Opinion ID: 6111649
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Customer Testimony

Text: Ten “Polo” customers testified at Defendants’ trial. Each bought drugs from “Polo” many times—some hundreds of times, and often multiple times a day. They each described buying drugs from “Polo” in the same way. First, customers called one of two phone numbers: one ending in x3399, the other ending in x5598. Customers “could call th[ose] phone[s] . . . 24/7,” and they were “always available.” (Olivia Palazzola Trial Test., R. 715, Page ID #5369). Many customers said that the same person “[u]sually, but not always” answered the phone. (Jennifer Pointer Trial Test., R. 717, Page ID #5533; see also Dan Magda Trial Test., R. 722, Page ID #5898 (stating the same person answered “[m]ost of the time”); Hannah Fenn Trial Test., R. 715, Page ID #5275 (stating “it sounded like the same person” who answered, and that “maybe once or twice somebody else had answered”)). However, a few believed that different people answered the phones. Some customers called and asked for “Polo” or called the person who answered “Polo.” But the person answering did not identify himself, and customers never met anyone who introduced himself as “Polo.” Even so, customers understood “Polo” to mean “one person.” (Pointer Test., R. 717, Page ID #5530). On this first call, the person who answered the phone directed the customer to a meeting spot, usually one of five locations in east Detroit: Hamburg Street, Dresden Street, the intersection of Bradford Avenue and Bringard Drive, the intersection of Seven Mile Road and Gratiot Avenue, or the intersection of Eight Mile Road and Hoover Road. At the meeting spots, cars often “lined up” waiting to buy drugs. (Tomic Test., R. 721, Page ID #5665). Once the customer arrived, a “runner” would approach her. (Christina Yako Trial Test., R. 723, Page ID ##5990–91). Runners were people who “went around and sold the drugs for whoever was in Nos. 19-2217/2221/20-1177 United States v. Sadler, et al. Page 4 charge.” (Pointer Test., R. 721, Page ID #5603; see also Yako Test., R. 723, Page ID #5990 (describing a “runner” as the one who “comes out and gives the drugs real quick, and just . . . goes back in”)). Customers met different runners depending on when and where they bought drugs. Sometimes the runner had the drugs on him, but sometimes he went “around the corner of a [vacant] house . . . and then [he] would come ba[ck] with the drugs.” (Grzywacz Test., R. 722, Page ID #5860). Runners were usually alone and often on foot. Occasionally, however, the runner would be in a van or car when approaching the customer. If the runner was in a car, he was usually with two or three other people. After a runner approached the customer, the customer placed an order. If the customer wanted heroin, she asked for “boy,” and if she wanted crack cocaine, she asked for “girl.” (Palazzolo Test., R. 715, Page ID #5345; Dabish Test., R. 705, Page ID #3958). The drugs were packaged in small plastic bags about 0.5 to 1.5 inches in size, and each small bag cost $20. Sometimes the runner took the small bag of drugs out of a larger “sandwich bag that had . . . little bags in it.” (Pointer Test., R. 717, Page ID #5537). After serving a customer, the runner “would walk up to the next car or walk back where they came from.” (Palazzolo Test., R. 715, Page ID #5351). One runner, Amacio Alexander, testified at Defendants’ trial. In May or June 2016, a man known as “Mr. Howard” recruited Alexander to sell drugs. (Amacio Alexander Trial Test., R. 705, Page ID ##4032–35). Alexander’s job was to stand on Hamburg Street and “[s]ell a little product.” (Id. at Page ID #4040). On a typical day, he sold drugs to about 50 customers. Mr. Howard gave him the drugs to sell in a sandwich bag with about 50 small, prepackaged bags of drugs. Alexander usually sold three or four sandwich bags—roughly 150 to 200 small, individual bags—each day. He sold each bag for $20, and, when he ran out, Mr. Howard found him, took the money from earlier sales, left, and returned with a replenished bag of drugs.