3.Coconspirator Hearsay Rulings on Silk Road Listings
57 linesTHE COURT: All right. Is this a good time to break?
MR. TURNER: Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to take our lunch break now. We are going to resume promptly at 2 o'clock. So I'd ask you to get back into the jury room at maybe ten minutes before 2 so that you can get everything organized to be able to come out right at 2 o'clock.
I want to remind you not to talk to anybody about this case and not to review any media. You know, if you go onto your phone and you are looking at news reports and you see anything that may relate to this case, you are instructed that you are not to read it. You are not to review any content relating to this case at all, whether it be in newspapers or blogs or anything at all on the Internet or on any TV or radio station. OK? It is very, very important that you -- if you hear something, see something, you turn the channel, you turn off the radio, you advert your eyes. All right? And not to speak with anybody about this case at all.
Thank you. We'll see you after lunch.
COURT CLERK: All rise as the jury leaves.
(Continued on next page)
(Jury not present)
THE COURT: You can step down also and take a lunch break and we will pick up again at 2 o'clock.
JARED DER-YEGHIAYAN: Thank you, your Honor.
THE COURT: Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's all be seated.
THE COURT: I am just waiting for the witness to leave.
(Witness not present)
THE COURT: I did want to now -- having had additional testimony from the witness relating to screenshots regarding computer hacking and fraudulent identification documents along with the narcotics, I did want to further indicate that the Court has made the findings that would be supportive of the co-conspirator exception with respect to the screenshots that had text that indicated either the word "forgery" or something else.
In each case, as the government had proffered before trial and as reflected in the Court's decision on the motions in limine, the government's theory is that the defendant is in one or more conspiracies. As the law is clear, the conspiracy charged does not have to be the conspiracy to which something relates for purposes of the co-conspirator exception. I do find that there has been a sufficient showing of evidence supportive of a conspiracy in each of the instances where we have been reviewing the screenshots to support the finding of the conspiracy and then the material being in furtherance of. The reason that I say that is because it doesn't make any sense to have a listing on a website for purposes of buying and selling the item in question unless in fact the item is in fact what it purports to be. And so, therefore, it would be in furtherance of a conspiracy to engage in the activity indicated, either a narcotics conspiracy or computer hacking conspiracy or the fraudulent ID conspiracy.
This is by no means any kind of ultimate finding on any of these conspiracies. This is a different type of evidentiary finding simply for purposes of the hearsay objection, and I am required to make such findings in order to determine that the hearsay objection has been appropriately dealt with, and that's the reason for the Court taking the time to do that now.
As I had indicated earlier at the sidebar, Mr. Dratel, there were a number of times when you had objected to documents where there were not objections that were indicated in the Pretrial Order.
THE DEFENDANT: Your Honor --
THE COURT: I want us to understand what the objections were.
MR. DRATEL: Sure. My client wishes to clarify something.
THE COURT: Yes.
THE DEFENDANT: To your previous point, I just wanted to clarify something.
THE COURT: Yes.
(Pause)
THE DEFENDANT: Thank you, your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you. Mr. Dratel, on Exhibits 116A and 116B --
MR. DRATEL: Let me just go back and look at my notes.
THE COURT: These are the screenshots of the --
MR. DRATEL: What you were just talking about, right. Hearsay, not part of -- not a conspiracy, not necessarily true. I mean, it is coming in for the truth when we have no idea whether these people are actually offering these items for sale, scamming the customers. There is no basis to believe that just based on a screenshot.
THE COURT: I understand that position. I just note that you had not reflected that objection in the Pretrial Order, and it is of the type of objection that would have been the kind of thing you could have anticipated. Nevertheless, I am not going to find that you have waived that objection. I think it is of the type that you had elsewhere asserted. But if there are other places where, upon reflection, you think that we should include an objection, I am happy to think about that but I would like to have some advance notice --
MR. DRATEL: Sure.
THE COURT: -- if you've got an objection. That is the purpose of the Pretrial Order.
The Court does understand that those are the objections up to this point. They are in the nature of the prior objections, similar to those which the Court has already dealt with, and then they were similarly overruled for the same reasons as set forth in the Court's in limine ruling and also elsewhere on the record today.
All right. So that is also for 117A and 118 -- 117A, 117B.
MR. DRATEL: Right.
THE COURT: The same thing?
MR. DRATEL: Just let me look at it.
THE COURT: I believe 117B is not in for the truth.
MR. DRATEL: Right. That's really for the truth, again, the question of hearsay. Also, the question of whether all the people who are posting messages there are not conspirators so it can't come in for the truth. I mean, there is no proof that they ever bought or sold --
THE COURT: Right. That is done with the purpose of my limiting instruction, and I will go back -- if you believe that there are some as to which there should be a limiting instruction in addition to that which I have already given, provided to the jury, I am happy to entertain that request.
MR. DRATEL: OK.
THE COURT: You Will let me know.
MR. DRATEL: Yes, your Honor. Thank you.
THE COURT: I wanted to clarify that for Government Exhibit 801A, you did not object to it being received. There were objections noted in the Pretrial Order that I believe were simply to the underlying documents which we've elsewhere dealt with; is that right?
MR. DRATEL: That is correct, your Honor. Once -- I think the condition of our stipulation is if the Court admitted it, we were not going to object, but obviously we object to the underlying connection for the same reasons that we did, obviously, in the pretrial proceedings. We objected on the basis of its connection to the charged conspiracies and things like that.
THE COURT: All right. Is there anything else that that you folks would like to deal with right now?
MR. TURNER: No, your Honor.
MR. DRATEL: No, your Honor.
THE COURT: So if there is any other limiting instruction, Mr. Dratel, that you think the Court should provide, let me know and I will consider it; otherwise, I think I have done what I intended to do.
MR. DRATEL: It is probably more in the nature of going back and looking at the exhibits to determine whether we will ask the Court to add certain exhibits to the instruction, to include them within the instruction that the Court gave.
THE COURT: Just let me know if you want to make an application in that regard.
MR. DRATEL: Thank you, your Honor.
THE COURT: We are adjourned until 2 o'clock.
I have a matter in here at 1:30. I will try to do it in the robing room, if I can. But otherwise, just for purposes of giving me the opportunity to do it out here, why don't we just leave two spots on the far right, which seem to have less on it than the other tables. You can leave the Elmo where it is.
MR. DRATEL: Do you want us to clear?
THE COURT: Not everything. Only the two spots to my right.
COURT CLERK: All rise.
(Luncheon recess)
A F T E R N O O N S E S S I O N 2:03 p.m.
(Jury not present)
THE COURT: I understand the jury is ready so let's get them out.
COURT CLERK: All rise as the jury enters.
(Jury present)
THE COURT: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, let's all be seated.
And for your planning purposes, typically, although things come up and change the schedule a little bit, typically we take our mid-afternoon break around 3:20 to 3:30, and then when we come back we go 'til just before 5. Just so that you have that in your mind.
Again, if anybody needs a break on any other schedule, just make eye contact with Joe or with me. All right? Thank you.
Mr. Turner, you may proceed, sir.
MR. TURNER: Thank you. JARED Der-Yeghiayan, Resumed, and testified further as follows: