Opinion ID: 294420
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the identity of the informant.

Text: 21 Appellant made two requests for the identity of the informant here, first at arraignment and the second during trial. He now complains generally of the trial court's refusal to disclose the name of the informant until after Mehciz himself had taken the stand during the trial. 22 When the request was made at arraignment, counsel for Mehciz indicated that he wanted the identification because it was the information supplied by the informant which formed the sole basis for probable cause. Agent Fluhr testified extensively at the hearing as to his former relations with the informant and so conclusively established his reliability that appellant does not now challenge the trial court's ruling that the established reliability of the informant adequately supported the arrest of Mehciz on probable cause. 23 Assigning error to the trial court's refusal to supply the name of the informant at this stage of the prosecution, appellant relies on Costello v. United States, 298 F.2d 99 (9th Cir. 1962) for the broad proposition that 'if the prosecution relies solely upon the tip of an informant as the sole justification for arrest, it must disclose the informant's identity.' 24 Our reading of Costello fails to justify this broad rule. The crucial distinction between this case and Costello is that the record in Costello failed to reveal any showing that the informant was reliable. Indeed, in Costello the court specifically noted that there was no showing that the informant was other than 'an anonymous uncorroborated caller.' 11 Here we have an informant of unquestioned reliability and we agree with the statement in Costello that the 'reliability of the informant is the controlling factor.' 12 25 More pertinent to the resolution of this question is McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300, 87 S.Ct. 1056, 18 L.Ed.2d 62 (1967). Under somewhat similar factual circumstances the Court specifically ruled that a state trial court need not require police officers to reveal the name of a reliable informant where 'the issue is the preliminary one of probable cause, and guilt or innocence is not at stake.' 13 The reasons for refusing to disclose the identity of an informant are well known, 14 as is the existence of the tremendous traffic in narcotics and dangerous drugs which require federal and state officers to rely heavily on informants. 26 We would therefore reiterate what was said in McCray, Draper and Costello: the reliability of an informant is the controlling factor in establishing probable cause for arrest under these circumstances and a trial court need not require federal agents to disclose the identity of a reliable informant where the sole ground for seeking that information is to establish the existence of probable cause for arrest. 15 27 Appellant's counsel renewed his request for the identity of the informant on the first day of trial. At this time he indicated for the first time that he intended to interpose the defense of entrapment and that he needed the name of the informant to establish it. The trial court noted that the defendant was well aware of the circumstances surrounding his transportation of the LSD to Phoenix and could well have raised this defense before and sought the name of the informant. The motion was again denied 'until such time as there develops any evidence of entrapment here.' 28 Mehciz then took the stand and admitted that he had transported the LSD from Los Angeles to Phoenix. His testimony was that one Brazil had hired him, at Brazil's initiative, to transport the LSD. The trial court then agreed that entrapment had been established as a viable defense and ordered Agent Fluhr to take the stand and state the name of the informant. Fluhr was recalled to the stand and identified Brazil as his informant. 29 After having finally secured the name of the informant which it had so long sought, the defense rested at this point without calling Brazil to the stand. The government, however, then called Brazil in rebuttal. Brazil emphatically denied that he had hired Mehciz to transport the LSD and the defense efforts to shake him from that testimony were futile. 30 The jury apparently did not believe appellant's version because they found him guilty following an instruction regarding entrapment which appellant now concedes to have been eminently correct. 31 Appellant now argues that the trial court's refusal to require identification of the informant until after he had taken the stand had the effect of forcing him to take the stand in violation of his rights under the Fifth Amendment. The difficulty with this argument is that appellant misunderstands the basic nature of the entrapment defense. 32 It is elemental that 'absent the commission of a crime, there can be no entrapment.' 16 It has long been the rule in this circuit 17 as well as at least two other circuits 18 that a defendant who wishes to avail himself of the entrapment defense must admit the substantive elements of the crime. 33 Appellant had to testify not because he was unable to secure the name of the informant but rather because he wished to offer entrapment as a defense. Until such time as there was an admission by the defendant that he had committed the crime, the trial court was quite correct in refusing to require the government to identify a reliable and valued informant on the mere allegation of counsel that he thought he could establish entrapment as a defense. 34