Opinion ID: 727615
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Use of Audio Tapes

Text: 9 While in custody, defendant cooperated with the authorities in making several audio tapes that contained telephone conversations with her children and her co-conspirator. The district court denied a motion in limine to exclude their introduction at trial after the government proposed a limiting instruction to the effect that they were not being offered for their inherent truth but to show her intent to cooperate with the authorities, which in turn implied knowledge of the crime. Unfortunately, when the tapes were introduced, neither counsel for the government nor for defendant reminded the court to give the agreed instruction. 10 As a general rule, of course, failure to request a limiting instruction results in a waiver of the issue. United States v. Christian, 786 F.2d 203, 213 (6th Cir.1986); see also Fed.R.Crim.P. 30 (No party may assign as error any portion of the charge or omission therefrom unless that party objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter to which that party objects and the grounds of the objection.). Under these circumstances, appellate courts review for plain error only. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). 11 While government counsel suggested and framed the substance of the proposed limiting instruction, defense counsel lodged the objection and thus retained a responsibility pursuant to Rule 30 to follow up on the agreement by ensuring that the court received a proposed instruction. He failed to do so and we thus review for plain error. 12 Defendant first argues that the tapes of the conversations with her children were not relevant. However, in those conversations she discussed the whereabouts of her co-conspirator. According to Fed.R.Evid. 401,  'Relevant evidence' means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Certainly her acquaintance with her co-conspirator, the individual to whom the van containing the drugs was registered, constitutes evidence of consequence given that defendant was alleged to have conspired with that individual to traffic in drugs. 13 Her second contention, that the admission of the tape containing a conversation between herself and her co-conspirator was prejudicial, is also devoid of merit. Although the tapes contained gaps due to technical problems, they were judged by the district court to be sufficiently trustworthy. See United States v. Scarborough, 43 F.3d 1021, 1024 (6th Cir.1994) (noting that admission of tapes is committed to sound discretion of trial court, which is only abused where unintelligible portions are so substantial to render the whole untrustworthy). Having reviewed the transcripts of the tapes, we conclude that they meet this test of reliability. 14 With respect to the hearsay and confrontation problems that defendant alleges the tapes present, we observe (and defendant concedes) that, had the limiting instruction been given, neither contention would have merit. While the absence of the instruction is certainly regrettable, the overwhelming evidence of defendant's involvement in a drug-trafficking conspiracy convinces us that any error with respect to the admission of the tapes would be harmless. 15 Finally, defendant objects to the district court's decision to grant the jury's request to listen to the tapes during deliberation. Once the tapes are admitted into evidence, however, the court retains broad discretion to make them available to the jury. Scarborough, 43 F.3d at 1024. Defendant advances no cogent reason why the court abused its discretion in this instance. 16 In sum, while the handling of the tapes fell short of the ideal, we find no reversible error with respect to their admission or use.