Opinion ID: 2995380
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denial of Salami’s Motion to Admit

Text: Prosecutor’s Statements Salami’s next claim is that the district court erred in excluding statements made by a prosecutor during Bonsu’s plea hearing. Salami offered those statements into evidence pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2). During the plea hearing of Bonsu, the prosecutor stated that Bonsu received sample dosages of heroin from three suppliers: Oyesile, Nubuor, and Salami. The prosecutor then stated that Bonsu gave the sample dosages received from Oyesile and Nubuor to the FBI’s agent, in anticipation of the Janu ary 14 deal. The prosecutor did not mention what Bonsu did with the sample dosage provided by Salami. At trial, the government introduced evidence that Salami admitted to providing Bonsu with a sample dosage of heroin on January 13, 1998. In addition, Salami, in cross- examination, elicited testimony from an FBI agent indicating that Bonsu also passed the sample dosage received from Salami onto the FBI informant. After this alleged inconsistency was exposed, Salami attempted to introduce the prosecutor’s statements at the Bonsu plea hearing as a judicial admission, pursuant to 801(d)(2). The district court denied Salami’s motion, noting that the prosecutor’s statements were based upon information gleaned from Bonsu and that it could hardly hold what [Bonsu] said and what the government was willing to stipulate with Mr. Bonsu about as a judicial admission[,] given that Mr. Bonsu was not competent at the time. In his appeal, Salami argues that the district court should have admitted the prosecutor’s statements as admissions of a party opponent. We need not address Salami’s contention that a government prosecutor’s statements may be admitted into evidence as a statement of a party opponent to conclude that, even under the most searching review, the district court’s ruling would amount to harmless error./7 Salami admitted to engaging in fulsome discussion with Bonsu regarding the January 14 heroin transaction and admitted that he supplied Bonsu with a sample dosage of heroin. It would strain the bounds of reason and logic to assume that a jury would change its determinations about Salami’s involvement in the drug conspiracy, in the face of a minor misunderstanding over what happened to the sample dosage of heroin he supplied to the government’s informant. Furthermore, this is not a case where the alleged erroneous exclusion of evidence precluded Salami from presenting his defense. See, e.g., United States v. Peak, 856 F.2d 825, 834-35 (7th Cir. 1988). Therefore, we find Salami’s arguments on this matter to be unavailing.