Court Opinion

ID: 9464684
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:39:58.121291+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:45.720308
License: Public Domain

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The principal issue of the case in its present posture concerns application of the *604rule in Trejo v. United States, 501 F.2d 138 (9th Cir. 1974), to evidence of the defendant’s prior criminal acts. I agree with the majority’s statement of the rule, but disagree with the manner in which the majority applies it to the facts here. The question is whether or not illegally-seized evidence was considered by the jury. Since I believe that the jury did consider such matters, I respectfully dissent.
After the close of the defendant’s case, the Government offered a single rebuttal witness, detective Stokke, who testified that on an earlier occasion he had seized three bags of cocaine from the defendant. The majority concedes that “[h]ad the illegally-seized cocaine been admitted, United States v. Trejo, supra, would apply . .,” but decides that the cocaine exhibits were withdrawn and that the rebuttal evidence “consisted solely of testimony about the offer and negotiations between appellant and the undercover agent which occurred prior to [the illegal seizure].” (majority opinion at n.7 supra).1 I find no support in the record for that determination.
The concluding and somewhat dramatic testimony on which the Government rested its case is best understood by direct quotation, and is set forth in the margin.2 It is immediately apparent that the laboratory analysis of the bags’ contents was critical evidence. The scientific identification of the contents as cocaine was of primary relevanee to the detective’s testimony, quite apart from the exhibition of the bags themselves. The testimony as to the laboratory analysis was never withdrawn; the jury was not instructed to disregard it; and the prosecution rested immediately when that testimony was given, no doubt to underscore its importance. I fail to understand how the majority can construe this testimony as anything other than a direct reliance upon evidence that resulted from an unlawful seizure.
Although it is thus incorrect for the majority to draw any comfort from its determination that the exhibit consisting of the three bags of cocaine was withdrawn, that determination is also unsupported by the record. The prosecutor stated: “I move the admissibility of 14- I withdraw that.” The word “that” is ambiguous, but two lines later the reporter interpreted the reference to pertain to exhibit 15, which was a glass vial containing cocaine, not the three bags. This interpretation by the court reporter is repeated in the index to the transcript, which shows that exhibit 14 (the three bags) remained in evidence and that only exhibit 15 (the glass vial) was withdrawn.
I therefore cannot agree that integration of the illegally-seized evidence into this trial was somehow cured by the subsequent withdrawal of the exhibit. I conclude that it was error to permit the jury to consider either the evidence that pertained to the *605contents of the bags or the tangible evidence consisting of the bags themselves. This argument of the majority that evidence of possession of the cocaine is merely cumulative to the testimony of the detective is unconvincing. Possession of cocaine is far more material to the issue in this case than would be uncorroborated testimony concerning an offer to sell. Since I cannot conclude that either error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 23, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 86-87, 84 S.Ct. 229, 11 L.Ed.2d 171 (1963), I would reverse the conviction.

. The majority suggests that enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence may have undermined the rule in Trejo. My objections to that reasoning are fully set forth in a dissent from an opinion of the panel which was later withdrawn. United States v. Batts, 558 F.2d 513, 519 (9th Cir. 1977). The text of that dissent is here incorporated by reference.

. Q. [Prosecutor:] All right. What happened then?
A. [Stokke:] Then the surveilling officers entered the house and we effected the arrest on the individuals.
Q. Did you seize the white powder?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. And Plaintiffs Exhibit 14, what is in that package?
A. Three clear plastic bags of white powder.
Q. And are those the ones you transacted on?
A. Yes.
Q. Plaintiff’s Exhibit 15 is what?
A. This is one glass vial with a small amount of white powder in it.
Q. And was that a part of that negotiation?
A. No, it was not.
[Prosecutor]: Your Honor, we strike 15.
THE COURT: All right. It will be stricken.
Q. [Prosecutor:] Now, was that white powder submitted to laboratory analysis?
A. It was.
Q. And did it remain in your custody until it was—
A. Yes, it was.
Q. All right. And what was the white powder?
A. The white powder was analyzed as cocaine.
(R.T. at 176-78).