Opinion ID: 450560
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Tindall Plea Agreement

Text: 16 For a number of years Tindall worked for Frappier and Minnig as a pilot, offloader, and general assistant. Arrests for some of his drug-related activities led to three convictions in 1981 and 1982. Subsequently faced with sentences totalling five and one-half years of imprisonment and the possibility of further prosecution, Tindall agreed to cooperate with the government in August 1982. 17 In exchange for divulging his knowledge of illegal drug activities, Tindall was promised a four-month stay of sentencing, the possibility of a further stay, and the possibility of government support for any motion for reduction of sentence that Tindall might later file. The latter two benefits were made contingent upon the value or benefit of his information to the government. The district court stated that the contingent provisions in Tindall's agreement was impermissible because [t]he pressure to please under such an arrangement is potentially coercive. 589 F.Supp. at 564. On appeal, the government attacks the district court's exclusion of Tindall's testimony on the same grounds that it attacks the Frappier and Minnig rulings.