Opinion ID: 2994298
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Exculpatory Audiotapes

Text: Wilson and Andreas next contend that the trial court’s decision to exclude the testimony of Special Agent Athena Varounis denied them the use of potentially exculpatory evidence. The defendants believe that Varounis would have testified about her investigation of claims by Whitacre and his wife that the FBI instructed Whitacre to destroy exculpatory tapes. On April 16, 1997, after he learned he would be indicted, Whitacre and his wife, Ginger Whitacre, met with Varounis in Chicago and alleged that Agent Shepard told him to destroy tapes. Whitacre later recanted the allegation, but Wilson and Andreas sought to introduce it as hearsay pursuant to Rule 804(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Evidence as a statement against penal interest. Whitacre exercised his Fifth Amendment right not to testify at trial, making him unavailable to testify, so defendants sought to have Varounis recount Whitacre’s statements to her regarding the FBI’s alleged order to destroy evidence. The trial court refused to allow the testimony because the statements were not, on balance, against Whitacre’s penal interest when made and were not adequately corroborated. To be admissible under Rule 804(b)(3), a statement must have been against the declarant’s penal or pecuniary interest at the time it was made, must be corroborated to ensure its trustworthiness and the declarant must be unavailable to testify. See United States v. Garcia, 897 F.2d 1413, 1420 (7th Cir. 1990); see also Williamson v. United States, 512 U.S. 594 (1994). Courts must look to the totality of circumstances to determine whether the declarant truly exposed himself to criminal liability by making the statements. See United States v. Butler, 71 F.3d 243, 253 (7th Cir. 1995). The trial court found that Whitacre’s statements were not credible when made and were contradicted by other evidence. Hoech, the friend to whom Whitacre supposedly sent the tapes, testified that he did not destroy any tapes, and other evidence showed Whitacre’s story to be a poorly constructed hoax. For instance, Whitacre claimed the order to destroy evidence came during a meeting in Illinois on a day when records show Whitacre was out of the state. Varounis found no evidence that any tapes had been destroyed. Whitacre himself recanted the allegation in a sworn affidavit before being sentenced for embezzlement. Whitacre’s propensity to lie cannot be doubted, and the court chose not to accept his (by then recanted) story over contradictory statements of other witnesses. Andreas and Wilson contend that Whitacre’s statements to Varounis indicate Whitacre obstructed justice and were therefore against his penal interest, but it is unclear how this could be true. Whitacre, who was about to be charged with conspiring to violate the antitrust law, and Whitacre’s wife said only that the FBI instructed him to destroy tapes, and he denied that he ever actually destroyed evidence. Furthermore, because Whitacre was acting as a government agent since November 1992, none of the tapes could have been inculpatory as to him. Therefore, by claiming the FBI ordered tapes destroyed, he did not damage his own defense against the antitrust conspiracy charge at all, but he delivered a potentially crippling blow to the FBI agents’ credibility at trial. Since Whitacre’s antitrust conviction would be based largely on FBI and co-conspirator testimony regarding the pre-November 1992 events, this tactic could have been a major boon to him in fighting his own conspiracy charge. Whitacre may also have preferred conviction on the less serious charge of obstructing justice rather than face a longer prison term for criminal conspiracy. Judge Manning correctly found that, on balance, the Whitacres’ allegations of evidence tampering were not against Whitacre’s penal interest. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in barring Agent Varounis’ testimony.