Opinion ID: 3014613
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The three audiotapes

Text: During the course of the trial, the jury watched extensive excerpts from videotapes made of Gibson’s administrative hearing. In viewing those videotapes, the jury heard the audio recordings of the three telephone conversations between Gibson and his brother, as well as the call made to Gibson from the WPD with Sgt. Ciotti on the radio. The videotapes, the transcript of the videotapes, and the transcript of the recorded telephone conversations were all admitted into evidence. During closing arguments, Gibson argued (apparently for the first time), that if the jury watched the videotape portion of the phone conversations, “they would conclude that (like Gibson) they could not understand what Ed Gibson was saying over the phone line. No person could have picked up what Ed was saying to Chris at the end of his conversation, let alone some double entendre that showed he joined in his brother’s lie. Thus, Gibson could not have been a liar because he did not understand what was being said.” (Brief, p.47). 20 Shortly after deliberations began, a request was sent to the Court. “We need a dictionary, TV and VCR and Trial Board tape, recording of Data Center tapes made July 16, 1999.” The nature of the request showed that the jury wanted not just to watch the videotape (as they were urged to do by Gibson), but also wanted to listen to the actual audio recordings of the phone conversations that had been played at the administrative hearing. Those audio tapes had never been offered or received into evidence at trial (though the transcripts of the phone conversations had been). Gibson argues that by allowing the jury to listen to those audio tapes, the Court “allowed the defense to circumvent plaintiff ’s counsel’s final argument which was based on the record as presented, and not on a new audio tape subject to different interpretations as to its content, scope and the impact of noise bleeding into it.” (emphasis in original). We are unpersuaded. In his closing argument at trial, Gibson argued that the quality of the sound on the phone lines was so poor as to render Gibson unable to understand what was being said to him during the course of the conversations. Yet Gibson now argues that listening to the actual recordings of the phone conversations as opposed to a videotape of a playback of the recording of the phone conversations would unduly prejudice him. By his own logic, the concern here should not be whether the sound quality on the video was poor, but whether the sound quality on the phone line was poor. When Gibson’s counsel objected to the introduction of the audio tapes, the District Court suggested that the audio tapes be listened to in chambers. After listening to the tapes, the Court stated: My recollection of attempting to discern what was on the videotape was that it was pretty difficult at the time these calls were played. If this is, in fact, the tape that the trial board officers heard, Mr. Neuberger, don’t you think that the jury should have the benefit of understanding, as you like to say, the context, that is, providing for the jury an understanding of what the evidence was that the board acted upon? They didn’t act upon, apparently — the tape that we heard, as I 21 have just indicated, was unintelligible. This is not. It seems to me this is a significant issue in the case, that you have made it one. Over counsel’s objections, the District Court proceeded to admit audio tapes that had already been heard by the jury via the video tapes, and which Gibson had alleged were unintelligible. The allegation that in so doing the District Court “took sides in the trial of the case and bailed out the defendants in their chosen trial strategy” is unconvincing given that it was Gibson who brought the intelligibility of the phone conversations into question. The District Court’s decision to allow the jury to listen to the audio tapes was not an abuse of discretion.7