Opinion ID: 789452
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Johnson's Drug Dealing

Text: 2 From March 2001 to the end of that year, law enforcement authorities used a confidential informant and undercover police officers to investigate narcotics trafficking at and in the vicinity of 215 Schaefer Street, Brooklyn. The initial target of the investigation was Leotha Barrow, also known as Petey, from whom confidential informant Carvin Skidmore made several purchases of crack cocaine in March 2001. By April 2001, however, authorities began to focus on Barrow's confederate, defendant Calvin Johnson. At trial, the prosecution proved Johnson's distribution of drugs, or his possession of drugs with intent to distribute, on the following days:
3 On April 19, 2001, law enforcement authorities sought to have informant Skidmore introduce a New York City undercover officer, Detective Luis Campana, to Leotha Barrow as a potential purchaser of crack cocaine. To arrange the meeting, Skidmore placed an unrecorded telephone call to Barrow. Detective Patricia Rodriguez, a member of the investigative team, testified that she overheard Skidmore say the name Cal in the course of his conversation with Barrow. 1 4 After the telephone call, Skidmore and Det. Campana proceeded to 215 Schaefer Street, a three-story red-brick building. Det. Campana testified that, in the second-floor hallway, they encountered defendant Johnson who asked them whom they wanted to see. When Det. Campana stated, Petey, Johnson replied that he was not around and asked the men what they were looking for. Trial Tr. at 73. Skidmore said he was looking for ten bags, and Det. Campana said he was interested in nine. Id. Skidmore and Det. Campana then paid Johnson $10 for each bag requested, whereupon Johnson went into a room, emerging a few minutes later to hand the two purchasers a total of nineteen ziplock bags, each containing a white rocky substance that laboratory analysis subsequently confirmed to be crack cocaine.
5 Skidmore and Det. Campana returned to 215 Schaefer Street on May 15, 2001. Encountering Johnson on the street, the informant and the detective told him that they each wanted ten and paid Johnson in cash. Id. at 81. Johnson pulled a bag out of his pants from which he removed twenty smaller bags, each containing crack cocaine.
6 Three months later, on August 15, 2001, Det. Campana went to 215 Schaefer Street without Skidmore, meeting Johnson on the stoop. In addition to Det. Campana testifying to the meeting, a videotape and audiotape of the encounter were played for the jury. 2 Initially, Johnson professed not to recognize the detective. Det. Campana reminded Johnson of previous purchases of crack that he had made in the company of Carvin Skidmore, and he stated that he was now interested in purchasing another ten. Id. at 83. Before proceeding, Johnson demanded that the officer lift his shirt, presumably to check that he was not wearing a recording device. Apparently satisfied, Johnson sold Det. Campana ten ziplock bags of crack cocaine.
7 Soon thereafter, on August 22, 2001, Det. Campana returned to 215 Schaefer Street, with fellow officers again video — and audiotaping his outdoor movements. Seeing Johnson on the street in the company of several persons, Det. Campana called out, Cal. Johnson replied by asking Det. Campana how many he wanted. Trial Tr. at 91-92, 111-13. Soon thereafter, Det. Campana gave Johnson $100, whereupon Johnson gave the detective ten ziplock bags of crack cocaine.
8 On December 8, 2001, New York City undercover Detective Deanna Delesbore went to the corner of Knickerbocker and Schaefer Streets where she spotted Calvin Johnson, who was soon joined by another man. Det. Delesbore asked if they had any sniff, a street term for heroin or cocaine. Id. at 187. The second man said he did not have anything there but asked Det. Delesbore to wait. Johnson and his companion got into a car driven by a third person and left the scene. Returning a short while later, the second man gestured for Det. Delesbore to deal with Johnson, who, in exchange for $20, sold her two glassine envelopes with small grains of powder that laboratory analysis confirmed to be heroin. 9 At about the same time, another undercover officer, Detective Antoine Manson, also approached the corner of Knickerbocker and Schaefer Streets and purchased a glassine envelope of heroin grains from Johnson. Soon thereafter, Johnson was arrested. On his person, police officers found a small quantity of cocaine and several hundred dollars in cash, including pre-recorded buy money from the undercover purchases. 10