Opinion ID: 401075
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: consent to the recording of a conversation

Text: 7 The first question raised by appellant is whether the district court was correct in finding that Jones' consent to the recording of the conversation was adequately established within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 2510 et seq., making proper that court's refusal to suppress the tape recording of the phone conversation. We hold that the district court's finding was correct. 8 The question before us is one of the existence of consent, with no accompanying issue of voluntariness. It is presented as a statutory rather than a constitutional matter. Under these circumstances, we have no difficulty concluding that the standard of review that applies is the clearly erroneous standard. See United States v. Brandon, 633 F.2d 773, 776 (9th Cir. 1980); United States v. Thompson, 558 F.2d 522, 524-25 (9th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 914, 98 S.Ct. 1466, 55 L.Ed.2d 504 (1978); United States v. Dubrofsky, 581 F.2d 208, 212 (9th Cir. 1978); United States v. Page, 302 F.2d 81, 83 (9th Cir. 1962) (en banc). 9 From the declaration presented at the suppression hearing as well as from the statements at trial, it is apparent that the lower court's finding of consent is not clearly erroneous. Testimony at trial may be used to sustain the denial of a motion to suppress evidence, even if such testimony was not given at the suppression hearing. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162, 45 S.Ct. 280, 288, 69 L.Ed. 543, 555 (1925); Rocha v. United States, 387 F.2d 1019, 1021 (9th Cir. 1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 1004, 88 S.Ct. 1247, 20 L.Ed.2d 104 (1968). In addition, this Circuit has held that in order to establish consent it is ordinarily enough to show that a party engaged in a conversation knowing it was being taped. United States v. Glickman, 604 F.2d 625, 634 (9th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1080, 100 S.Ct. 1032, 62 L.Ed.2d 764 (1980). Testimony at trial and at the suppression hearing, thus, both support the lower court's finding of consent which is not clearly erroneous. 10