Opinion ID: 268598
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Admission and Production of Other Evidence

Text: 26 Appellants cite several errors allegedly committed by the trial court in permitting the admission of certain evidence and in refusing to compel the Government to produce certain other evidence. We hold that all the rulings were properly within the discretion of the court. 27 Bruchon's separate attack on the admissibility of the agent's testimony of Bolland's statement to Arizti that in the past the man has always been here when I arrived as merely narrative of past occurrences is not well taken, for the narration was not merely historical but was relevant to the criminal conspiracy in which Bolland, Arizti and Bruchon were engaging. A statement of one conspirator to another during the active course of a conspiracy, giving the full setting of an upset, with the purpose of getting reassurance or other help, does not cease to be in furtherance of the conspiracy because it contains a natural and pertinent reference to a past fact. Cf. United States v. Annunziato, 293 F.2d 373, 380 (2 Cir.), cert. denied 368 U.S. 919, 82 S.Ct. 240, 7 L.Ed.2d 134 (1961). 28 Bolland claims that he was irreparably prejudiced by the introduction of testimony with regard to Coscia and Giacobetti, two alleged co-conspirators. However, testimony as to their activities and declarations was properly admitted as evidence of acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. The existence of the conspiracy was clearly established, and, once it has been so proved, only evidence which, viewed alone, is of relatively slight import, is needed to connect each conspirator with it. United States v. Marchisio, 344 F.2d 653 (2 Cir. 1965); Poliafico v. United States, 237 F.2d 97, 104 (6 Cir. 1956), cert. den. 352 U.S. 1025, 77 S.Ct. 590, 1 L.Ed.2d 597 (1957). 29 Finally, appellants contend that the trial court should have ordered the production of a signed statement that the Government's witness Hyacinthe Lucchesi gave to the French Sureté. Lucchesi, the owner of the hotel to which Bolland addressed his two cablegrams, testified on direct examination, among other things, that he had been instructed by Coscia to turn over to him all mail and other communications addressed to Carmen Lopez and that he had in fact done just that. On cross-examination he revealed that he had given the French police a signed statement which related to this and other testimony. While this statement might well have been ordered produced if available, the court, relying on the representation of a French officer that French law forbade its production, was within its discretion in refusing to order it.