Opinion ID: 415739
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Tapes of Emergency Calls Were Erroneously Admitted.

Text: 21 The trial court allowed the jury to hear the tape-recorded emergency calls which witnesses made to the police station reporting the actions of Pazsint and Skeete. Pazsint objected on grounds of hearsay, irrelevance, and prejudice beyond any probative value due to background sounds and voices of third persons. His hearsay objection was overruled, and the court admitted the tapes as a record made during regularly conducted business activity under Rule 803(6) of the Federal Rules of Evidence after the duty officer testified that all such emergency calls received at the station were routinely recorded and kept for sixty days. His objections on grounds of relevance and prejudice were overruled after the district court listened to the tapes outside the presence of the jury, found their probative value outweighed any possible prejudice, and subsequently cautioned the jury not to give any weight to noises on the tapes other than the voices of the caller and the answering officer. 22 The recordings should not have been admitted under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. That exception applies only if the person furnishing the information to be recorded is acting routinely, under a duty of accuracy, with employer reliance on the result, or in short 'in the regular course of business.'  Clark v. City of Los Angeles, 650 F.2d 1033, 1037 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 927, 102 S.Ct. 1974, 72 L.Ed.2d 443 (1982); Advisory Committee Note to Fed.R.Evid. 803(6). It is well established that entries in a police report which result from the officer's own observations and knowledge may be admitted but that statements made by third persons under no business duty to report may not. United States v. Sims, 617 F.2d 1371, 1377 (9th Cir.1980); United States v. Smith, 521 F.2d 957, 964 (D.C.Cir.1975); Colvin v. United States, 479 F.2d 998, 1003 (9th Cir.1973). 23 Here the police officer who made the recordings was acting in the regular course of business, but he had no knowledge of the truthfulness of the information being recorded, while the witnesses who gave the information which was recorded had personal knowledge but were under no business duty to report. The latter's tape-recorded statements can not be given the presumption of reliability and regularity accorded a business record. See United States v. Smith, 521 F.2d at 964; Advisory Committee Note to Fed.R.Evid. 803(6). Therefore, while the direct testimony of the witnesses was admissible at trial, the tapes were not. We conclude that the district court erred in allowing them to be played. Our disposition of this case, however, makes it unnecessary to determine whether, standing alone, such an error would require reversal under the test summarized in United States v. Hollingshead, 672 F.2d 751, 755 (9th Cir.1982). 1 24 Pazsint also contends that various other errors were made before and at trial. However, it is not necessary to discuss these contentions as they are either without merit or result solely from Pazsint's trial and conviction for an offense with which he was not charged in the indictment. The judgment of conviction is REVERSED.