Court Opinion

ID: 9763077
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:36:27.244113+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:39.276375
License: Public Domain

STEIN, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
The United States Supreme Court’s “minority” view on the defense of entrapment had for some time been that “courts refuse to convict an entrapped defendant, not because his conduct falls outside the proscription of the statute, but because, even if his guilt be admitted, the methods employed on behalf of the Government to bring about conviction cannot be *484countenanced.” Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 380, 78 S.Ct. 819, 824, 2 L.Ed.2d 848, 855 (1958) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). Adherents to Justice Frankfurter’s point of view, including Justice Roberts, see Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 453-59, 53 S.Ct. 210, 216-19, 77 L.Ed. 413, 423-26 (1932), Justice Stewart, see United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 439-45, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 1646-49, 36 L.Ed.2d 366, 377-81 (1973), and Justices Brennan and Marshall, see Hampton v. United States, 425 U.S. 484, 495-97, 96 S.Ct. 1646, 1652-54, 48 L.Ed.2d 113, 122-23 (1976), would doubtless be reluctant to find fault with the majority opinion in this case, in view of its forceful and unqualified recognition of a state constitutional “due process right to an entrapment defense” grounded in principles of fundamental fairness. Ante at 473-74, 606 A.2d at 322-23. Unfortunately, what the majority so generously bestows with one hand it promptly retracts with the other. Ignoring the trial court’s conclusion that the crime in this case was “produced by the government, directed by the government, cast by the government and one in which the government even supplied the props,” the Court holds that due process is not offended, primarily because defendant Johnson had allegedly confided on one occasion to a federal informant seeking favorable treatment for his own crimes that he had a “desire” to commit the offense for which he was indicted.
I
The essential facts are set forth in the majority opinion. Ante at 460-63, 606 A.2d at 316-17. I add only such supplemental references to the record as may be necessary to focus the entrapment issue more sharply.
As noted, the direct source of information concerning defendant Johnson’s alleged desire to “rip off” drugs from a drug dealer and sell the drugs for money was a federal informant who had been arrested on federal weapons charges and also charged with conspiracy and possession of a large quantity of *485cocaine. The informant, who began cooperating with federal authorities after his arrest, was not called to testify before the grand jury. The informant’s allegations about defendant Johnson were communicated to the grand jury second-hand by a special agent of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (FDEA) who had been in charge of the investigation leading to the informant’s arrest. An assistant supervisor of the New Jersey State Police narcotics bureau gave testimony to the grand jury concerning the informant’s motives:
The informant had some very heavy federal charges lodged against him and like many drug dealers there is no honor among thieves. He was testifying against people that he had dealt with in order to reduce his sentence, in consideration for his sentencing.
The special agent testified that the informant and Johnson had used cocaine together on a few occasions, and that after their first meeting the informant gave Johnson small amounts of cocaine on a fairly regular basis. The agent testified that Johnson had identified himself to the informant as a New Jersey State Trooper. According to the agent, after the informant had been arrested, he disclosed his relationship with Johnson to federal drug officials, informing them that Johnson had expressed to the informant on an unspecified occasion a desire “to rip off a drug dealer with a lot of cocaine * * * and sell it to make some money.” The agent testified that federal drug officials decided to “provide [Johnson] with the opportunity to do what he wanted to do.” Acting through the informant, they then presented to Johnson the scheme described in the majority opinion. See ante at 460-463, 606 A.2d at 316-317.
The government’s scheme, proposed to Johnson by the FDEA’s informant, called for Johnson to make a “traffic stop” of an automobile operated by a Union County detective on assignment to the FDEA — but described to Johnson as a paid “mule” — who would be carrying a government-owned “bogus” kilogram of cocaine. The mule’s car was to be followed by a second car transporting the informant, allegedly acting as a *486broker for the sale of the cocaine, and the ostensible seller of the cocaine, a Jersey City police officer on assignment to the FDEA. The plan contemplated that the informant and the seller would leave the scene after Johnson stopped the mule’s car, and the mule would give Johnson the package of cocaine. Johnson was then to drive back to his apartment with the cocaine. He was to be met there by the informant and the mule, turn over the cocaine to the mule, and be paid $5,000 for his participation.
When the informant presented the plan to Johnson, he agreed to participate and suggested two modifications: first, that he be paid $1,000 in advance; second, that he be supplied with a vehicle resembling a State Police vehicle, with a portable red light that could be installed on the dashboard. The federal agents agreed to both requests.
On the designated date, the informant and the mule provided Johnson with a 1988 Chevrolet Caprice that had been rented by the FDEA. They then drove with Johnson to Frelinghuysen Avenue in Newark and instructed him how and where to park his car in order to be properly situated to make the stop. After stopping the mule’s car, Johnson drove to his apartment with the package of cocaine. On his arrival he was arrested. The package, described by a State Police officer as containing cocaine “in a very, very minuscule form,” was on the front seat of his car. Seven of the ten hundred-dollar bills previously delivered to Johnson were in his possession.
Johnson was indicted for five offenses: official misconduct, N.J.S.A. 2C:30-2; theft of movable property, N.J.S.A. 2C:20-3; possession of a controlled dangerous substance, N.J.S.A. 2C:35-10a(1); possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, N.J.S.A. 2C:35-5a(1) and -5(b)(1); and conspiracy to commit the foregoing offenses, N.J.S.A. 2C:5-2. The State’s grand jury presentation demonstrates, however, that the alleged crimes, if committed, were victimless. The “bogus cocaine” that was the subject of the alleged “theft” and the *487subject of the charges of possession and possession with intent to distribute belonged to and was recovered by the State Police. The charge of official misconduct was based solely on Johnson’s participation in the government’s plan. Every significant detail of the plan — other than the request for the flashing red light, a vehicle similar to State Police vehicles, and the cash advance — was conceived and executed by federal and state officials and the federal informant.
According to a State Police official’s grand jury testimony, no evidence that Johnson had a drug problem or any “prior record” had been uncovered in the course of Johnson’s State Police background investigation. Johnson had experienced no disciplinary problems during his service as a State Trooper other than a “minor problem” concerning lost equipment at Washington Station in Warren County, for which he had been reprimanded.
In the course of argument on the motion to dismiss the indictment on the basis of entrapment, Johnson’s counsel explained that if the case had to be tried, the issue of Johnson’s alleged predisposition was “clearly” one that would be disputed. Johnson’s counsel conceded his client’s predisposition solely for the purpose of the motion to dismiss, relying on State v. Talbot, 71 N.J. 160, 364 A.2d 9 (1976), for the principle that Johnson had been entrapped “as a matter of law even though predisposition to commit the crime may appear.” Id. at 168, 364 A.2d 9.
II
For the purpose of resolving fully the entrapment issue in this case, the existing record — consisting solely of the grand jury proceedings — inadequately serves the interests either of the State or defendants. As previously noted, with respect to the motion to dismiss the indictment defendant Johnson hypothetically conceded his predisposition to commit the alleged offenses, although intending to contest predisposition if the case were tried. The Court’s opinion acknowledges that were it *488not for that concession, the entrapment issue would also require application of the statutory entrapment defense enacted in the Code of Criminal Justice, N.J.S.A. 2C:2-12. Ante at 468-69, 606 A.2d at 320. The majority asserts that although the Code’s entrapment provision stresses the nature or character of the government’s conduct, it also imposes a causation requirement that “triggers an inquiry into the defendant’s predisposition.” Ante at 468-69, 606 A.2d at 320 (quoting State v. Rockholt, 96 N.J. 570, 578, 476 A.2d 1236 (1984)). The majority acknowledges that inquiring into defendant Johnson’s predisposition was “obviated” because of defendant’s concession. Ibid. The majority opinion takes into account the contingency that the statutory entrapment defense might be asserted at a later stage in the proceedings, ante at 483, 606 A.2d at 327.
Because in my view the character of the governmental conduct revealed by the grand jury record sufficiently establishes the due-process-entrapment defense embraced by the Court’s opinion, ante at 472-75, 606 A.2d at 322-23, recognition of the State’s law-enforcement interest compels the acknowledgment that the grand jury proceeding may not have included all of the evidence material to the State’s contention that the entrapment defense should fail. Given the opportunity, the State might have offered additional evidence of predisposition or additional evidence tending to justify the government’s aggressive role in facilitating defendant’s commission of the charged offenses. Although the State’s grand-jury presentation anticipated the entrapment defense to the extent of offering some evidence on the issue of predisposition, the evidence adduced before the grand jury was intended primarily to procure an indictment and not to rebut the defense of due-process entrapment.
In this and similar cases in which the due-process-entrapment defense is critical, both the trial court’s initial disposition and appellate review would be facilitated by an evidentiary hearing that permitted development by all parties of a record on the *489entrapment issue. That procedure has been invoked by a number of federal courts. See, e.g., United States v. Bogart, 783 F.2d 1428, 1429, 1433-34 (9th Cir.1986) (declining to adjudicate defendant’s claim of due-process entrapment and remanding to district court for fact-finding on nature of and motivation for government’s conduct); see also United States v. Simpson, 813 F.2d 1462, 1464 (9th Cir.) (reversing district court’s dismissal of indictment based on due-process entrapment after eight-day evidentiary hearing), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 898, 108 S.Ct. 233, 98 L.Ed.2d 192 (1987). Had a hearing been conducted, defendant would not have had to concede the issue of predisposition and the State’s justification for the governmental actions at issue could have been fully presented.
Ill
The majority opinion recognizes and endorses a due-process-entrapment defense rooted in our state constitution, reflecting “basic and distinctive state policies that have * * * served principles of fundamental fairness,” and that is unconstrained by federal entrapment principles. Ante at 473, 606 A.2d at 322. That formulation of this state’s due-process-entrapment defense represents a sharp departure from the prevailing federal precedents that heretofore have narrowly limited the scope of the due-process-entrapment defense under the federal constitution. That defense was first identified by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Russell, supra, 411 U.S. 423, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 36 L.Ed.2d 366, in which the Court reinstated the defendant’s convictions for the illegal manufacture and sale of methamphetamine, reversing the Court of Appeals decision setting aside the conviction on entrapment grounds. In dictum, the Court observed that
[w]hile we may some day be presented with a situation in which the conduct of law enforcement agents is so outrageous that due process principles would absolutely bar the government from invoking judicial processes to obtain a conviction, cf. Rochin v. California, 342 US 165, 96 L Ed 183, 72 S Ct 205, 25 ALR2d 1396 (1952), the instant case is distinctly not of that breed. [411 U.S. at 431-32, 93 S.Ct. at 1643, 36 L.Ed.2d at 373.]
*490Subsequently, in Hampton v. United States, supra, 425 U.S. 484, 96 S.Ct. 1646, 48 L.Ed.2d 113, the Court affirmed the defendant’s conviction for selling heroin to undercover federal agents, and rejected the defendant’s contention that the trial court had erred in refusing to charge the jury that the defense of entrapment would bar the defendant’s conviction if the informant who arranged the sale had also provided the defendant with the heroin. Justice Rehnquist’s plurality opinion, retreating from Russell’s dictum, expressed the view that a defendant predisposed to commit a crime could never successfully assert as a defense the government’s involvement in the crime. Id. at 488-90, 96 S.Ct. at 1649-50, 48 L.Ed.2d at 117-19. Justice Powell’s concurring opinion disagreed, apparently acknowledging that due-process principles could justify a bar to conviction even in a case in which the evidence establishes the defendant’s predisposition to commit the crime, id. at 492-95, 96 S.Ct. at 1651-53, 48 L.Ed.2d at 120-22, but emphasizing that such cases “will be rare.” Id. at 495 n. 7, 96 S.Ct. at 1653 n. 7, 48 L.Ed.2d at 122 n. 7.
Although the federal courts acknowledge that a due-process-entrapment defense is available even with respect to a defendant predisposed to commit the alleged crime, in practice the defense has rarely been accorded recognition. See Ted K. Yasuda, Entrapment as a Due Process Defense: Developments After Hampton v. United States, 57 Ind.L.J. 89, 105-13 (1982). A few federal cases have applied the due-process-entrapment defense. See United States v. Twigg, 588 F.2d 373, 377-81 (3d Cir.1978); United States v. Batres-Santolino, 521 F.Supp. 744, 750-52 (N.D.Cal.1981); United States v. Jannotti, 501 F.Supp. 1182, 1203-05 (E.D.Pa.1980) (sustaining defense), rev’d, 673 F.2d 578 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1106, 102 S.Ct. 2906, 73 L.Ed.2d 1315 (1982). The highly restrictive approach to the due-process-entrapment defense that characterizes the federal court opinions is based on the commonly-held view that “the due process channel which Russell kept open is a most narrow one,” United States v. Ryan, 548 F.2d 782, 789 *491(9th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 US. 939, 97 S.Ct. 354, 50 L.Ed.2d 308 (1976), and 430 U.S. 965, 95 S.Ct. 1644, 52 L.Ed.2d 356 (1977), and the related view that the defense is available only where “the government is so involved in the criminal endeavor that it shocks our sense of justice.” United States v. So, 755 F.2d 1350, 1353 (9th Cir.1985).
The due-process-entrapment defense has been applied somewhat more aggressively by state courts. Paul Marcus, The Entrapment Defense § 7.11, at 308-14 (1989). See, e.g., State v. Glosson, 462 (So. 2d 1082 (Fla.1985) (applying due-process-entrapment defense based on sheriffs agreement to pay contingent fee of 10% of value of civil forfeitures to informant who sold drugs to defendant resulting in seizure and forfeiture of vehicles and over $80,000 in cash); State v. Hohensee, 650 (S.W.2d 268, 270-75 (Mo.Ct.App.1982) (reversing on grounds of due-process entrapment defendant’s conviction for burglary based on his conduct as lookout, when police officials paid two convicted felons to stage burglary by removing safe from building with police officer’s assistance); People v. Isaacson, 44 N.Y.2d 511, 406 N.Y.S.2d 714, 378 N.E.2d 78 (1978) (invoking due-process-entrapment defense under New York State constitution to reverse defendant’s conviction for selling drugs to informant who, having been brutalized by police and deceived into believing he faced prison sentence, induced and persistently solicited defendant to enter New York State and sell drugs to informant in quantity specified by police); Commonwealth v. Mathews, 347 Pa.Super. 320, 500 A.2d 853 (1985) (reversing defendants’ convictions for manufacturing methamphetamine based on due-process entrapment where police provided defendants with funds to rent house, purchase chemicals, and buy food, and government narcotics experts had on several occasions provided defendants with step-by-step instructions for manufacture of methamphetamine).
In recognizing and forcefully endorsing a state-constitution-based defense of due-process entrapment, the majority opinion adheres to and enhances our existing entrapment jurisprudence. *492In State v. Talbot, supra, 71 N.J. at 168, 364 A.2d 9, we held that
where an informer or other agent generally acting in concert with law enforcement authorities, furnishes a defendant with heroin for the purpose of then arranging a sale of the heroin by the defendant to an undercover officer, which sale is then consummated, defendant has been entrapped as a matter of law even though predisposition to commit the crime may appear, and notwithstanding that the furnishing of the heroin is unknown to and contrary to the instructions of the law enforcement authorities. Those authorities, having set the agent to work in enticing the defendant, the prosecution should bear the onus of the means selected by the agent. [Ibid,"\
We noted in Talbot that our ruling was rooted in “the principle of fundamental fairness.” Ibid.
Having staked out a field of due-process-entrapment protection that extends considerably beyond the restrictive parameters for relief recognized under federal law, the majority inexplicably declines to apply to the facts at hand the constitutional principles so forcefully defined. It invokes a two-element test with four factors in deciding whether the due-process defense is available to these defendants, and proceeds to misapply three of the four factors to the evidence adduced before the grand jury. Concerning the first factor, “(1) whether the government or the defendant was primarily responsible for creating and planning the crime,” ante at 474, 606 A.2d at 323, the Court emphasizes that “Johnson actually had the core idea for the crime,” ante at 476, 606 A.2d at 324, virtually ignoring the overwhelming role of federal and state officials in crafting the elaborate details of the plan.
With respect to the second factor, “whether the government or the defendant primarily controlled and directed the commission of the crime,” ante at 474, 606 A.2d at 323, the Court observes that although the police presented Johnson with a specific plan, he “developed it further” by requesting the unmarked car, the flashing red light and the $1,000 prepayment. The Court also stresses that Johnson “effected the stop and seizure of the cocaine, and * * * did so with * * * the uniform, badge, identification and a gun — to lend authenticity to the ‘police action.’ ” Ante at 481, 606 A.2d at 326. The Court’s *493description of Johnson’s participation in the government’s scheme may be accurate, but it begs the question. That the government — not Johnson — primarily controlled and directed the commission of the crime is incontrovertible.
I concur in the Court’s view concerning the third factor that the methods used by the government to involve defendant Johnson in the commission of the crime were not unreasonable. Ante at 478-79, 606 A.2d at 325. The record does not reflect any excessive inducement in obtaining Johnson’s cooperation.
The fourth factor considers “whether the government had a legitimate law enforcement purpose in bringing about the crime.” Ante at 474, 606 A.2d at 323. The Court concedes that “[djefendants had not been involved in similar crimes,” ante at 476, 606 A.2d at 324, but concludes that Johnson’s status as a police officer and his opportunity for “contact with drug traffickers” created a “realistic possibility of serious crimes by defendants involving drugs.” Ante at 477, 606 A.2d at 324. That so-called “realistic possibility” on which the Court’s opinion so precariously rests is based entirely on the hearsay statement offered by a federal informant facing serious drug charges in an attempt to make a “deal.” In concluding that “the police had adequate justification to direct their investigative authority against defendants,” ante at 477, 606 A.2d at 324, the Court apparently is prepared to credit fully the informant’s allegations without discounting their credibility to reflect the informant’s acknowledged self-serving motivation.
A more basic question arises with respect to the justification for the government’s creation of a scheme intended to induce Johnson to commit the crimes with which he was charged. The grand jury record indicates that the informant had reported to federal officials that Johnson had used cocaine on numerous occasions, an allegation that undoubtedly could have been a basis for the institution of departmental disciplinary or removal proceedings. Cf. In re Carberry, 114 N.J. 574, 578, 556 A.2d *494314 (1989) (“The use of illegal drugs is incompatible with the integrity of the State Police and with the ability of troopers to perform their duties.”). On the assumption that Johnson’s prior use of cocaine would have warranted his expulsion from the State Police, both the necessity and propriety of the elaborate scheme concocted by federal and state officials to entrap Johnson are highly questionable.
In my view, the due-process-entrapment defense based on our State constitution and endorsed by the Court’s opinion, ante at 472-75, 606 A.2d at 322-23, warrants dismissal of the indictment on the record before us. Defendants’ crimes were almost entirely the product of governmental planning, ingenuity, and resources. The record presents but meager justification for the governmental decision to stage those crimes in order to procure defendants' convictions. Some would doubtless argue that neither the government's staging of those “crimes” nor its limited justification for targeting defendant Johnson should be of any concern to the judiciary: “[T]he defense of entrapment * * * was not intended to give the judiciary a ‘chancellor’s foot’ veto over law enforcement practices of which it did not approve.” United States v. Russell, supra, 411 US. at 435, 93 S.Ct. at 1644, 36 L.Ed.2d at 375. However, as the majority opinion acknowledges, a primary purpose of our due-process-entrapment defense is to “preserve[] judicial integrity in the administration of justice.” Ante at 473, 606 A.2d at 322. Hence, when the judiciary is presented with a crime manufactured by the government, its duty is to scrutinize the record and determine whether the government’s involvement under the circumstances exceeds the proper use of governmental power. “Public confidence in the fair and honorable administration of justice, upon which ultimately depends the rule of law, is the transcending value at stake.” Sherman v. United States, supra, 356 U.S. at 380, 78 S. Ct. at 825, 2 L.Ed.2d at 856 (Frankfurter, J., concurring).
*495The unseemliness of the government’s role in this case compellingly justifies the application of a due-process-entrapment defense:
We have not accepted the view that this highly discrete group of extreme cases of police brutality defines the limits of unconstitutionally outrageous governmental conduct. We have held that law enforcement conduct also becomes constitutionally unacceptable “where government agents engineer and direct the criminal enterprise from start to finish,” Ramirez, 710 F.2d at 539; So, 755 F.2d at 1353, or when governmental conduct constitutes “in effect, the generation by police of new crimes merely for the sake of pressing criminal charges against the defendant.” Ramirez, 710 F.2d at 540.
********
Our view, shared by Justice Brandéis, that a crime manufactured by the government “from whole cloth” would constitute outrageous conduct also has a firm jurisprudential basis. Criminal sanction is not justified when the state manufactures crimes that would otherwise not occur. Punishing a defendant who commits a crime under such circumstances is not needed to deter misconduct; absent the government’s involvement, no crime would have been committed. Similarly, a defendant need not be incarcerated to protect society if he or she is unlikely to commit a crime without governmental interference. Nor does the state need to rehabilitate persons who, absent governmental misconduct, would not engage in crime. Where the police control and manufacture a victimless crime, it is difficult to see how anyone is actually harmed, and thus punishment ceases to be a response, but becomes an end in itself — “to secure the conviction of a private criminal.” [citation omitted]. Under such circumstances, the criminal justice system infringes upon personal liberty and violates due process. [United States v. Bogart, supra, 783 F.2d at 1436.]
IV
As noted, supra at 487-88, 606 A.2d at 329-30, I do not consider the present record adequate for the resolution of the due-process-entrapment issue. Accordingly, I would remand the matter to the Law Division for an evidentiary hearing that would permit the parties to supplement the existing record. Based on the record before us, I would affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division.
For reversal and remandment — Chief Justice WILENTZ, and Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, POLLOCK, O'HERN and GARIBALDI — 6.
Concurring in part, dissenting in part — Justice STEIN — 1.