Opinion ID: 580722
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Admission of Audio Tapes and Use of Written Transcripts

Text: 36 During the investigation, the government made five tapes of Rogers' conversations with Stone or with Stone and Sienhausen together. The first three were taped from telephone conversations and were clear recordings. The fourth and fifth tapes were made on July 24, when Rogers wore a concealed transmitter to his meetings with Stone and Sienhausen. The tapes were made by a second DEA agent, Alton Lewis (Lewis), who carried the receiver in his vehicle and followed Rogers from the restaurant to the convenience store and then to Sienhausen's parents' house. A heavy thunderstorm during this time interfered with the reception, and large portions of the tapes are very difficult to understand. Rogers prepared written transcripts of the fourth and fifth tapes. 37 Prior to trial, the defendants contended that the fourth and fifth tapes were unintelligible, and that to allow the jury to consider typed transcripts of the tapes would constitute unauthorized bolstering of the evidence contained on the tapes. The defendants objected to use of the transcripts for this reason, and in a separate motion asked that the district court conduct a hearing outside the jury's presence prior to admitting any transcripts in order to determine their accuracy. At a pretrial hearing, the court ruled that the transcripts could not be admitted into evidence or taken to the jury room during deliberations, but could merely be used as a potential guide for the jury while the tapes were being played. The court found no need to rule on defendants' further request that it hold a hearing to determine the accuracy of the transcripts, because that motion merely requested such a hearing before the transcripts were admitted into evidence. The defendants then promptly filed written motions requesting that the government be prohibited from using the transcripts before the jury at all. 38 Immediately prior to trial, the district court indicated that it had listened to one tape and reviewed the transcript, and that the defendants' objection to use of the transcript as a potential guide for the jury was overruled. During the same conference, counsel for the government notified the court that it had that morning submitted revised versions of the transcripts for the fourth and fifth tapes, which were essentially the same but contained some typographical corrections. Defense counsel did not renew its motion that the court compare the tapes to the new transcripts. 39 At the end of the first day of trial, the district court admitted the tapes into evidence over defendants' objection that they were of such poor quality that they would mislead the jury. On the second day of trial, the district court allowed the government to play the fourth and fifth tapes for the jury and to submit the transcripts to the jury to be used as potential guides while the tapes were playing. The defendants renewed their objection to use of the transcripts, and the court again overruled the objection, noting that from its review it had concluded that the tape was not so unintelligible that someone familiar with the conversation could not make an accurate transcript. The court instructed the jury that the transcripts had been prepared by the government's agent, and cautioned the jury as follows: 40 Now, this [transcript] is only for your general guidance. You are directed and ordered by this Court to make your own interpretation of what you hear from that tape. This is only what the Government believes on this tape. And if you feel it's unintelligible, then you are to disregard anything that you feel is unintelligible, notwithstanding what the Government has down as to what its position is on that tape. 41 So, in effect, I will let you consider this just as--well, just as a transcript as far as the Government's version is concerned. The defense in no way adopts this version.... However, it's my decision to allow you to use it for whatever weight, if any, you desire to give to it. If you feel that tape is unintelligible, then disregard what the Government thinks is on that tape. And if you listen and you hear it differently from what is down here, you ought to consider what you hear as best you can from the tape. 42 The court further stated: It [the transcript] is not evidence in this case. The tape is the evidence. 43 In this appeal, Stone and Sienhausen make three distinct challenges regarding the tapes and transcripts: (1) that the government failed to establish the predicate for admission of the tapes; (2) that the tapes' unintelligibility rendered the district court's admission of the tapes an abuse of discretion; and (3) that the district court compounded its error by wrongfully allowing use of the transcripts and restricting cross-examination of Rogers about the transcripts. 44 On Stone and Sienhausen's first point, the guiding principles for this Circuit were set forth in United States v. Biggins, 551 F.2d 64 (1977). There the Court held that when seeking to introduce a recording in a criminal prosecution, the government bears the burden of going forward with foundation evidence demonstrating that the recording as played is an accurate reproduction of relevant sounds previously audited by a witness, which generally requires the government to demonstrate (1) the competency of the operator, (2) the fidelity of the recording equipment, (3) the absence of material deletions, additions, or alterations, and (4) the identification of the relevant speakers. Id. at 66. The Biggins Court further held that although strict compliance with the government's particularized burden is the preferred method of proceeding, even in the absence of such compliance, the trial judge retains broad discretion to independently determine that the recording accurately reproduces the auditory experience. Id. at 66-67. 45 In the present case, prior to admission of the tapes, Rogers testified that they were the tapes of his conversations with Stone and Sienhausen, that they had been recorded by Lewis while Rogers was talking with the defendants and wearing a hidden transmitter, that they had been kept in a secure place from the time they were made, and that no alterations had been made. Later, after the tapes had been played for the jury, Lewis testified and went into a little more detail about the recording equipment and its capabilities. He admitted that the thunderstorm reduced the transmitter's effective range, and that at times he had not been able to stay close enough to Rogers to make an intelligible recording. 46 We conclude that the government adequately laid a foundation for the tapes under Biggins. Although not all of the Biggins factors were thoroughly covered before the tapes were played, the Biggins decision indicates that the list is not meant to command formalistic adherence at the expense of the district court's discretion. Id. at 67. We perceive no abuse of that discretion here, particularly since the essence of the defendants' opposition to the tapes at trial was not really an authentication issue. The defendants did not contend that the government had not adequately established the content of the tapes to make them admissible, i.e., the defendants did not challenge the means by which the tapes were prepared or suggest alteration or distortion of the tapes, but instead simply questioned the usefulness of the final product (and did this for the first time during the trial itself). 47 On the defendants' second contention regarding the tapes, this Court has consistently held that poor quality and partial unintelligibility do not render tapes inadmissible unless the unintelligible portions are so substantial as to render the recording as a whole untrustworthy, and that this determination is left to the sound discretion of the trial judge. United States v. Ruppel, 666 F.2d 261, 272 (5th Cir.Unit A), cert. denied, 458 U.S. 1107, 102 S.Ct. 3487, 73 L.Ed.2d 1369 (1982); United States v. Sutherland, 656 F.2d 1181, 1200 (5th Cir.Unit A 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 949, 102 S.Ct. 1451, 71 L.Ed.2d 663 (1982); United States v. Llinas, 603 F.2d 506, 508 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1079, 100 S.Ct. 1030, 62 L.Ed.2d 762 (1980). We find no abuse of discretion in the admission of the tapes here, particularly given the precautions taken by the court when they were played. Accord Ruppel, 666 F.2d at 272. 48 Finally, on Stone and Sienhausen's third point, this Circuit's guidelines for use of transcripts were set out in United States v. Onori, 535 F.2d 938, 946-49 (5th Cir.1976). In Onori, this Court held that transcripts given to the jury are evidence, admitted for a limited purpose, and that therefore a determination of the transcript's accuracy is typically a jury function rather than a judicial one constituting a precondition to admission. Id. at 947-48. The Onori Court indicated that the preferred procedure was to have the parties arrive at a stipulated transcript to be given to the jury; if the parties cannot agree on all portions of the transcript, then the transcript may contain both versions of the disputed portions, or the court may give two transcripts to the jury. Id. at 948-49. The Onori Court, consistent with its classification of the accuracy of a transcript as basically a factual determination, held that the defendants in that case, having been offered the opportunity to present their own version of the transcript and to have their expert witness testify as to errors in the government's, had not shown reversible error in the district court's refusal to rule on the accuracy of the government's transcript before giving it to the jury. Id. at 949. We have likewise held that when a defendant challenges the government's translation of a foreign-language conversation for the jury, but fails to offer his own translation, the district court is under no obligation to pass on the transcript's accuracy. United States v. Armendariz-Mata, 949 F.2d 151, 156 (5th Cir.1991); Llinas, 603 F.2d at 509-10. 49 The situation of Stone and Sienhausen was in some ways distinct from the situation contemplated in Onori. Onori described an instance in which the defendants alleged specific errors in the government's transcript. See Onori, 535 F.2d at 948. Almost by necessity, a challenge to a translation by the government will similarly concern specific defects. In the present case, however, the defendants' contention was that so much of the tape was unintelligible that no reliable transcript could be made. To place upon them the burden of coming forward with their own transcript would be to require of them what they contended could not be done. Therefore, Onori alone would not provide authority for admission of the transcript in this case without a finding of the transcript's accuracy. 6 50 However, the district court in this case went considerably beyond the minimum procedure set forth in Onori. At the beginning of trial, the district court had before it the defendants' motion to make an in camera determination of the accuracy of the government's transcripts, and, if it found them to be inaccurate, to suppress them. 7 In the conference immediately prior to the beginning of trial, the judge informed counsel that he had listened to the tape given him and had read the transcript, and that he was denying the motion to suppress the transcript. He indicated, though, that the jury would receive a thorough instruction as to the weight to give the transcript. On the second day of trial, when the defendants renewed their objection as the tapes were about to be played, the district court stated: I listened to the tape myself, compared it to the transcript, and it was my determination that it is not so unintelligible that someone familiar with the transaction could not have made a transcript that was just for the jury's consideration. 8 The defendants did not request a more specific finding as to the accuracy of the transcript. 51 We conclude that the district court's handling of the situation was within its discretion. Its finding that a reliable transcript could have been made by someone familiar with the conversation was a direct consideration and rejection of the objection raised by the defendants, and put the case back into the posture contemplated in Onori: it was the province of the jury to decide whether the government's transcript was accurate, and the obligation of the defendants to raise specific challenges to the transcript before the jury. 9 Moreover, the district court gave a thorough limiting instruction to the jury, which the Onori decision indicates is the key to protecting a defendant's rights in this situation. Onori, 535 F.2d at 949. The defendants argue to this Court that the district court listened to only one of the two disputed tapes and never made any specific findings about accuracy. However, the trial transcript reveals no request by the defendants for either of these steps. 10