Opinion ID: 2978474
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of Copied Audio Recordings

Text: We review the district court’s evidentiary decisions for an abuse of discretion. Rush v. Ill. Cent. R.R. Co., 399 F.3d 705, 715 (6th Cir. 2005). “An abuse of discretion occurs where the district court clearly erred in its judgment after weighing the relevant factors, improperly applied the correct law, or inappropriately used the wrong legal standard.” Id. (internal quotations omitted). The Federal Rules of Evidence require evidence to be authenticated or identified through a showing “sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.” Fed. R. Evid. 901(a). By way of example, this can be satisfied with testimony from a witness with knowledge of the matter. Fed. R. Evid. 901(b)(1). For voice identification, opinion testimony by someone who heard the voice “at any time under circumstances connecting it with the alleged speaker” can be used for authentication. Fed. R. Evid. 901(b)(5). Simms essentially claims two errors with the district court’s admission of the CD into evidence. He first argues that Exhibit 3, the CD admitted at trial, was not properly authenticated because it was a copy of a copied CD, and the captain who made the copy did not testify at trial. For audio recordings to be admissible, the district court must be satisfied as to the general trustworthiness of the recording, and a proper foundation must be established either through chain of custody or testimony establishing the accuracy of the evidence. United States v. DeJohn, 368 F.3d 533, 542–43 (6th Cir. 2004). We have previously upheld the admission of copied audio recordings where a proper foundation was laid as to the copies’ accuracy and authenticity. See, e.g., DeJohn, -7- No. 07-4512 USA v. Antrown Simms 368 F.3d at 543 (upholding admission of copied tape recordings where a witness testified as to the process used to obtain the wiretap, monitor the conversations, log the results, and copy portions from the original); United States v. Segines, 17 F.3d 847, 854 (6th Cir. 1994) (upholding admission of a composite tape where a witness testified as to how the composite was made). In this case, the computer specialist from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department testified about the process used to record inmates’ conversations and to copy Simms’s conversations from the jail’s server. In addition, a detective with the Sheriff’s Department identified Exhibit 3 as being a copy of the CD copied from the jail’s server. While the testifying detective was not present when Exhibit 3 was made, he identified the handwriting on the front of the CD as belonging to that of the captain who made the copy, and he testified that he listened to the first copy and portions of the second copy. Simms claims that this testimony is not sufficient because the captain who copied the CD did not testify and the audio recordings could have been altered during copying. This argument, however, does not implicate the CD’s admissibility but instead goes to the weight that should be attributed to it. United States v. Allen, 106 F.3d 695, 700 (6th Cir. 1997). Simms’s second argument is that the voices on the CD were not properly identified at trial. When the speaker’s identity is at issue, “[t]he standard for the admissibility of an opinion as to the identity of the speaker is merely that the identifier has heard the voice of the alleged speaker at any time.” United States v. Cooke, 795 F.2d 527, 530 (6th Cir. 1986) (quoting United States v. Rizzo, 492 F.2d 443, 448 (2d Cir. 1974)). To identify the voices on the CD, the government offered the testimony of a detective with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department as well as an officer with the Ohio Adult Parole Authority. Both witnesses identified the voices on the CD as belonging to -8- No. 07-4512 USA v. Antrown Simms Simms and his girlfriend based on prior conversations that the officers had with the two. Simms claims this identification was not sufficient because the witnesses had last heard the voices when the case was under investigation, which was two years before the trial. But this argument lacks merit because the Federal Rules of Evidence allows voice identification by someone who became familiar with the voice at any time and does not place a time limitation on the familiarity. Fed. R. Evid. 901(b)(5) (emphasis added). Taken as a whole, the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the CD into evidence.