Opinion ID: 1248940
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: transcripts of tapes

Text: Aguilar complains of the court's allowing the jury to review the transcripts of the tapes. The tape recordings were mainly in Spanish. The transcripts that were given to the jury during the playing of the tapes were in English. Neither the transcripts nor the tapes were permitted to go back to the jury room. The reason the jury was allowed to review transcripts of the tapes while the tapes were being played in open court was because portions of the tapes were in Spanish and the transcripts were in English. In State v. Wade, 7 Neb.App. 169, 581 N.W.2d 906 (1998), the Nebraska Court of Appeals held that the transcripts of audiotape recordings of a defendant's conducting drug transactions was admissible for the limited purpose of assisting the jury in identifying the speakers at any particular time. The Court of Appeals cited United States v. Onori, 535 F.2d 938 (5th Cir.1976), which stated that the need or desire for transcripts of a tape arises from two circumstances: (1) where portions of the tape may be inaudible and (2) where it may be difficult to identify the speakers. In State v. Loveless, 209 Neb. 583, 308 N.W.2d 842 (1981), we held that it was not an abuse of discretion of the trial court in admitting a tape and the transcript of the tape, noting that the limited purpose of the transcript was to identify the speakers at any particular time. In Aguilar's case, since the tapes were partly in Spanish, the English transcripts would assist in identifying speakers and allowing the jury to understand what was being said. We determine that Aguilar's assignment of error in this regard is without merit.