Opinion ID: 788362
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Hearsay Objection

Text: 54 We begin by noting that part of Febus's testimony was indeed hearsay. Febus testified that (1) the FBI agent told her (2) what AI indicated as to (3) what instructions Aspinall had given AI. Thus, there are three levels of out-of-court statements at issue. The first and second, i.e., what the FBI agent told Febus and what AI communicated to the FBI agent, were, as will be discussed below, hearsay. The third-level statements, however, i.e., the instructions written on the AI documents, were not hearsay for two reasons. The classic definition of hearsay is testimony as to an out-of-court statement, offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted in that statement. See, e.g., McCormick, Evidence § 246, at 584 (2d ed. 1972) ( McCormick on Evidence ); Fed.R.Evid. 801(c) (`Hearsay' is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.). The AI documents were not offered for the truth of their contents but for the fact that the statements were made, i.e., that the services of AI were engaged (Exhibit 3) and that AI was given instructions, as responses on its questionnaire form, on how to describe Aspinall's employment ( see Exhibit 2); indeed, the government argued that the contents of the responses to the AI questionnaire were false ( see, e.g., Rev. Tr. 25). Accordingly, as they were not offered for their truth, the statements in the AI documents were not within the definition of hearsay. Further, if those statements were made by Aspinall, they would not be hearsay even if offered by the government for their truth, because a party's own statement, offered against that party, is defined as not hearsay. Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(A). See also McCormick on Evidence § 262, at 628-29 (even if regarded as hearsay, statements of a party opponent are admissible without presentation of any predicate or foundation). 55 On the other hand, the testimony of Febus as to statements made to her by the FBI agent was plainly hearsay. Part of that testimony described the agent's observations and matters within the agent's own knowledge: the layout of the premises at the address Aspinall had given for Shard, the observation that there was only a telephone answering service, not a consulting firm, operating there, and the fact that the agent was given two documents by AI. Although on this appeal Aspinall complains that the FBI agent was not produced at the hearing and hence could not be cross-examined, Aspinall made no objection to that part of Febus's testimony at the hearing. As revealed by the transcript passages set forth in Part I.A. above, defense counsel did not object until Febus, after giving the above testimony, was asked what the AI documents themselves showed with respect to Aspinall ( see Rev. Tr. 23); and the objections focused solely on the source and import of the documents' contents ( see, e.g., id. at 23, 24, 26, 27). Thus, Aspinall's present challenge to so much of Febus's testimony as described the FBI agent's actions and observations is reviewable only for plain error, see Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). 56 A plain error is one that prejudicially affected the defendant's substantial rights and seriously affect[ed] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993) (internal quotation marks omitted); see, e.g., United States v. Gordon, 291 F.3d 181, 193 (2d Cir.2002), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1114, 123 S.Ct. 866, 154 L.Ed.2d 788 (2003). A plain-error challenge to the admission of evidence faces an uphill battle when the defendant has raised no question as to the information's relevance or accuracy. Cf. United States v. Szakacs, 212 F.3d 344, 353 (7th Cir.2000) (consideration of hearsay evidence at sentencing hearing held not plain error, in part because there was no indication nor even an assertion at sentencing or on appeal that the hearsay was in any way inaccurate or misleading), cert. denied, 532 U.S. 985, 121 S.Ct. 1631, 149 L.Ed.2d 492 (2001). 57 Aspinall's present challenge to the admission of Febus's description of the FBI agent's observations and receipt of documents from AI clearly fails the plain-error test. The lone presence of the AI answering service at the address Aspinall had given for Shard was relevant to the allegation that Aspinall had lied to the Probation Department about her employment. The FBI agent obviously would have been competent to testify to her observations of those premises; and, as the district court later noted, the layout of AI's premises was neither hard to prove or disprove nor controversial (Bail Hearing Transcript, August 12, 2004 (Bail Tr.), at 5). Further, there can be little question that the AI documents were given to the agent by AI. Indeed, the substance of the unobjected-to hearsay testimony by Febus has not been contested by Aspinall in any way. The admission of Febus's unchallenged testimony as to the FBI agent's observations and receipt of the documents from AI did not constitute plain error. 58 Aspinall did, however, challenge the testimony by Febus to the effect that AI had represented to the FBI agent that the instructions given in Exhibits 2 and 3 came from Aspinall. Febus did not attempt to recount the precise conversations between the agent and AI—which would have made the hearsay nature of the information received from AI clear—and the record does not include the details of those conversations. However, it was established that the agent had gone to AI's premises expressly to inquire about Aspinall and Shard; AI's giving the agent those two documents in response to the agent's questions constituted a representation by AI that it had received the statements on those documents from Aspinall, and as such, it was hearsay, for actions may be as much a part of the speaker's effort at expression as his words are, McCormick on Evidence § 250, at 596; see, e.g., Fed.R.Evid. 801(a)(2) (nonverbal conduct of a person, if it is intended by the person as an assertion, is a statement within the meaning of the hearsay rule); Stevenson v. Commonwealth, 218 Va. 462, 237 S.E.2d 779 (1977) (where a police officer requested that the defendant's wife give him the clothes the defendant had been wearing on the day of a certain homicide, the wife's giving the officer a shirt constituted a nonverbal assertion that defendant wore that shirt on the day of that homicide). Thus, AI's giving the agent Exhibits 2 and 3 in response to the agent's inquiry is properly viewed as an assertion by AI that the source of the written statements on the documents was Aspinall. 59 At the hearing, Aspinall objected to that assertion as hearsay, stating, inter alia, that the admission of the documents would violate her constitutional right of confrontation (Rev. Tr. 24). On this appeal, she argues that the admission of Febus's testimony as to AI's representation that Aspinall made the statements in Exhibits 2 and 3 violated her rights of confrontation and cross-examination, as recently enunciated by the Supreme Court in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), and as provided by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. 60