Opinion ID: 786207
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Harb's Remaining Claims of Error

Text: 17 Harb claims that the district court erred in admitting into evidence tape recordings without the requisite foundation; that the evidence was insufficient as to Count Twenty-Six, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, Counts Five, Six, Thirteen, Seventeen through Twenty-Two, Twenty-Four, and Twenty-Five, use of a communication facility to facilitate the marijuana conspiracy, and Counts Twenty-Nine and Thirty, use of a communication facility to facilitate the cocaine conspiracy; that the asserted variance between a single cocaine conspiracy charged in the indictment and the multiple cocaine conspiracies shown at trial prejudiced Harb; and that the district court erred in its drug quantity determination at sentencing. Each of these contentions is without merit and will be dealt with briefly.
18 Harb argues that the tape recordings the government made from the wiretap on Laudato's cell phone had an inadequate foundation when they were introduced into evidence. Harb objected at trial, so we will review the district court's admission of the tape recordings for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Robinson, 707 F.2d 872, 876 (6th Cir.1983). Harb essentially argues that the testimony offered when all of the audio tapes were entered into evidence, that of FBI Agent Steven Vogt (Vogt), was inadequate to establish the accuracy and trustworthiness of the evidence. He makes no argument that the tapes were in fact inaccurate. Vogt testified as to the court authorization to get the wiretaps, the taping by two simultaneous recording devices, and the monitoring of conversations and the log made and further testified that each tape played at trial was made by isolating a conversation on the original tapes and dubbing it onto a blank tape. While we have not in our prior cases indicated precisely what foundation is necessary to admit audiotapes where the challenge is to their admission generally, other circuits have alternately held that the district court must be satisfied that the recording is `accurate, authentic, and generally trustworthy,' United States v. Panaro, 266 F.3d 939, 951 (9th Cir.2001) (citations omitted), that simply required [is] proof that the tape recording accurately reflects the conversation in question, United States v. Doyon, 194 F.3d 207, 212 (1st Cir.1999), or that a proper foundation ... may be established in two ways: a chain of custody ... or alternatively, other testimony could be used to establish the accuracy and trustworthiness of the evidence. United States v. Rivera, 153 F.3d 809, 812 (7th Cir.1998). In addition to Vogt's testimony, the district court also required that a foundation be laid for each individual recording before it was played for the jury. Given the cumulative effect of Vogt's testimony and the other witnesses' authentication of each audiotape, it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to admit the tapes. Cf. United States v. Carbone, 798 F.2d 21, 25 (1st Cir.1986) (allowing authentication through testimony of agents as to how recorders worked and testimony of participants in each conversation).
19 This court reviews a claim of insufficient evidence to determine whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). All credibility determinations are drawn in favor of the prosecution. United States v. Avery, 128 F.3d 966, 971 (6th Cir.1997). Harb challenges the sufficiency of the evidence on all of the counts of using a communication facility to facilitate acts constituting a felony, namely the cocaine and marijuana conspiracies, and on the count of conspiring to distribute and to attempt to distribute cocaine. In making this argument, Harb basically disregards the extensive testimony of Laudato and relies instead upon his own testimony to bolster his argument — which makes this a credibility determination rather than a sufficiency problem. See, e.g., Appellant Harb's Br. at 25 ([I]n fact no proof was offered that any cocaine was ever bought, sold, delivered or, for that matter, even existed, other than the testimony of Mr. Harb and Laudato.  (second emphasis added)). 20 Harb makes a slightly more sophisticated argument with respect to each of the conversations, contending that they did not facilitate a conspiracy to distribute. While this does not merit discussion with regard to the conversations directly regarding the sale of marijuana that Harb was making to Laudato in amounts clearly intended for redistribution, it bears more parsing out with regard to the cocaine conspiracy. Harb's argument is essentially that he was a customer, not a coconspirator, and he points to cases rejecting the idea that a mere purchaser can be convicted as a coconspirator. He also argues with respect to the telephone conversations that even if the evidence supports an underlying conspiracy, the calls themselves did not facilitate the conspiracy. But Harb was clearly conspiring with Laudato in that he knew who Laudato's supplier was (referring at one point to your friend out in Mentor, J.A. at 234), gave messages to Laudato to give to Laudato's supplier in hopes of facilitating transactions, and was himself reselling cocaine and informing Laudato of that fact by phone in an attempt to use his customers' willingness to pay in order to get the cocaine from Laudato's supplier sooner. Laudato had had difficultly in getting cocaine from his supplier for quite some time at this point, a fact of which Harb was aware. Additionally, the amount of cocaine Harb was receiving from Laudato can also help in this case to show his knowledge of a wider-ranging conspiracy necessary for him to receive the drugs. See United States v. Warner, 690 F.2d 545, 551 n. 10 (6th Cir.1982); United States v. Grunsfeld, 558 F.2d 1231, 1235 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 872, 98 S.Ct. 219, 54 L.Ed.2d 152 (1977). Laudato testified that he sold cocaine to Harb four to six times, at quantities ranging from one to nine ounces; one of the phone conversations recorded between Laudato and Harb was decoded by Laudato as referring to eighteen ounces of cocaine. Harb's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence fails.
21 Harb complains that the indictment charges a single conspiracy between him, Laudato, and persons known or unknown, but the proof at trial included proof of a much larger conspiracy including all of Laudato's suppliers and their suppliers. Harb asserts that he was unable to question the existence of the larger conspiracy, and that guilt by association with Laudato operated to his substantial prejudice. Harb does not make clear what he felt the district judge should have done differently — whether he is challenging the inclusion of this evidence at trial or the jury instructions — but the government treats this assignment of error as a request for a multiple-conspiracy jury instruction, a common claim. While Harb suggests this is a question of fact and is to [be] considered on appeal in the light most favorable to the government, and that reversal is required where substantial rights are involved, Appellant Harb's Br. at 30, the government suggests that this is a jury-instruction claim, to be reviewed for plain error in the absence of an objection by Harb. Inasmuch as Harb simply contends he was not part of a larger conspiracy, he essentially repeats his sufficiency-of the-evidence claim, which fails for the reasons noted above; he does not point to specific testimony which was prejudicial to his case, and that part of his claim should fail. Treating his claim as one for a jury instruction, as the government does, is equally unavailing. This was a simple chain-distribution conspiracy, in which Harb's not knowing who his ultimate suppliers were is irrelevant. See Warner, 690 F.2d at 549 (Because the success of participants on each level of distribution is dependent upon the existence of other levels of distribution, each member of the conspiracy must realize that he is participating in a joint enterprise, even if he does not know the identities of many of the participants.).
22 Harb challenges the district court's determination at sentencing of the quantity of forty-five pounds of marijuana. We review de novo the sentencing court's interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines and statutes, and we review for clear error its factual findings. If the district court's factual findings are not clearly erroneous, this court reviews de novo the determination that the conduct in question constituted relevant conduct. United States v. Corrado, 304 F.3d 593, 607 (6th Cir.2002) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Laudato testified that he had received between sixty and eighty pounds of marijuana from Harb and that a phone conversation between him and Harb regarding forty-seven jobs was in fact a reference to forty-seven pounds of marijuana. J.A. at 239, 363-65. This assignment of error is without merit.