Court Opinion

ID: 9477762
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:30:29.986322+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:01.973899
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, District Judge,
concurring specially:
I readily join the majority opinion in affirming the convictions of Michael R. Bennett, William G. Bennett, and Eydler Cas-tallano. My concern with respect to the cases against Cervantes and Feijo-Garcia is because of the flagrant disregard of the Bruton rule by the prosecutor and, to a limited extent, by the district judge. Nevertheless, as I analyze the confession of Castallano, it apparently meets the test of harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt, Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), even though the trial court failed to give any curative instruction as to the effect of the confession by Castallano until the final charge to the jury, although requested to so advise the jury on practically every occasion the confession was mentioned by the prosecutor, and even though the prosecutor rather obviously emphasized the Castallano confession on at least eight separate occasions, including at least twice in final argument.
Stripped of the Castallano confession, we have evidence which is clearly admissible against all parties. The testimony of the caretaker of the Palm Beach estate, Tom Basil, is without contradiction. On October 30, 1985, at approximately 6:30 a.m., Basil observed three Latin males approaching the estate from the beach. Each was dripping wet and full of sand. In response to a call from Basil, Officers Pradines and Mun-iz of the Palm Beach Police Department came to the scene and, en route, Officer Pradines saw the three Latin males “jogging.”11 Officer Pradines detained the three men awaiting backup units. Officer Muniz, speaking in Spanish, advised them of their rights and inquired as to their presence at that hour of the morning. Cervantes and Feijo-Garcia denied any knowledge of the blue boat located within 30 to *114450 yards of the beach behind the estate. Basil came to the scene and identified the three men as being the same three confronted on the property of the estate. When taken to headquarters, Cervantes and Feijo-Garcia declined to say anything, but Castallano gave a detailed statement as to how and where the three men had procured the cocaine which, in the interim had been located on the blue boat anchored in the surf, and was estimated to have contained 2,300 pounds, or approximately 750 kilograms, with a wholesale value of $21 million.12
After his arrest, the driver’s license of Feijo-Garcia was taken and the address on the license matched the address of one Avelino Suengas, the registered owner of the blue boat on which the cocaine was located.
The government contends that the court, on two occasions, gave a cautionary instruction as to the treatment of the Castal-lano confession. It was admittedly given in the final charge following the argument of counsel. On the other occasion, following the prosecutor’s opening statement, where the prosecutor used the word “they” in referring to the substance of the confession, the judge merely told the jury that “what the lawyers say in opening statement is not evidence.”
The government concedes that there were two instances in the prosecutor’s closing argument which “we [the government] acknowledge appears to improperly rely on Castallano’s statement as inculpating Feijo and Cervantes.” The government insists, however, that the errors cannot fairly be said to be “so pronounced and persistent that it permeated the entire atmosphere of the trial.” The difficulty with this contention is that the court compounded the error by overruling the timely objection interposed by defense counsel and, immediately thereafter, the prosecutor continued the use of the word “they” in referring to what Castallano said. If prosecutors and courts pay so little attention to the Bruton rule as evidenced in this case, it is not unlikely that the day will arrive where an exception is engrafted on the harmless error rule in considering Bruton violations.
The majority correctly suggests that the Bruton rules is not applicable to the discovery of the 29 kilograms of cocaine which were thrown in the bushes on the property of the estate. While this was a part of Castallano’s confession which led the authorities to the property where it was found, there was no suggestion by Castal-lano that Feijo-Garcia or Cervantes were involved. Where a codefendant’s extrajudicial statement does not directly implicate the defendant, the Bruton rule does not come into play. United States v. Belle, 593 F.2d 487 (3rd Cir.1979) (en banc). The statement by the confessing defendant must also be vitally important to the government’s case in order for its introduction to create a constitutional violation. United States v. Key, 725 F.2d 1123, 1126 (7th Cir.1984); English v. United States, 620 F.2d 150, 152 (7th Cir.1980) (where the confessing defendant related that three men had stopped at the Holiday Inn and “one of them registered there,” and at trial the Holiday Inn reservation card bearing the name Alex English was admitted as evidence against English).
These defendants were charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and a conspiracy to commit that same offense. It was not necessary to prove that Feijo-Garcia or Cervantes had any connection with Michael or William Bennett, for conspirators need not know all the members of the conspiracy. Any conspiracy, insofar as Feijo-Garcia and Cervantes are concerned, could be limited to the three who abandoned the blue boat loaded with cocaine. The essentials of the two crimes charged in the indictment are so relatively simple that Castallano’s detailed confession was unnecessary as to all three of the males who initially attributed their activities to jogging. An examination of the Eleventh Circuit cases leads to the inevitable conclusion that, irrespective of whatever Castallano said, the proof of guilt was beyond a reasonable doubt. I therefore *1145conclude that the jury hearing the confession of Castallano was harmless error.
Most of these detailed confessions given by non-testifying codefendant’s are nothing more than corroboration for whatever the prosecution already knows. My concern is for the increased action on the part of prosecutors and judges to disregard the Bruton rule, but I do not feel comfortable in exercising any supervisory powers over such actions and, therefore, concur.

.The three men could possibly qualify as "joggers” since they were dressed in shorts. However, Cervantes was "jogging” in his bare feet; Feijo-Garcia was wearing ankle-high tennis shoes; and Castallano had no shoes, but was running in socks only half on his feet.

. The government’s brief reduces the quantity of cocaine to "over 1,650 pounds of cocaine."