Court Opinion

ID: 9487262
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:12:06.431217+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:10.450936
License: Public Domain

BLACK, Circuit Judge, specially
concurring:
I concur in the panel opinion. I write separately to express my belief that our holding on the admissibility of the wiretap transcripts must be confined to the unique circumstances of this ease. The majority opinion should not be read so broadly as to allow virtually automatic admission of purported wiretap transcripts whenever original recordings of a conversation are missing through no bad faith on the part of the Government. That would be an expansive and dangerous precedent. I concur here because of the particular facts of this case and because of the commendable efforts of the district court judge to ensure the reliability of these transcripts.
As the panel opinion notes, the district court admitted transcripts of thirteen telephone conversations intercepted in Spain by the Spanish National Police. Several of the co-conspirators in this case participated in those conversations, and Appellant Ross was identified as a participant in five of the conversations. The district court admitted the transcripts only after satisfying itself that they were an accurate account of actual conversations that had been recorded pursuant to a Spanish-court-ordered wiretap. The actual recordings, made in 1988, were not available at the time of trial in 1992.1
Before deciding to admit the transcripts as other evidence of the contents of the wiretap recordings under Rule 1004, the district court conducted an evidentiary hearing. That hearing included testimony from David Sabio, a co-conspirator turned Government witness who participated in five of the thirteen transcribed conversations, none of which were with Ross. The district court also heard from one former and one current Spanish police officer, who had listened to the wiretap recordings and made the original Spanish transcriptions. The Spanish police identified Ross as a participant in his five conversations. Numerous other witnesses tied Ross to the drug conspiracy in other ways.
At the evidentiary hearing, Sabio testified that the transcripts accurately matched his recollection of the five telephone conversations he participated in during his time in Spain in 1988. He specifically recalled that each of the five conversations had occurred, the name of the other participating party, and the general content of each of the conversations. Further, Sabio testified that the general content was accurately portrayed in the transcripts. On cross-examination by Appellant’s counsel, Sabio testified that literal translations of certain unflattering colloquial expressions used by others to address him as a greeting were perfect translations of the words used, rather than interpreta*1526tions of the meanings of those words. He further verified the accuracy of the transcripts by noting that the unusual nature of the greetings made the conversations memorable for him. Sabio also testified that he could not say that the transcripts contained the exact words used by the parties in every conversation, but that he believed the conversations were carried on essentially as transcribed.
The two Spanish police officers told the district court how they made all thirteen original transcripts. They testified that all phone conversations from two wiretapped phones were originally recorded on a master tape. A Spanish police officer then listened to the master tape and identified conversations that related to their ongoing investigation. The recordings of those conversations were duplicated onto cassette tapes and the master tape was then reused. Generally, the Spanish police made a Spanish language transcript of the conversation while listening to the duplicate cassette, but on certain occasions the transcript was made directly from the master tape. The district court noted that the procedures followed fell short of the safeguards provided in this country by 18 U.S.C. § 2516, but comported with Spanish law.
Defense counsel had ample opportunity to cross-examine the Spanish police officers in front of the jury on the procedures that they followed in making the transcripts and on the accuracy of their identification of the participants. Sabio was also available to the defense for testimony regarding the accuracy of the transcripts but, not surprisingly, he was not called, presumably because his testimony supports the accuracy of the transcripts. Interestingly, the Government did not bolster the reliability of the transcripts for the jury by re-calling Sabio as a witness after the transcripts had been ruled admissible. Sabio had been called as a Government witness prior to the proffer of the transcripts, and naturally his testimony at that time made no mention of the transcripts. Thus, the jury weighed the value of the transcripts without the benefit of Sabio’s testimony supporting their accuracy.
It is important to note that the United States government played no role whatsoever in either the preparation or destruction of the master recordings or the cassette tapes. There is no question that these transcripts meet Rule 1004’s requirement that the original recording not be lost through bad faith on the part of the proponent. Fed.R.Evid. 1004(1). There is also no question that, given Sabio’s testimony, admission of the five transcripts of conversations involving him cause no concern. I agree that the admission of the remaining eight transcripts is troublesome. I am, however, satisfied that the evidentiary hearing demonstrated that the transcripts were indeed reliable. Under the circumstances, involving the actions of a foreign government and not the United States government, I agree that they were properly admitted. I reiterate, however, that our holding on this issue should be confined to the unique circumstances presented in this case.

. Testimony indicated that no charges were ever brought in Spain as a result of this investigation. It is, therefore, not surprising that the cassette tapes were not available at the time of trial.