Opinion ID: 660188
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: heintz's testimony regarding a phone conversation with curcio

Text: 71 Curcio argues that the district court in the second trial erred in admitting the testimony of Markoff's employee, Kimberly Heintz, regarding her telephone conversation with Curcio. Heintz testified that after she sent a report to Curcio regarding one of his clients, a man who identified himself as Curcio called her. Govt.App. at 138-41; Curcio App. at 86-88. According to Heintz, this man stated that he had received the report she sent and requested a bill to go along with the report on his client for treatment from a period of May 1983 through September of 1984 or into September of 1984. Govt.App. at 139. When Heintz retrieved the patient's billing card, she found records of only a few treatments in May 1983. Id. However, Markoff instructed her to prepare a bill for treatment covering the entire period. Id. at 140. 72 Curcio argues that the district court erred in admitting Heintz's testimony regarding the phone conversation because Heintz was not competent to testify on this matter. Curcio Br. at 40 (citing Fed.R.Evid. 104). However, as the government points out, Curcio's actual complaint is that testimony regarding the phone conversation was inadmissible because the requirements of Fed.R.Evid. 901 were not satisfied. Govt.Br. at 33. Rule 901(a) provides that in order to be admissible, evidence must be authenticated or identified by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims. Thus, based on Rule 901, Heintz's testimony regarding the content of her phone conversation was inadmissible, unless there was sufficient evidence to support a finding that the phone conversation was in fact a phone conversation between Heintz and Curcio. 73 [I]t is well settled that telephone calls may be authenticated by circumstantial evidence as well as by direct recognition of the person calling. United States v. Alper, 449 F.2d 1223, 1229 (3d Cir.1971) (citing United States v. Frank, 290 F.2d 195 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 821, 82 S.Ct. 38, 7 L.Ed.2d 26 (1961)), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 988, 92 S.Ct. 1248, 31 L.Ed.2d 453 (1972). 17 74 'The issue for the trial judge in determining whether the required foundation for the introduction of the evidence has been established is whether the proof is such that the jury, acting as reasonable men, could find its authorship as claimed by the proponent. The scope of appellate review upon this issue is confined to determining whether the admission constituted abuse of judicial discretion in determining that a prima facie case had been made out.' 75 United States v. Addonizio, 451 F.2d 49, 72 (3d Cir.) (quoting Carbo v. United States, 314 F.2d 718, 743 (9th Cir.1963)), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 936, 92 S.Ct. 949, 30 L.Ed.2d 812 (1972). We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting Heintz's testimony regarding the phone conversation. 18 As stated in the Advisory Committee Notes on Rule 901, a document or telephone conversation may be shown to have emanated from a particular person by virtue of its disclosing knowledge of facts known peculiarly to him. Fed.R.Evid. 901 advisory committee note ex. (4). In this case, the content of the conversation combined with the caller's self-identification sufficiently supported a finding that Curcio was the caller. 76