United States v. Briscoe

896 F.2d 1476 (7th Cir. 1990)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Between 1984 and 1986 Ds imported approximately three kilograms of heroin having an estimated street value of over one million dollars. Most of it was smuggled into this country by female couriers concealing the drug in their body cavities. The DEA obtained authorization to intercept and record telephone calls to and from the residences of some of the participants. The DEA was able to monitor their conversations as well as identify the individuals listed on telephone company records as the subscribers to the numbers making calls to or receiving calls from the residences. The majority of the intercepted conversations were conducted in Yoruba, a language spoken in Nigeria. Eventually, Ds were indicted and tried for conspiracy. Computerized telephone records were admitted under Fed.R.Evid. 803(6). Ds objected to the evidence but the trial court admitted it. The records listed the telephone numbers, the names of the subscribers placing calls to, as well as the subscribers receiving calls from, the three telephone numbers that were the subjects of the DEA wiretap investigation, the date, time, and length of the call. The United States (P) presented the testimony of Merny Miller, the keeper of the records at Illinois Bell Telephone Company. Miller testified that the records were Automatic Message Accounting Interrogation sheets which are compilations of call data entered into a computer when an Illinois Bell subscriber places a telephone call prepared for billing purposes. Miller stated it was the regular business practice of Illinois Bell to assemble and maintain the records. The computer assembling the call data scanned itself for error every fifteen seconds. Ds cross-examined Miller on all of the information concerning the telephone records presented at trial. Ds were convicted and appealed. Ds claim that P failed to present sufficient foundational evidence to establish that the computer records were accurate compilations of the telephone call data associated with the three 'wiretapped' telephones.