Opinion ID: 365589
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mary Elizabeth Corley

Text: 4 Corley was one of several persons found mixing heroin when police officers searched the Lizarragas' house and garage pursuant to a search warrant. Issuance of the warrant was based in part upon an informant-heroin user's tip, which led to identification of Alonso as the supplier for the informant's dealer, one Blondie. Corley argues that disclosure of the informant's identity was necessary to permit her to attack adequately the sufficiency of the warrant and to aid generally in her substantive defense. She relies upon Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 77 S.Ct. 623, 1 L.Ed.2d 639 (1957), arguing that since the informant was involved as a purchaser of heroin from Blondie, and because he observed drug transactions between Blondie and Alonso, he was a percipient, necessary witness. 5 This argument must be rejected. Roviaro involved an informant who was the sole participant, other than the accused, in the transaction charged. Id. at 64, 77 S.Ct. at 630 (emphasis added). Here the incidents about which the informant gave information were not charged, but were relevant only to the establishment of probable cause for the search. In McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300, 87 S.Ct. 1056, 18 L.Ed.2d 62 (1967), the Court upheld a state court's refusal, when the lawfulness of an arrest was in question, to compel disclosure of the identity of an informant whose information had been relied upon to establish probable cause. Here, as in McCray, the information given by the informant and the basis for believing the information reliable were specifically articulated. There is no reason to overturn the trial judge's implicit finding that the officers reasonably believed the informant to be reliable. The suggestion that disclosure of the informant's identity would have been helpful generally to the defense is mere speculation. See United States v. Marshall, 532 F.2d 1279, 1282 (9th Cir. 1976). 6 Corley argues additionally that disclosure of the informant's identity was necessary to permit her to raise an entrapment defense. She apparently argues that because the informant-heroin user purchased heroin from Blondie, who in turn purchased from Alonso, the next higher level supplier, this  created the intent in the mind of the supplier (Blondie) to possess heroin for sale, overcame the resistance of the supplier and directly caused the chain of events that eventually led to the participation of (Corley) in the offense of possession of heroin. Even crediting Corley's farfetched chain of logic, the ultimate contention is without merit. Entrapment occurs when officers induce the commission of a crime, not when they merely afford opportunities for its commission. United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 435, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 36 L.Ed.2d 366 (1973); Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 372, 78 S.Ct. 819, 2 L.Ed.2d 848 (1958); Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 441, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932).