Opinion ID: 1677663
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: limitation of cross-examination re informant.

Text: This alleged error occurred not at trial but at a pretrial suppression hearing, at which the issue was whether the arresting officers had sufficient reasonable suspicion to support a Terry stop. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). One issue affecting this decision was whether the confidential informant who provided Sergeant Hogue with the initial tip was a reliable informant. Since the informant was only a tipster and not a material witness, the Commonwealth invoked its privilege not to reveal his/her identity. KRE 508. Utilizing the procedure authorized by KRE 508(d), [1] the prosecutor provided the trial judge with an affidavit regarding the informant's reliability. After reviewing the affidavit in camera, the trial judge concluded that the informant was sufficiently reliable for his/her information to provide reasonable suspicion sufficient to support the stop. (We have also reviewed the affidavit and agree with that conclusion.) Following the trial judge's ruling, Appellant sought to cross-examine Hogue, ostensibly with respect to the reliability of the informant. However, many of Appellant's questions pertained more to the informant's identity than to his reliability. The trial judge refused to permit any questions on cross-examination that might lead to the identity of the informant and, thus, violate the privilege. Appellant claims the trial judge thereby violated his confrontation right under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 11 of the Constitution of Kentucky. We rejected this same argument in Taylor v. Commonwealth, Ky., 987 S.W.2d 302, 304-05 (1998), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 901, 120 S.Ct. 239, 145 L.Ed.2d 200 (1999). The right of confrontation pertains to the method by which evidence is produced at trial. Harris v. Commonwealth, Ky., 315 S.W.2d 630, 632 (1958). The Confrontation Clause does not give a defendant the right to discover the identity of an informant at a pretrial hearing under the guise of attacking his/her reliability. Taylor, supra ; see also McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300, 311-13, 87 S.Ct. 1056, 1062-64, 18 L.Ed.2d 62 (1967). Appellant's reliance on Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990) is misplaced. There, the United States Supreme Court held that while an anonymous telephone tip providing detailed information, standing alone, would not justify a Terry stop, subsequent corroboration of most of the details provided by the tipster created a reasonable suspicion sufficient to warrant the stop. Id. at 330, 110 S.Ct. at 2416. Here, the initial information advising of a potential drug transaction was provided by a known informant. The telephone number supplied by the informant led Hogue to a residence where he discovered a vehicle registered to the suspect identified by the informant. Appellant's vehicle was also at the residence. Hogue overheard the original suspect engaging in a suspicious telephone conversation. Finally, Hogue observed Appellant and the suspect exit the residence together with four other men and depart in a convoy of three vehicles, including Appellant's Jeep and the suspect's Mustang. Under Alabama v. White, supra , the stop in this case would have been justified even if the initial information had been supplied by an anonymous informant whose reliability could not be ascertained. We conclude that no error occurred with respect to the conduct of the suppression hearing in this case.