Opinion ID: 380919
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Additional Prosecution Witnesses

Text: 32 Other members of the Metropolitan Police Department corroborated the informants' testimony and also offered testimony on actual drug seizures from various locations, connecting the seized drugs with a particular defendant. Expert witnesses in the field of analytical chemistry gave testimony on the technique and procedures of analysis and identified the substances purchased and seized as heroin. Expert fingerprint analysts identified the appellant Watson's fingerprints on several tinfoils in which heroin was wrapped. A DEA agent qualified and testified as an expert witness on drug trafficking and sales on the public streets. He described the typical organization of a narcotics ring and defined the roles of the several participants such as the leader, who does not touch the drugs; the lieutenant, who arranges the transactions; and the runners, who pick up and distribute drugs. 33 Detective Kenneth Johnson prepared the transcripts of the several tapes made by Ward and Whaley. In testifying he attributed names to certain voices by direct references, but depended on the informants to identify other voices on the tapes. At any rate, he testified that by the time the final typed copies of the transcripts were given to the informants to review, the names of the speakers were alongside the conversations. (Tr. at 1512). 34 A final prosecution witness, Thurston Shrader, became acquainted with appellant Stampede Johnson a few weeks before trial. At that time both were inmates at the D.C. Jail. He testified in some detail as to various admissions and inculpatory statements of Johnson (Tr. at 1359-63) which supported the charges in the indictment. 6 Shrader contacted the United States attorney himself, offering assistance in the hopes of mitigating his own three year sentence for misprision of a felony and, presumably, any punishment for pending embezzlement charges. 7 There was no indication that Shrader operated as a plant in any contact with the prosecution or the police.