Court Opinion

ID: 9493639
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:13:51.658611+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:56.583413
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. After reading the transcript of the relevant grand jury proceedings, I am convinced that the primary purpose for calling Juanita Ellis and Lawanda Kelly before the grand jury was to secure their testimony against Euka Wad-lington. The government concedes that if this were its purpose, it would be improper.
Kelly testified that after she received the grand jury subpoena, the court appointed a lawyer to represent her. After meeting with him, Kelly’s understanding was that prosecutors merely wanted her to tell the truth about what she knew about Wadlington. When called before the grand jury, one of the first questions asked of Kelly was, “Are you prepared then to answer questions truthfully about your knowledge of Euka Wadlington and his illegal activities?” Her answer was “[y]es.” She was then asked, “And the activities of the people he worked with?” She responded, Wes.” (Appellee’s App. at 18.) The initial question hardly squares with the statement of the United States Attorney at oral argument that it was no part of the government’s intention at all to call Kelly or Ellis to give evidence that could be used against Wadlington.
Kelly also testified that she had a romantic relationship with Wadlington that lasted for about a year and a half, and that she saw him turning powder cocaine into crack cocaine on a number of occasions. Further, she testified that there came a time in her relationship with Wadlington when she realized that he was not running a club in Clinton, Iowa, but that he was selling drugs, and that the people who came to her house with him looked like addicts.
During the course of her grand jury testimony, Kelly was asked about several other persons, including Phyllis and Terrance McLoyd, Dee Isaac, Tina Bostic, Azure Foster, Sherman Bell, Big Ed, Otis Carter (an addict to whom Wadlington would give drugs), Melvin Yancy, Mack Douglas, Jack Jetter, Jennifer Bopes, Jessie Sparlin, Heather Kline (with whom Wadlington fathered a child), and Amos Ellis. Members of the grand jury then asked Kelly about Flame, Gregory Smith, Andrea, Pamela, Lashawn Coleman, Jessie, Bill Dowery, June Bug, Wimp, and Durrell.
After reading the transcript, I am left with the firm impression that the primary purpose of calling Kelly before the grand jury was to strengthen the case against Wadlington. There certainly was nothing in Kelly’s testimony that would support adding either Samuel Miller, Terrance Hood or Lee Paige Driver to the conspiracy count. Certainly an argument can be made that Kelly’s testimony before the grand jury provided information that permitted the addition of Terrance McLoyd to the list of conspirators. In my view, however, this was an incidental benefit of her testimony rather than the primary reason for it.
Juanita Ellis was also called before the grand jury and was granted immunity from the government in exchange for her testimony. She was told that the grand jury was investigating Wadlington and his associates. Ellis had been interviewed a short time earlier about her knowledge of Wadlington. She testified that she had seen crack sold in Wadlington’s presence, and that she believed Wadlington was the source of the drugs. Ellis also testified that Wadlington’s closest associates in Clinton were Samuel, Edward (Big Ed), Red, and Terrance McLoyd. Ellis admit*1083ted that she had, for a time, sold crack cocaine supplied by Big Ed and Red.
■ Ellis further testified that she knew Terrance McLoyd, that she was not sure if he dealt drugs or not, but because he was associated with everyone else who was dealing, she would have to say he was dealing drugs. She was then asked, “[I]s it fair to say that because of the process of negotiating with you about your concerns for safety for your family and your own protection for immunity, that we really haven’t had enough time today to find out everything you know about Mr. Wadling-ton?” Her answer was, “True.” (Id. at 9.)
Again, after reading Ellis’s testimony, I am left with the firm impression that the primary purpose in calling her before the grand jury was to bolster the case against Wadlington.
There remains the question of whether Wadlington was prejudiced by this misuse of the grand jury process. I believe that this issue should first be determined by the district court. I would therefore remand the matter with directions to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to sustain Wadlington’s conviction without the information gained from the grand jury testimony of Kelly and Ellis.