Opinion ID: 274556
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the proffered evidence relating to what the f. b. i. overheard.

Text: 18 Throughout the last nine months of the alleged conspiracy, from March 22 to the end of December 1962, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation monitored conversations originating in the conference room in the Desert Inn's executive office suite. This was effected through an arrangement between the F.B.I. and the Central Telephone Company of Las Vegas whereby a listening device located in the conference room was connected to telephone company service lines which in turn were connected to the F.B.I.'s Las Vegas office. The device was not a wiretap, but simply a type of microphone that could pick up normal conversations. In the case of telephone conversations, only the voice of the person speaking from the Desert Inn could be heard. 1 The purpose of the device was to investigate certain suspect activities and associations by the Desert Inn ownership. The investigation was in no way related to the instant case, and in fact counsel for appellant Kolod was advised by Department of Justice officials prior to trial and long after the device was discovered and disconnected that no leads germane to this case were obtained from that source. 19 At the trial, appellant Kolod testified that many of his interstate telephone conversations with Sunshine, including those in the period March 1962 to December 1962, had been from the conference room of the Desert Inn's executive office suite. Then, for the stated purpose of directly corroborating Kolod's testimony that he had not threatened Sunshine, Kolod's counsel made a proffer that if he would be permitted to explore before the jury the fact that a listening device had been located in that room, he would show that agents of the F.B.I. had overheard many of the telephone conversations between Kolod and Sunshine and had never heard a single threat. After extended consultations out of the jury's presence, the trial judge rejected the proffer as a fishing expedition, calculated to confuse and prejudice the jury with irrelevant and immaterial evidence against an agency of the government. The court also denied a defense motion for production of the F.B.I. records relating to the Desert Inn investigation, but agreed to inspect in camera the F.B.I. records available to government counsel to determine whether they contained any material which would support the credibility of the defendants' testimony. Upon conclusion of that inspection, the court found that there was absolutely nothing in the materials relating to any conversations between Kolod and Sunshine. 20 Appellants asserted below and have twice re-asserted in support of their appeal to this court that because of the tenuous thread of credibility upon which the government's case depends, the negative evidence of what the F.B.I. did or did not overhear should have been sent to the jury. 21 On January 27, 1966, prior to the initial appellate arguments in this case, counsel for the government advised this court that he had learned for the first time of the existence of additional files related to the F.B.I.'s Desert Inn investigation. While it was stated that the files contained no information affecting the pending appeal, counsel requested an Order that the District Court examine these additional files and the files previously furnished and make such findings and enter such order as justice requires. On May 12, 1966, after the initial appellate arguments, this court ordered a limited remand with directions to the trial court to (a) examine in camera the additional files of the government and (b) allow appellants to call as witnesses such government agents and employees as were included within the proffer of proof and examine the same under the rules of evidence as to their subjective knowledge of the telephone calls. The trial court was further directed that if after such examination and hearing the appellants had established the relevancy of their proffered evidence, an order should be entered for such relief as might be proper under the circumstances. 22 In granting the limited remand this court stated in its order: 23 The original government files    were submitted to the trial court for in camera inspection in conjunction with a proffer of proof made by appellants during the course of the trial and purportedly constituted a partial record of mechanically intercepted phone calls made between Las Vegas, Nevada and Denver, Colorado. Appellants as part of their proffer of proof also sought to call as witnesses certain agents and employees of the government who might have knowledge of the substance of such intercepted phone calls that did not reflect in the government files. The proffer of proof was rejected by order of the trial court and such ruling is now asserted to be trial error of a prejudicial nature. 24 Usually it is incumbent upon a party who makes a proffer of proof to show the relevancy of such proof as a premise to the proffer. Appellants made no such showing in the case at bar but were unable to do so because knowledge of the contents of the government files and knowledge of what additional subjective information the government agents had or did not have was peculiarly that of the government and not known to appellants. Under these special circumstances, failure of appellants to show the relevancy of the agents' testimony was not fatal to the proffer. 25 In substance we then concluded that appellants had a right to pursue the possibility that the F.B.I. agents had subjective knowledge of the substance of phone calls made and overheard from the Desert Inn which would substantiate their claim that they had not threatened Sunshine. If, in fact, the agents had listened to Kolod-Sunshine calls and recalled no threats, the testimony would clearly be probative and proper for jury consideration. 26 Pursuant to our remand, the trial court examined over seven hundred numbered pages of F.B.I. logs which covered each day, from March 22, 1962 to August 14, 1963, when the listening device was operative in the executive office suite of the Desert Inn. The trial court also heard the testimony of ten persons called as witnesses by defense counsel. 2 All of these persons had been associated with the F.B.I.'s Las Vegas office and its investigation of the owners of the Desert Inn during the period in question. 27 The logs and a complete transcript of the hearings have now been included in the appellate record. Their contents may be summarized as follows: In none of the materials does it appear that a single telephone call was ever made or received by appellant Kolod in the executive office suite of the Desert Inn. Further, although the materials show that Kolod's name was mentioned several times by other persons, on only two or three occasions between March 22, 1962 and August 14, 1963 does it appear that Kolod was even present in the room where the listening device was located; and on none of those occasions was he talking on the telephone. With respect to the F.B.I. agents called as witnesses by defense counsel at the hearing, not one of them testified to a subjective knowledge of any telephone calls made or received by Kolod. Accordingly, the potential relevancy of the agents' testimony was not established and, to the contrary, it became apparent that Kolod's credibility would be negatived by such testimony. Kolod testified that he used a certain phone; the agents' testimony established only that they overheard no such telephone conversations. Such a nebulous conflict had no probative value in the trial issues and obviously would lead to a dramatic but immaterial diversion to a side issue if submitted to the jury. Appellants failed to establish the relevancy of their proffer, and their request to have this evidence submitted to a jury was properly denied. See Lujan v. United States, 10 Cir., 209 F.2d 190, 194. 28 Appellants now contend that under the authority of at least two Supreme Court cases and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, they should have been permitted to inspect the F.B.I. logs that were examined in camera by the trial court and use them in cross-examination of the F.B.I. agents. We can find no merit to this contention. 29 First, because some of the witnesses at the hearing testified that they had consulted the logs to refresh their memories shortly before coming into court, appellants state that those logs should have been turned over to the defense on proper motion under the rule of Jencks v. United States, 353 U.S. 657, 77 S.Ct. 1007, 1 L.Ed.2d 1103, and 18 U.S.C. § 3500. We need only cite the distinction made by the trial court: The Jencks rule was directed to written evidence referred to by prosecution witnesses; here the witnesses were called to testify in behalf of the defense. Further, Jencks was designed to prevent a holding back of evidence relating to the prosecution's case; here, as already demonstrated, the evidence was unrelated to the prosecution. 30 Next, appellants refer to Dennis v. United States, 384 U.S. 855, 868-875, 86 S.Ct. 1840, 16 L.Ed.2d 973, where it was held that the defense is entitled to inspect grand jury minutes before completion of the cross-examination of prosecution witnesses. We re-emphasize that the F.B.I. agents called to testify in the instant case were defense, not prosecution, witnesses. Thus, the questioning of these agents by defense counsel was direct, not cross, examination. Further, it is manifest that one cannot draw a reasonable comparison between the irrelevant proffer made here and the facts in Dennis. We note incidentally that all grand jury minutes requested at the trial of this case, a trial that occurred over a year before the Dennis decision, were in fact furnished to defense counsel for use in cross-examination of the government's witnesses. 31 Finally, appellants suggest that the F.B.I. logs are tangible fruits of an unlawful invasion of privacy and, accordingly, must be returned to the persons whose voices are represented in the summaries and transcriptions. While the legality of such a method of investigation by a law enforcement agency is not presently before us, if we assume without deciding that appellants are correct in their novel contention, they nevertheless are not entitled to this evidence because, on the basis of in camera inspection by both the trial court and this court, there is nothing summarized or transcribed therein which purports to reflect any statement by any appellant. There is, in conclusion, simply no support in law or fact for the proposition that these appellants should have access to these government documents. 32 II. THE MOTION TO SEVER THE TRIAL OF ALDERISIO FROM THE TRIAL OF KOLOD AND ALDERMAN. 33 During the trial, after the government had presented its case in chief and after co-defendants Kolod and Alderman had testified in their own behalf, Alderman's counsel moved orally in a chambers conference for severance of the trial of co-defendant Alderisio. As stated to the trial court, the grounds for the motion were (1) that as a co-defendant Alderisio had chosen to exercise his right not to testify but he was needed as a defense witness to exculpate Kolod and Alderman from any association with his and Di Pietto's July 6, 1961 visit to Sunshine's office in Denver, and (2) that under the authority of De Luna v. United States, 5 Cir., 308 F.2d 140, 1 A.L.R.3d 969, rehearing denied, 324 F.2d 375, if Alderisio were called to testify and he declined, counsel for Kolod and Alderman wanted to be able to comment to the jury about it without causing a mistrial. A third ground that apparently is raised for the first time on appeal is that Alderisio's refusal to take the witness stand was made known to counsel for the other co-defendants only after the government's case was complete. Our consideration of these contentions must reflect the premise that disposition of a motion for severance is a matter within the discretion of the trial court, and will not be set aside upon appeal unless it clearly appears that appellants did not receive a fair trial as a result of the denial of their motion. Baker v. United States, 10 Cir., 329 F.2d 786, 787. 34 In conjunction with the first ground for the motion, appellant Alderisio filed with the trial court an affidavit stating that appellants Kolod and Alderman had nothing to do with his visit to Sunshine's office, that he was prepared to testify to the matter, but that after giving such testimony he would be compelled to invoke the protection of the Fifth Amendment and thus greatly impair his own right to trial by a fair and impartial jury. The affidavit concluded: 35 [Y]our affiant will refuse to testify on behalf of Kolod and Alderman in any trial in which he is also a defendant on the grounds that such testimony would deprive your affiant of the fair trial guaranteed him by the Constitution of the United States. 36 Significantly, the affidavit was couched in terms which indicated that Alderisio intended to invoke his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination whether he testified as a co-defendant or as a severed defense witness. Had the government attempted to present culpatory evidence from a witness who would refuse defense cross examination upon other than a collateral matter, it would have been appropriate to order the direct testimony stricken. United States v. Cardillo, 2 Cir., 316 F.2d 606, 613-614; Montgomery v. United States, 5 Cir., 203 F.2d 887, 890-891. The case at bar presents the counter problem used as a sudden instrument to present the trial court with apparently impossible alternatives. In such case the law recognizes that timeliness of presentation, totally lacking here, is a proper and prime factor in determining an accused's rights in the orderly conduct of a trial. Further, even if we ignore the clear import of the affidavit, the trial court could not be forced into the position of having to speculate on whether Alderisio would be more willing to waive his constitutional privilege if and when called as a severed defense witness than he was if and when called as a co-defendant. Gorin v. United States, 1 Cir., 313 F.2d 641, 645-646. The facts here therefore are plainly distinguishable from United States v. Echeles, 7 Cir., 352 F.2d 892, where the pretrial motion for a severance declared that if the co-defendant to be used as an exculpatory witness were tried first, he would not invoke the Fifth Amendment when subsequently called to testify in a separate trial. 37 Appellants' second ground in support of their motion for severance is similarly unconvincing. Much reliance is placed upon the De Luna case, supra, where the Fifth Circuit stated: 38 If an attorney's duty to his client should require him to draw the jury's attention to the possible inference of guilt from a co-defendant's silence, the trial judge's duty is to order that the defendants be tried separately. 39