Opinion ID: 510631
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: presentation of a full defense case

Text: 98 The final argument is raised by Dworken alone. 22 He claims that he was denied the opportunity to present his defense case. In particular, the court refused to allow him to play for the jury one six-minute audiotape of a telephone conversation between Dworken and Cunniff on March 7, 1986. Dworken claimed at trial that the voice inflections on that tape would show that he withdrew from the alleged conspiracy, and that his intent to remain involved in the scheme was at best equivocal. 99 The trial judge refused to allow Dworken to play the tape. To understand why, it is necessary to back up a bit. After the first long tape had been played in part, see supra at 27, the government moved to skip certain immaterial parts of the remainder of it. The defense would not assent to this method, instead insisting that the tape be played in its entirety in order to provide complete context for the conversations therein. Virtually all of that tape was played for the jury. Because of the time-consuming nature of this procedure, the judge soon thereafter decided that the audiotapes would not be directly used during the rest of the government's case. Instead, Agent Cunniff was asked to testify as to the essential contents of his conversations with the defendants, making reference to the tape transcripts to assist his recollection. The defense was allowed to cross-examine Cunniff to challenge his interpretations of the meetings. If his testimony was seriously impeached, the tapes could be used to rehabilitate the witness. The defendants agreed with this procedure. The government objected because, it argued, voice and demeanor were critical. The court denied the government's motion to play the entire tapes. The alternative procedure, Cunniff's testimonial summarization, was used for the remaining audiotapes. No one mentioned to the judge that the defense itself might wish to play an audiotape. 100 The tape in question recorded a conversation between Cunniff and Dworken on March 7th, after Dworken had returned to New York. Dworken's buyers evidently had become suspicious of Cunniff, and Dworken was calling to say that he couldn't bring the money up to Maine that day. He was wary of being entrapped, and expressed concern that Cunniff might be a law enforcement official. Though Dworken insisted that the doubts were only those of the buyers, it can be inferred that he too was suspicious. He was, as he claims on appeal, subdued and hesitant, even contrite, in this conversation. He proposed that Cunniff ship a large portion of the marijuana to New York as a good faith gesture. Cunniff became angered that Dworken was backing out of the deal or playing bait and switch. He refused to send the drugs without a down-payment being delivered in Maine. Dworken declined these terms, and it seemed that the deal had fallen through. (Later that day, Rogove and Dworken again called Cunniff to try to iron out their differences.) 101 On direct, Cunniff testified as to the content of the conversation. Dworken's counsel, on cross-examination, had Cunniff emphasize those portions of the tape where Dworken expressed doubt about going ahead with the deal and where Dworken flatly refused to continue on Cunniff's terms. Counsel had Cunniff confirm that the reason for Dworken's fear was suspicion that Cunniff was a law enforcement official. Cunniff's testimony accurately reflected the content of the conversation--at no point did he in any way distort what had occurred. Cunniff was not asked, on direct or cross, about voice inflection or demeanor, though counsel was free to so inquire. 102 Nonetheless, Dworken insisted after direct testimony that the jury hear the tape, so that it could discern Dworken's demeanor. The court denied this request for the following reasons. Dworken had consented to the court's decision to exclude all audiotapes. He had not mentioned his desire to play this one. Had he done so, the court initially might have taken a different approach to the tapes because it might have agreed with the government that one tape should not be played without the context of all the others. The court refused Dworken's request, reasoning that it would then have to allow the government to show more culpable demeanor on all of the other tapes. This would defeat the trial strategy that the court had fashioned with the assent of the defendants. At this point, Dworken's counsel agreed to go along with the idea of playing all the tapes if that was the only way to have his desired tape played. Counsel claimed that he had not mentioned this compromise posture before because I was bowing to my brother defense counsel with regard to their position [to refrain from playing any audiotapes]. 103 With due respect to counsel, the defendant's original consent to the exclusion of all audiotapes estopped him from making any subsequent objection. 23 The court was well within its discretion in sticking with its theretofore successful trial management strategy. It even provided Dworken the opportunity to question Cunniff on cross concerning Dworken's demeanor, and the option of recalling Cunniff on the defendant's direct case for the same purpose. Dworken did not take advantage of either option. 24 What he did do instead was to focus Cunniff's cross-examination on those portions of the conversation that best manifested Dworken's attempt to withdraw from the scheme. He did a fine job, in fact, of obscuring most of the context of the conversation, and making it sound as if Dworken had simply and un conditionally withdrawn. The playing of the tape would have only undermined Dworken's effective cross-examination of Cunniff. 104 Finally, the tape simply does not negate culpable intent--on the contrary, it makes it crystal clear that Dworken was still willing to go ahead with the deal if Cunniff would consent to his terms. The abandonment that was revealed on the tape was neither voluntary nor complete, as those terms are defined in the Model Penal Code. Dworken was to withdraw only because of fear of apprehension, not because of a change of heart. And that withdrawal was contingent, not absolute; Dworken was willing to postpone the criminal conduct until he could reach more acceptable terms. Thus, even if there had been error in excluding the tape, it would have been harmless--the tape corroborates Dworken's criminal intent.