, 1582 (11th Cir. 1984) (holding that cooperating witness under direction of FBI was acting under color of law); United States v. Horton, 601 F.2d 319, 322 (7th Cir. 1979) (holding that tapes made by FBI informant were admissible under sec.2511(2) (c)- (d)); United States v. Craig, 573 F.2d 455, 476 (7th Cir. 1977) (holding that informant acted under color of law when FBI supervised recording). Andreas and Wilson counter that the FBI’s supervision of Whitacre was so lax as to strip him of this status. In Craig, we noted several factors in the government’s supervision of an informant that indicated the government directed the recording. 573 F.2d at 476. In that case, such factors included whether the government supervised every aspect of the recording, selected the conversations to be recorded, supplied and operated the equipment, and recovered the tapes and equipment after each session. Id. We did not suggest that these factors were necessary to a finding that the witness acted under color of law, only that they were sufficient. Id. Therefore, their absence in the instant case, while probative, is not dispositive. Defendants cite dicta in Thomas v. Pearl, 998 F.2d 447, 451 (7th Cir. 1993), for the proposition that because police officers who secretly taped conversations without a warrant or the approval of their superiors would not be acting under color of law, then a fortiori, a private citizen acting without a warrant or the approval of superiors cannot be. In Thomas, we were comparing the color of law provision from the wiretap statute with the way the term has been interpreted in cases arising under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983. In civil rights cases, we have interpreted the term very broadly, equating it with state action. In Thomas, we held that such a broad reading of color of law in the wiretap statute would be nonsensical because it would permit every government employee to tape with impunity, regardless of their purpose. 998 F.2d at 451. We used the example of police officers acting in violation of the Fourth Amendment to make the point that government employment by itself does not mean acting under color of law for purposes of the wiretap statute. Id. Here, the government does not contend that Whitacre was acting under color of law because he was a government employee. Thomas, then, is of only marginal relevance. Rather, when assessing whether someone acted under color of law for the wiretap statute, the question is whether the witness was acting under the government’s direction when making the recording. See Craig, 573 F.2d at 476; see also Obron Atlantic, 990 F.2d at 864; Haimowitz, 725 F.2d at 1582; United States v. Shields, 675 F.2d 1152, 1156-57 (11th Cir. 1982); United States v. Tousant, 619 F.2d 810, 813 (9th Cir. 1980). No cases demand that the government’s supervision of its cooperating witnesses and informants need be flawless. In fact, the investigation in Obron Atlantic suffered many of the same defects as the ADM investigation. 990 F.2d at 863. The mole in Obron Atlantic used his own equipment, decided which calls to tape, failed to maintain a log of his recordings and sometimes held on to tapes for weeks or months before turning them over. Id. The court found that the witness’s continuous, albeit irregular, contact [with] DOJ attorneys, following their explicit request that he assist them in this very way and their instructions on how to conduct the calls, outweighs the lack of direct DOJ supervision over the recording process and [his] failure to comply with certain directives. Id. at 865. What we find essential is that the government requested or authorized the taping with the intent of using it in an investigation and that they monitored the progress of the covert surveillance activities. To be sure, the FBI’s supervision of Whitacre’s surreptitious taping activities will likely never make it into the textbooks. The defendants make use of the technical errors in the supervision to paint a picture of a rogue witness, completely out of control, acting alone, throwing away tapes and manipulating evidence with callous indifference. Many conversations between Whitacre and one or more conspirators that should have been recorded were not, and the FBI frequently did not file the necessary reports or provide explanations for these missed conversations. Many of the tapes Whitacre made were not collected as promptly as they should have been, and the catalogue of tapes given to and collected from Whitacre was not meticulously maintained. The FBI did not seem to follow its own internal guidelines on supervising taping activities, but this does not provide a basis for constitutional challenge. See United States v. Caceres, 440 U.S. 741, 752 (1979) (holding that a breach of administrative guidelines does not establish a constitutional violation automatically). Still, these technical deficiencies do not show Whitacre acting independently of the FBI. FBI agents requested Whitacre begin taping his co- conspirators, instructed him on what type of conversation to record, supplied him with taping equipment and tapes, instructed him on the proper use of the equipment and met with him regularly to discuss developments in the conspiracy and collect the tapes. When possible, the FBI itself monitored the conversations by setting up remotecontrolled video recorders to tape the face-to- face meetings of the conspirators and having FBI agents act as hotel staff to infiltrate the meetings. As in Craig, this evidence was sufficient to prove that Whitacre acted at the direction of the FBI in gathering the tapes, and therefore acted under color of law.
Wilson and Andreas next contend that the trial court’s decision to exclude the testimony of Special Agent Athena Varounis denied them the use of potentially exculpatory evidence. The defendants believe that Varounis would have testified about her investigation of claims by Whitacre and his wife that the FBI instructed Whitacre to destroy exculpatory tapes. On April 16, 1997, after he learned he would be indicted, Whitacre and his wife, Ginger Whitacre, met with Varounis in Chicago and alleged that Agent Shepard told him to destroy tapes. Whitacre later recanted the allegation, but Wilson and Andreas sought to introduce it as hearsay pursuant to Rule 804(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Evidence as a statement against penal interest. Whitacre exercised his Fifth Amendment right not to testify at trial, making him unavailable to testify, so defendants sought to have Varounis recount Whitacre’s statements to her regarding the FBI’s alleged order to destroy evidence. The trial court refused to allow the testimony because the statements were not, on balance, against Whitacre’s penal interest when made and were not adequately corroborated. To be admissible under Rule 804(b)(3), a statement must have been against the declarant’s penal or pecuniary interest at the time it was made, must be corroborated to ensure its trustworthiness and the declarant must be unavailable to testify. See United States v. Garcia, 897 F.2d 1413, 1420 (7th Cir. 1990); see also Williamson v. United States, 512 U.S. 594 (1994). Courts must look to the totality of circumstances to determine whether the declarant truly exposed himself to criminal liability by making the statements. See United States v. Butler, 71 F.3d 243, 253 (7th Cir. 1995). The trial court found that Whitacre’s statements were not credible when made and were contradicted by other evidence. Hoech, the friend to whom Whitacre supposedly sent the tapes, testified that he did not destroy any tapes, and other evidence showed Whitacre’s story to be a poorly constructed hoax. For instance, Whitacre claimed the order to destroy evidence came during a meeting in Illinois on a day when records show Whitacre was out of the state. Varounis found no evidence that any tapes had been destroyed. Whitacre himself recanted the allegation in a sworn affidavit before being sentenced for embezzlement. Whitacre’s propensity to lie cannot be doubted, and the court chose not to accept his (by then recanted) story over contradictory statements of other witnesses. Andreas and Wilson contend that Whitacre’s statements to Varounis indicate Whitacre obstructed justice and were therefore against his penal interest, but it is unclear how this could be true. Whitacre, who was about to be charged with conspiring to violate the antitrust law, and Whitacre’s wife said only that the FBI instructed him to destroy tapes, and he denied that he ever actually destroyed evidence. Furthermore, because Whitacre was acting as a government agent since November 1992, none of the tapes could have been inculpatory as to him. Therefore, by claiming the FBI ordered tapes destroyed, he did not damage his own defense against the antitrust conspiracy charge at all, but he delivered a potentially crippling blow to the FBI agents’ credibility at trial. Since Whitacre’s antitrust conviction would be based largely on FBI and co-conspirator testimony regarding the pre-November 1992 events, this tactic could have been a major boon to him in fighting his own conspiracy charge. Whitacre may also have preferred conviction on the less serious charge of obstructing justice rather than face a longer prison term for criminal conspiracy. Judge Manning correctly found that, on balance, the Whitacres’ allegations of evidence tampering were not against Whitacre’s penal interest. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in barring Agent Varounis’ testimony.