Opinion ID: 3001340
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Conversations Between Meneghetti and

Text: Sowers As noted above, Schalk argues that the statements recorded during Meneghetti and Sowers’s conversations were not in furtherance of the conspiracy. We disagree. During those conversations, Meneghetti and Sowers 10 No. 06-2142 discussed Sowers’s plans to meet with an unnamed man, the possibility of having to meet that man halfway, and Sowers’s intentions to get the cocaine to Meneghetti as quickly as possible so that Meneghetti could pay off his debt to Sowers. During the January 24, 2005 conversations, Sowers asked if Meneghetti had anyone that wanted to buy the cocaine right now with money up front, and how much money Meneghetti could get to Sowers that week. They also talked about Schalk leaving town and Sowers’s plans to meet him to stock up while he was gone. These statements are not “idle chatter,” but are discussions about supply, demand, transportation, and finances directly related to and in furtherance of the drug conspiracy. See, e.g., United States v. Powers, 75 F.3d 335, 339 (7th Cir. 1996) (discussions about directions to pick up drugs or money to pay for drugs were necessary for the actual conspiracy to distribute drugs, and thus were “in furtherance of the conspiracy”); United States v. Stephenson, 53 F.3d 836, 845 (7th Cir. 1995) (statements made to keep others informed of or confident in the alleged conspiracy “further the conspiracy”). Schalk also argues that he and Meneghetti never had an agreement to distribute cocaine. This argument is irrelevant because Meneghetti’s statements were not admitted as those of a co-conspirator under Rule 801(d)(2)(E). Meneghetti’s statements, as a government informant during these conversations, were not admissible for their truth, but were admissible for the context they provided for Sowers’s statements. Meneghetti’s statements were thus properly admitted. Next, Schalk appears to argue that Sowers’s statements to Meneghetti are inadmissible hearsay because “Sowers became an informant shortly after Meneghetti recorded him.” This argument is not only frivolous, but in fact acknowledges that Sowers was still a party to the drug distribution conspiracy at the time of his conversaNo. 06-2142 11 tions with Meneghetti, as further evidenced by Schalk’s distribution of eleven ounces of cocaine to Sowers two days after the last conversation taped by Meneghetti. The district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the recorded conversations between Meneghetti and Sowers.