United States v. Fine

413 F. Supp. 740, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15274
District Court, W.D. Wisconsin·Decided May 4, 1976·No. 3:70-cr-00126·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

DECISION and ORDER

MYRON L. GORDON, District Judge.

In a separate decision, I ruled on several motions of the defendant David Fine to dismiss various counts of the indictment in this action. The defendant and the government have also filed a number of motions which deal with discovery matters, including a motion for a bill of particulars. The defendant has also submitted a motion to suppress certain evidence. This decision will deal with these motions. Several other motions, were filed by the defendant, but the court has been informed that these motions have been voluntarily resolved by the government and the defendant, withdrawn by the defendant, or otherwise held in abeyance at the request of the defendant.

MOTIONS RELATING TO VOICE EXEMPLARS

The government has filed a motion for an order directing the defendant to furnish voice exemplars in the form of a telephone communication recorded by the Madison police department on August 24, 1970, warning of the existence of a bomb in *742 the Army Math Research Center. The government has stated that the purpose of the requested exemplars is “for use as a comparison in determining the identity of the caller involved materially in the crimes charged.”

The defendant filed a motion for disclosure, to determine whether the government already possessed recordings of the defendant’s voice, and in response to that motion the government has stated that aside from the tape recorded telephone message with which the exemplars would be compared, “there are no known tape or other voice recordings of defendant Fine within the possession of the Government.” The defendant has filed a motion for a pretrial evidentiary hearing to determine the admissibility of voice spectrograms, commonly referred to as “voiceprints,” prior to any ruling by this court on the government’s motion for production of voice exemplars. The government’s motion for production of voice exemplars will be granted, and the defendant’s motion for a prior evidentiary hearing will be denied.

The defendant raises fourth and fifth amendment objections to an order compelling him to produce voice exemplars, but he admits in his brief that these objections have been conclusively rejected in United States v. Dionisio, 410 U.S. 1, 93 S.Ct. 764, 35 L.Ed.2d 67 (1973), and United States v. Rogers, 475 F.2d 821 (7th Cir. 1973). The defendant’s remaining objection is that the use of voice spectrograms as a voice identification procedure is insufficiently established to have gained general acceptance among speech scientists, that testimony relating to such a procedure is therefore not admissible at trial, and that accordingly, voice exemplars would not be relevant at trial and should not be produced.

The defendant’s objections to the production of voice exemplars are without merit, and his request for a determination of the admissibility of voice spectrogram evidence is premature. As the government notes in its brief:

“Whether or not the question of admissibility of voice spectrogram evidence will arise at the time of trial is dependent on the Government’s decision to try to admit expert opinion on this subject. Such a decision by the Government cannot be made until expert analysis is conducted.
“By waiting until after the Government indicates an intention to use any expert opinion based on voice exemplars, this Court may avoid a lengthy pre-trial hearing. For example, the possibility exists that the Government may not intend to introduce any testimony concerning voice analysis. Furthermore, by waiting until expert analysis is completed, a full record of the procedures utilized by any experts can be presented to this Court in any evidentiary hearing concerning the scientific validity of voice spectrograms.”

The government’s motion for an order requiring the defendant to produce voice exemplars will be granted, and the defendant’s motion for a prior evidentiary hearing will be denied.

MOTION FOR PRODUCTION OF STATEMENTS OF ALLEGED CO-CONSPIRATORS

The defendant has filed a motion for the entry of an order requiring the government to produce for inspection and copying any and all statements allegedly made by co-conspirators, whether indicted or not, and whether made during the pendency of the alleged conspiracy and in furtherance of it, or made after the termination of the alleged conspiracy to law enforcement officials. This motion will be granted.

Under Rule 801(d)(2)(E), Federal Rules of Evidence, the statement of a co-conspirator of a party, made during the course and in furtherance of a conspiracy, and offered against that party, is not inadmissible as hearsay. Therefore, the defendant contends, statements of alleged co-conspirators, for all practical purposes, become the statements of the defendant himself and should be discoverable by the defendant as though they were his own statements. See Rule 16(a)(1)(A), Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. This view of the relationship be *743 tween Rules 801(d)(2)(E) and 16(a)(1)(A), was rejected in United States v. Percevault, 490 F.2d 126 (2d Cir. 1974).

However, in turning down the defendant’s analysis the court in Percevault applied reasoning which is applicable only to co-defendants or co-conspirators who are prospective government witnesses at trial. This reasoning is similar to that in United States v. McMillen, 489 F.2d 229, 231 (7th Cir. 1972), which states:

“The [Jencks] Act limits the prohibition to Government witnesses or prospective Government witnesses. . . . We agree with respondent that defendants are entitled to the statements of any other co-defendants.”

Accordingly, the defendant’s motion for the production of statements of alleged co-conspirators, other than those who are prospective government witnesses, will be granted.

MOTIONS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF GRAND JURY TESTIMONY AND OF WITNESSES’ STATEMENTS

The defendant has filed a motion for an order “requiring the Government to provide, substantially prior to trial, all statements of persons that the Government intends to call as witnesses at the trial.” A similar motion for the production of a transcript of the testimony of those witnesses who appeared before the grand jury has been filed.

Title 18, United States Code, § 3500, provides that the statements of witnesses need not be produced until such time as the witnesses have testified. The government has stated that it will “agree to the procedure utilized in the case of United States v. Balistrieri, 346 F.Supp.

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