United States v. Brown

90 F. Supp. 2d 841, 90 F. Supp. 841, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3657, 2000 WL 306890
District Court, E.D. Michigan·Decided March 14, 2000·No. 2:99-cr-80035·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO EXCLUDE CERTAIN EVIDENCE

ROSEN, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant Brian Brown is named in Count One of the First Superseding Indictment in this case, and is charged along with several co-defendants with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine between 1987 and January of 1999. On September 29, 1999, Defendant brought a Motion to Exclude Certain Evidence and/or to Dismiss Superseding Indictment. This motion arises from allegations in a Bill of Particulars filed by the Government on September 7,1999, concerning Defendant’s involvement in an alleged drug transaction occurring between April and June of 1992 (the “1992 transaction”). 1 In his motion, Defendant argues that evidence of this alleged 1992 transaction should be excluded as encompassed within a prior December 1, 1992 indictment, which also charged Diefendant with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, but which was dismissed with prejudice for violation of Defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. See United States v. Brown, 985 F.Supp. 722 (E.D.Mich.1997), aff'd, 169 F.3d 344 (6th Cir.1999).

The Court heard argument on this motion on November 29, 1999, and then addressed the matter further with counsel for the parties at conferences held in this Court’s chambers on January 11, 2000 and February 28, 2000. Having reviewed the briefs and other materials filed by the parties, and having considered the arguments of counsel at the hearing and conferences, the Court now is prepared to rule on Defendant’s motion. For the reasons set forth below, the Court denies Defendant’s motion, but without prejudice to Defendant’s opportunity to argue at trial that the evidence at issue is inadmissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence, and specifically Rules 404(b) and 403.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Overview

Defendant’s motion rests on the assertion that the Government’s Sixth Amendment speedy trial violation in its prior prosecution of Defendant bars any evidentiary use in the present case of the 1992 transaction set forth in the prior, dismissed indictment. On its face, the dismissed indictment rested solely upon the 1992 transaction. Because this prior indictment was dismissed on constitutional grounds, Defendant argues that traditional “exclusionary rule” principles apply with *843 full force here, and require the exclusion of evidence associated with the constitutionally “tainted” prior prosecution. In making this argument, Defendant proceeds largely by analogy from cases holding that statements obtained in violation of another Sixth Amendment guarantee, the right to counsel, are inadmissible in the Government’s case-in-chief. See, e.g., Michigan v. Harvey, 494 U.S. 844, 349, 110 S.Ct. 1176, 1179, 108 L.Ed.2d 293 (1990); Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 636, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 1411, 89 L.Ed.2d 631 (1986).

For its part, the Government has consistently stated its intention to offer evidence of the 1992 transaction as part of its casein-chief here. The Government’s stated purpose for offering this evidence, however, has been difficult to discern and, to put it charitably, constantly evolving. As reflected in the September 7, 1999 Bill of Particulars, the Government evidently planned at one point to rely on the 1992 transaction as a substantive portion of the drug conspiracy alleged in the current indictment. Indeed, this was the only specific transaction identified in the Government’s initial Bill of Particulars. This gave rise to the concern that the present-conspiracy charge brought against Defendant was merely a restated version of the prior, dismissed conspiracy charge.

However, the Government recently advised the Court that it now seeks to introduce the 1992 transaction as “other crimes, wrongs, or acts” evidence under Fed. K.Evid. 404(b), 2 and not as a substantive part of the alleged drug conspiracy. 3 Because this change in purpose significantly undermined the factual basis for the present conspiracy charge as stated in the initial Bill of Particulars, the Court instructed the Government to file a Supplemental Bill of Particulars identifying the incidents, apart from the 1992 transaction, upon which the current charge is based. On January 21, 2000, the Government filed this Supplemental Bill, which no longer mentions the 1992 transaction, and instead identifies several other alleged drug transactions occurring between 1992 and 1994 and involving Defendant. At the February 28, 2000 conference in the Court’s chambers, counsel for Defendant agreed that this Supplemental Bill of Particulars provides adequate notice of the basis for the present conspiracy charge against Defendant, and the Court also is satisfied that it does so.

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United States v. Brown, 90 F. Supp. 2d 841, 90 F. Supp. 841, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3657, 2000 WL 306890 (E.D. Mich. 2000).

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