Opinion ID: 513461
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: true and accurate recordings

Text: 13 The government presented clear and convincing evidence to show that the conversations were recorded truly and accurately. First, it demonstrated that the lines used in the wiretapping of Rudy's Service Station and the South Whipple Street apartment were voice quality lines. Ronald Kwasny, a security manager for Illinois Bell Telephone Company (Illinois Bell), testified that a voice quality line is of the same quality as a residence or business telephone line. Mr. Kwasny testified that Illinois Bell makes it a routine practice to test such a line to ensure that it meets its design or engineering standard before giving it to the DEA or FBI. Tr. vol. 9 at 1644. Second, the government demonstrated that it is the routine practice of both agencies to test the equipment involved in a wiretap prior to its use. Third, agents listened to the conversations while they were being recorded; they reported no malfunctions in the equipment. 4 Fourth, agents who listened to each stage of the recording process testified that the cassettes--from which the transcripts were made 5 --accurately reproduced the voices on the original reel-to-reel recordings of the telephone conversations. 6 And fifth, witnesses who knew either Mr. Holguin or Ms. Rivera testified that the taped voices were an accurate representation of the appellants' own voices. 7 14 In contrast, the only evidence introduced by the appellants that contradicts these submissions was the testimony of a former Illinois Bell employee, Stanley Salter. Mr. Salter testified that a human voice has much greater range than the capability of telephone equipment to capture and reproduce the voice. However, he also testified on cross-examination that telephone equipment essentially can transmit the fundamental frequency of a human voice. In addition, he opined that, although some conversations contained distortion due to poor recording techniques, he heard no noise that would be caused by, [malfunction of] 'Telephon[ic equipment.]'  Tr. vol. 29 at 5404. 15