Court Opinion

ID: 9669144
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:40:51.518554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:52.958925
License: Public Domain

Robert L. Brown, Justice, concurring. I agree that this conviction must be reversed owing to the error in disallowing the testimony of Gary Creed relating to entrapment. However, I disagree that it was error for the circuit court to refuse to divulge the name of the confidential informant who gave information leading to the search warrant. This is not your typical case where “informer’s privilege” is involved. Here, appellant Hill testified that it was Ronnie Prescott, who entrapped him into manufacturing controlled substances by offering him $10,000 to do so. He further testified that he learned that Prescott was working for law enforcement as an informant because Prescott wanted to avoid criminal charges against him. Four law enforcement officers associated with the State Police or the Drug Task Force or the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration also testified at trial that Ronnie Prescott had been cooperating with them. Drug Enforcement Agent Wes Sossaman stated that this cooperation had gone on for nearly two years. He also testified that Prescott was not prosecuted on the charge of drug manufacturing relating to Dennis Hill. With all of this testimony, it was clear that Prescott was cooperating with law enforcement. Hill, therefore, was not prejudiced or hampered in the slightest in making his case that law enforcement, utilizing Prescott, entrapped him. What the circuit judge did refuse to order was the release of the name of the confidential informant who provided information relating to the search warrant. That, however, was a separate matter and totally irrelevant to the defense of entrapment. In short, Dennis Hill testified that Ronnie Prescott was cooperating with law enforcement and had entrapped him with an offer of $10,000 to manufacture drugs. Law enforcement confirmed the fact that Prescott was cooperating with them. And his defense counsel vigorously argued Prescott’s cooperation with law enforcement and the defense of entrapment by a drug enforcement operative to the jury. I see no reason under these facts to require law enforcement to furnish the name of the person who gave them part of the factual basis for the search warrant. Certainly, Hill has presented no persuasive reason as to how this information would enhance his entrapment defense or, otherwise, as to how his constitutional rights have been infringed upon by not having this information. Ark. R. Crim. P. 17.5(b). In my judgment, it was not error for the circuit court to refuse to require confirmance of whether Ronnie Prescott was the informant for the search warrant.