Opinion ID: 423901
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: admissibility of portions of sceviour's testimony

Text: 73 Arruda challenges the admissibility of Sceviour's testimony that DiSanti told him that Arruda was to get $1,000. Arruda's basic objection is to the correctness of the trial court's ruling under United States v. Petrozziello, 548 F.2d 20 (1st Cir.1977). 74 In Petrozziello we enunciated a standard for the district courts to use in applying the coconspirator exception to the hearsay rule, Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). The ordinary civil standard is sufficient: if it is more likely than not that the declarant and the defendant were members of a conspiracy when the hearsay statement was made, and that the statement was in furtherance of the conspiracy, the hearsay is admissible. Petrozziello, 548 F.2d at 23. The court is to make this determination at the close of all evidence. See United States v. Ciampaglia, 628 F.2d 632, 638 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 956, 101 S.Ct. 365, 66 L.Ed.2d 221, 449 U.S. 1038, 101 S.Ct. 618, 66 L.Ed.2d 501 (1980). In reviewing a trial court's Petrozziello ruling we must accept that court's findings of fact supporting the ruling unless they are clearly erroneous. See Patterson, 644 F.2d at 894. 75 We see no error in the district court's findings. There is no need to again recite the relevant facts in detail. Suffice it to say that there was sufficient evidence to support the district court's finding that DiSanti's statement that Arruda was to get $1,000 in return for a change order was intimately connected to and in furtherance of the scheme to receive kickbacks through award of FRHA contracts. 11 76 There is no merit to Arruda's additional claim that Sceviour's testimony concerning his transactions with Harrington were not admissible against him. He argues that he was not involved with Harrington, and therefore this was a separate conspiracy. The evidence points to the opposite conclusion. Arruda and Harrington were both present at the FRHA meeting when the scheme to placate Anderson with a change order was concocted. Also, Harrington was the third payee on the change order DiSanti negotiated with Sceviour through which Arruda received $1,000. That Arruda was not aware of Harrington's receipt of money to speed up payment requisitions at the Department of Community Affairs does not change our conclusion. The rule is, as already stated, that a coconspirator need not know all the details of and participants in the conspiracy as long as he or she is aware of its essential features and general aims. See Blumenthal, 332 U.S. at 556-57, 68 S.Ct. at 256-57; United States v. Stubbert, 655 F.2d 453, 456 (1st Cir.1981).