Opinion ID: 475421
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Missing Bags of Heroin

Text: 11 The appellants ask for reversal of their convictions because the theft of certain of the government's exhibits during trial allegedly deprived them of a fair trial by making it impossible for them to confront certain government witnesses with the exhibits. The particular exhibits, which had been marked for identification, consisted of bundles of glassine bags each containing heroin. They had been purchased by two New Jersey State police detectives who testified at trial that all the bags were marked with skull and crossbones. However, the appellants claim that according to notes made by one of defense counsel, who had examined the exhibits prior to their theft, some of the bags may not have contained the skull and crossbones marking. 7 The claim on appeal is that by confronting the government witnesses with the alleged discrepancy, doubt would have been cast on their testimony. 12 We are not persuaded that there is any cause for complaint in the rulings of the district court which followed the discovery that the exhibits had been destroyed, including the ruling admitting police records to support the testimony of the government's witnesses with respect to the skull and crossbones markings. A summary of the sequence of events at trial will show how trivial the markings were in light of the overwhelming and uncontradicted evidence of the defendants' activities. 13 The four government exhibits in question were marked for identification as: GX-31, GX-32, GX-33 and GX-35. The exhibits consisted of the following: 14 31, two bundles of heroin (50 bags) purchased by New Jersey State Police Detective Warren Mabey on April 25, 1984 at Torres' home in Camden from Bueno-Risquet and Campos-Perez with Torres acting as interpreter. 15 32, two bundles of heroin (50 bags) purchased by Detective Mabey on April 26, 1984 from the same three defendants at the Torres' house. 16 33, one bundle of heroin (25 bags) purchased by Detective Mabey and Robert Rice on May 8, 1984, at the Torres' house from Campos-Perez. 17 35, one bundle of heroin (25 bags) purchased by Detective Rice on May 17, 1984, from Bueno-Risquet at the Torres' house. 18 On Thursday, May 23, ten days after trial began, the exhibits were unsealed in the courtroom after the jury had left for the day for counsel to view. 19 On Sunday, May 26, one of the prosecutors found that these exhibits, along with weapons, cash, and narcotics from this and other cases were missing from the safe. 8 20 On Tuesday, May 28, when the trial reconvened the government informed the court and counsel that the exhibits were missing. Nothing was said to the jury at that time, and the trial proceeded. 21 On Thursday, May 30, United States Attorney Giuliani reported to Chief Judge Motley and defense counsel, outside the jury's presence, that Assistant United States Attorney Daniel Perlmutter, who did not participate in the trial although he had handled the case from its inception through the indictment stage, had been arrested on May 29th and charged with the theft of the drugs marked in this case and also a quantity of drugs from another case then on trial. Giuliani also told the court that the drugs had apparently been destroyed and would not be available at trial. Also that same day, Chief Judge Motley informed the jury that Perlmutter had been charged with the theft of these drugs. 9 The judge told the jurors that they would hear testimony about the missing evidence but that it was no longer available. At the end of the day, Chief Judge Motley cautioned the members of the jury not to speculate about why Perlmutter had been removed from this case even though they were certain to hear of his arrest. 22 The exhibits were never received in evidence because they were stolen before foundation testimony for their admission had been given. Nevertheless, after the loss of the exhibits the government produced the testimony of the New Jersey detectives who purchased the bags of heroin and the chemists who examined the bags and verified their contents. 23 Detective Mabey testified that immediately after he made the heroin purchases on April 25 and 26 he brought the bundles to the State Police chemist and filled out a Request For Analysis Form for a test of the contents. Detective Rice testified that he too immediately brought the bags purchased on May 8 and 17 to the chemist's office and filled out a Request Form. Each of the Request Forms indicated that the glassine bags of heroin contained in GX-31, 32, 33 and 35 bore skull and crossbones markings. 24 The jury also heard testimony of three forensic chemists of the New Jersey State Police, Edward LaRue, Mark Maxwell and Harry Corey, who analyzed the contents of the bags left at the laboratory by Detectives Mabey and Rice. 25 Harry Corey testified that he received four specimens for analysis from Detective Mabey on April 26, 1984. Specimen one consisted of three glassine bags which Corey determined contained cocaine. Specimen two contained one bag of cocaine. Specimens numbers three and four each contained twenty-five glassine bags of brownish powder and each of these bags was marked with a skull and crossbones. From his tests Corey concluded the powder in both specimens was heroin. He identified the Request Form for these drugs, GX-31A, filled out by Detective Mabey. 26 Corey also testified about an additional two specimens he had received from Detective Mabey, on April 27, 1984, each containing twenty-five glassine bags of a brownish-white powder. Corey testified that each of these bags was also marked with a skull and crossbones. After testing, Corey found these specimens to be heroin. He identified GX-32A, the Request Form for these drugs, filled out by Detective Mabey. 27 Edward LaRue stated that he had analyzed a specimen containing twenty-five glassine bags of brown and white powder given to him by Detective Rice on May 9, 1984 and found it to contain heroin; and that each glassine bag was marked with a skull and crossbones. He also identified the Request for Analysis Form, GX-33A, which Detective Rice had filled out and sent to the laboratory. On cross-examination LaRue stated that he saw that the Request Form indicated the presence of the skull and crossbones markings and he later examined each individual bag and found each one to contain a skull and crossbones mark. 28 Mark Maxwell testified that on May 21, 1984, Detective Rice gave him a specimen composed of twenty-five glassine bags containing a brown and white powder for analysis. Maxwell said that he believed all of the bags contained a purple skull and crossbones marking. After testing a portion of the specimen, Maxwell concluded the bags contained heroin. He identified the Request Form GX-35A filled out by Detective Rice and submitted with the glassine bags. 29 All three chemists testified that they had no independent recollection of the skull and crossbones markings; they all used the Request Forms to refresh their recollections. At the time they received the bags, however, they examined each bag to be sure it matched the description on the Request Form. 30 During the testimony of the three chemists, the court admitted in evidence, over objection, the four Request Forms, GX-31A, 32A, 33A and 35A. Counsel for Torres based his objection on notes he had made on May 23, when these exhibits had been temporarily unsealed in the courtroom. The notes indicated that the bags which Mabey testified he had purchased on April 26, 1984, did not contain skull and crossbones markings. 10 Counsel made the objection outside the presence of the jury, and because counsel declined to take the stand or otherwise make the credibility of his notes an issue, no evidence on this matter was presented to the jury. Counsel did, however, include his notes as an exhibit in Torres' post-trial motion (joined in by Pinto-Rodriguez, Zarate and Bueno-Risquet) for a judgment of acquittal pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 29(c), which motion Chief Judge Motley denied. 31 Appellants claimed in their post-trial motion and now claim on appeal that their Sixth Amendment and due process rights were violated by the introduction into evidence of the Request Forms and the testimony of the detectives and chemists in lieu of the actual physical evidence of the drugs. Appellants further argue that the government has willfully suppressed the evidence in this case and ask that the sanction of reversal be imposed. We disagree.
32 The claim on appeal--that the court should have excluded the testimony of the purchasing officers and the chemists because the bags of heroin no longer existed--was not made at trial. There was no objection to this testimony. The only objection made at trial was to the admission of the four Request Forms. 33 Because there was a good reason why the bags could not be produced, it was proper for the Court to receive the testimony of the detectives and the chemists, and to leave to the jury the assessment of that evidence. Having received the testimony of the detectives and the chemists about the bags and their markings, it was within the discretion of the court to admit evidence of the Request Forms which the witnesses had used to refresh their recollection. See Fed.R.Evid. 803(5). Moreover, the Request Forms themselves were properly admitted as secondary evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 1004(1), as we hold that there is no indication that the Government lost or destroyed the original evidence in bad faith. See United States v. Cambindo Valencia, 609 F.2d 603, 633 (2d Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 940, 100 S.Ct. 2163, 64 L.Ed.2d 795 (1980). In the absence of the bags, the Request Forms were the best documentary evidence of the bags' markings at the time the bags were deposited in the office of the chemists for the purpose of testing their contents. 34 Appellants' counsel also argue that because they were unable to prove the chemists and police officers wrong concerning the skull and crossbones markings on at least some of the missing exhibits, their ability to impeach the witnesses was so severely damaged that they were denied any effective cross-examination whatsoever. 35 Although it is true that the defendants could no longer confront the government's witnesses with the bags which they alleged did not bear the skull and crossbones trademark testified to by the government witnesses, the defendants did have full opportunity to cross-examine the detectives and the chemists and they did so. There was no evidence contradicting any of the testimony of the government's witnesses regarding the purchase of the bags and their contents and their markings. There was an abundance of evidence from which the jury could conclude, if they credited the evidence, that the New Jersey detectives had purchased heroin from certain defendants. Thus, we conclude that under all the circumstances there was no deprivation of any Sixth Amendment right of confrontation.
36 The appellants argue that their right to due process was violated by the admission of evidence about the bags of heroin because the government was responsible for the disappearance of the bags which had been marked for identification. They cite Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963) in support of their claim. We disagree. 37 There is nothing in the record which would indicate that Perlmutter's actions were in any way sanctioned or encouraged by the government. Nor is there any evidence that the Assistants handling the case, or Perlmutter himself, desired to deprive the defendants of a fair trial. The district court record in the Perlmutter case, 85 Cr. 942 (CES) (S.D.N.Y.), of which we take judicial notice, reveals that Perlmutter pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing narcotics and theft of drugs and money belonging to the government. Perlmutter apparently stole the drugs for his own use. He received a three-year sentence of imprisonment to be followed by five years probation. 38 It is obvious that the theft of the exhibits could hardly have been for the purpose of harming the defense. By no stretch of the imagination can it be supposed that the defense could have been strengthened by the production of the bags of heroin. Sanctions are unwarranted where, as here, the government cannot fairly be blamed for the loss of the evidence and the evidence, at any rate, would not have helped the defense. See United States v. Grammatikos, 633 F.2d 1013, 1019-22 (2d Cir.1980). 39 Accordingly, we find no denial of appellants' due process rights and no basis for imposing any sanctions by reason of the theft of the drugs by an assistant prosecutor.