United States v. Edward E. Garrett

797 F.2d 656, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 381, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 27462
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 24, 1986
Docket85-1528
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 797 F.2d 656 (United States v. Edward E. Garrett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Edward E. Garrett, 797 F.2d 656, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 381, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 27462 (8th Cir. 1986).

Opinion

JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

Edward E. Garrett appeals his conviction following a jury trial on one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (1982), and one count of false declarations before a grand jury (perjury) in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623 (1982). Garrett’s principal contention on appeal is that the district court erred in not dismissing the conspiracy count in the indictment because the grand jury which returned the indictment heard him testify on related matters under a grant of use and derivative use immunity, in violation of his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Garrett also contends that the district court erred in not dismissing the indictment because the prosecution failed to respond adequately to a motion for a bill of particulars granted by the court, and thereby improperly withheld information necessary to enable him to prepare an effective alibi defense. Finally, Garrett contends that the district court improperly limited his cross-examination of an unindicted co-conspirator to show bias, in violation of his sixth amendment rights. We reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing on the grand jury issue, and affirm the district court in all other respects.

In the fall of 1983, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Don Louis Church in northwest Arkansas in possession of a substantial quantity of cocaine. An address book found on Church at the time of arrest listed Garrett’s name and phone number.

On January 5, 1984, a grand jury, impaneled to investigate cocaine trafficking in northwest Arkansas involving Church and other named and unnamed individuals, called Garrett as a witness to inquire why his name appeared in Church’s address book, and to determine his relationship with Church and another target of the grand jury, John Wesley Cooper, Jr. The grand jury informed Garrett of its charge, and advised him that he had been granted use immunity. The grand jury inquired into Garrett’s relationship with Church and Cooper, and specifically asked whether Church or Cooper had ever discussed cocaine dealings with him. Garrett stated that both were merely friends, and that neither had ever discussed cocaine with him. 1 The transcript of Garrett’s entire testimony before the grand jury, all of it self-exculpatory, totalled thirty-nine pages.

Some seven months later, in July 1984, Church and Cooper agreed to cooperate *659 with the government. In their statements to the authorities, Church and Cooper disclosed that they had conspired to obtain and distribute twenty kilograms of cocaine. Cooper contacted Garrett, who met with both Cooper and Church at Cooper’s home, to discuss the sale of a portion of the cocaine. According to Church and Cooper, Garrett met them at Cooper’s home in Bella Vista, Arkansas, purchased and took delivery of two kilograms of cocaine, and paid the one hundred thousand dollar purchase price over a period of approximately five weeks.

In November 1984, Special Agent Hardin, who had been involved in the investigation, appeared before the grand jury which had heard Garrett’s immunized testimony. Hardin informed the grand jury of Garrett’s role in the conspiracy, at times reading from statements Church and Cooper had supplied the FBI. The grand jury thereafter returned a two-count indictment against Garrett: count' one charged him with conspiring to distribute cocaine with Cooper and Church; count two charged him with providing perjurious testimony to the grand jury.

Before trial, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss the substantive conspiracy count of the indictment on the ground that the grand jury which heard his immunized testimony was incompetent to return an indictment charging him with substantive violations relating to matters on which he had testified. In its response, the government provided the district court with a copy of the grand jury testimony of Agent Hardin, which contained the inculpatory statements of Garrett’s co-conspirators; Garrett’s grand jury testimony was already part of the trial court record. The district court, without holding a hearing to determine if the indictment was based in any way on Garrett’s immunized testimony, denied the motion to dismiss. Garrett was convicted at trial on both counts, This appeal followed.

I.

Garrett’s principal contention on appeal is that the government acted improperly in securing his indictment on the substantive charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine from the same grand jury which had heard his immunized testimony on related matters. Garrett contends that the grand jury necessarily used his immunized testimony in returning the indictment, thus violating his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and the district court erred in not dismissing the conspiracy count of the indictment. Alternatively, he argues that the district court erred in not holding an evidentiary hearing to ensure that the indictment did not rest, directly or indirectly, on his immunized testimony.

The federal use immunity statute, 18 TJ.S.C. § 6002 (1982), provides that no testimony or other information which a witness is compelled to disclose to the grand jury under the immunity order may be used against him, directly or indirectly, in a criminal prosecution except for penury. 2 In Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 92 S.Ct. 1653, 32 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972), the Supreme Court held that compelling testimony from a grand jury witness granted use immunity does not violate the witness’s fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The Court reasoned that the immunity provided by section 6002 is at least coextensive with the scope of the fifth amendment privilege, id. at 448-58, 92 S.Ct. at 1658-63; an immunized witness therefore is left in “ ‘substantially the same position as if the witness had claimed his privilege’ in the absence of * * * [the] grant of immunity.” Id. at 458-59, 92 S.Ct. at 1663-64 (quoting Murphy v. Waterfront Commission, 378 U.S. 52, 79, 84 S.Ct. 1594, 1609, 12 L.Ed.2d 678 (1964)). The Court further held, however, that to enforce the *660 statutory prohibition on any use of the immunized testimony and adequately protect the witness’s fifth amendment privilege, an immunized witness subsequently prosecuted “need only show that he testified under a grant of immunity in order to shift to the government the heavy burden of proving that all of the evidence it proposes to use was derived from legitimate independent sources.” Id. at 461-62, 92 S.Ct. at 1665. This burden, the Court explained, provides a “very substantial protection,” id. at 461, 92 S.Ct. at 1665; it “is not limited to a negation of the taint, rather it imposes on the prosecution the affirmative duty to prove that the evidence it proposes to use is derived from a legitimate source wholly independent of the compelled testimony.” Id. at 460, 92 S.Ct. at 1664.

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Bluebook (online)
797 F.2d 656, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 381, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 27462, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-edward-e-garrett-ca8-1986.