Opinion ID: 778180
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure To Disclose Identity of Confidential Informant

Text: 86 During the last six months of the conspiracy, New York City police officer Carl Shepherd participated in numerous undercover narcotics transactions with members of the conspiracy, including four undercover purchases or controlled buys of crack cocaine from Alberto between October 22, 1997 and April 14, 1998. Alberto sought disclosure of the identity of the confidential informant who had introduced Shepherd to Alberto and accompanied the officer on two of his four undercover buys from Alberto. The district court denied his request for disclosure, and Alberto contends that the denial deprived him of a fair trial because the informant was the only eyewitness to the events other than the undercover officer. 87 In order to obtain a new trial on the ground that the government failed to disclose the identity of a confidential informant, a defendant has the heavy burden of showing that disclosure [wa]s `essential to the defense.' United States v. Jimenez, 789 F.2d 167, 170 (2d Cir.1986) (quoting Scher v. United States, 305 U.S. 251, 254, 59 S.Ct. 174, 83 L.Ed. 151 (1938)). He must show more than simply that the informant was a participant in or witness to the crime charged, or that the informant might cast doubt on the general credibility of a government witness, see, e.g., United States v. Saa, 859 F.2d 1067, 1073 (2d Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1089, 109 S.Ct. 1555, 103 L.Ed.2d 858 (1989); [s]peculation that disclosure of the informant's identity will be of assistance is not sufficient to meet the defendant's burden, United States v. Fields, 113 F.3d 313, 324 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 976, 118 S.Ct. 434, 139 L.Ed.2d 334 (1997). We will not disturb the district court's disclosure rulings in the absence of an abuse of discretion. See, e.g., DiBlasio v. City of New York, 102 F.3d 654, 657 (2d Cir.1996). 88 Here, Alberto offered only his conjecture that the informant's testimony would be significant, and it seems plain that any help from the informant would instead have been minimal. For example, as the district court noted, the informant witnessed only two of the four meetings between the undercover officer and Alberto; the government introduced crack cocaine purchased from Alberto at a meeting unattended by the informant. In addition, the government's evidence included drug-trafficking paraphernalia seized from Alberto's home pursuant to a search warrant, as well as Alberto's postarrest statements in May 1998 that he had been selling crack cocaine on Beach 26th Street for some two-to-three years, that he received the crack from those who controlled the block, that he sold it himself or through his own agents, that he turned the proceeds over to those who controlled the block, and that these activities earned him more than $150 a day. We see no abuse of discretion in the district court's ruling that Alberto had not met his burden of establishing how the informant's identity would be helpful to his defense.