Opinion ID: 514214
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admissibility of the Agro Plea of Guilty

Text: 43 Count 13 of the redacted indictment charged that Montemarano had participated in the bribery of a federal prison official in an effort to have Persico transferred from the prison he was in to a preferred prison. In support of this charge, the government presented evidence that Montemarano had approached one Thomas Agro, a soldier in the Gambino organized crime family, seeking permission to have one of Agro's underlings arrange the transfer, and that Agro had cooperated in these efforts. Agro was later indicted on a variety of charges in another case, and part of the government's evidence on count 13 in the present case was Agro's allocution in connection with his 1987 plea of guilty to two counts of racketeering in that case, United States v. Agro, No. 86 Cr. 452 (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 11, 1987). In that allocution, Agro admitted that from August 1981 to September 1982, he and others (unnamed) had attempted, by means of bribery, to move Carmine Persico through the prison system. 44 Over Montemarano's hearsay objection, the trial court admitted the Agro allocution into evidence on the ground that it was a declaration against Agro's penal interest and thus not excludable as hearsay. See Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(3). Montemarano challenges this ruling, arguing that in fact Agro was terminally ill at the time of his plea and that his plea of guilty served to keep him out of prison and hence was not really against his penal interest. We find no error in the court's ruling. 45 In general a plea of guilty is a statement against the penal interest of the pleader for the obvious reason that it exposes him to criminal liability. See, e.g., United States v. Winley, 638 F.2d 560 (2d Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 959, 102 S.Ct. 1472, 71 L.Ed.2d 678 (1982). Likewise, so much of the allocution as states that that defendant committed or participated in the commission of a crime, thereby permitting the court to accept the plea, see Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(e), is normally against his interest. If, however, a pleading defendant had an agreement with the government or with the court that he would not be punished for the crimes to which he allocuted, then that allocution would not subject him to criminal liability and would not constitute a statement against his penal interest within the meaning of Rule 804(b)(3). 46 Agro's plea and allocution were properly viewed as statements against his penal interest. The plea exposed him to a potential sentence of 40 years' imprisonment and fines totaling $275,000. There is no evidence that he had entered into any understanding with the government or the court that he would not be sentenced for the crimes to which he allocuted. And while we stress that a defendant's unilateral belief would not suffice to neutralize the exposure ordinarily inherent in a self-incriminating plea or allocution, we also point out that even if Agro privately believed that because of his illness the court would not require him to suffer incarceration, there would be little reason for him to suppose that the court would also therefore excuse him from paying a fine.