Thе defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of three counts of sale of cocaine by a person who is not drug-dependent in violation of General Statutes § 21a-278 (b), and one count of possession of marijuana in violation of General Statutes § 21a-279 (c). He claims that the trial court improperly (1) failed to hold an evidentiary hearing before sustaining a witness informant’s blanket invocation of the privilege against self-incrimination, as asserted through the witness’ attorney, and (2) refused to strike the testimony of a state’s witness despite the state’s intentional destruction of the witness’ prior statements. The state appeals challenging the trial court’s decision to dismiss, after guilty verdicts, the defendant’s conviction of possession of cocaine with intent to sell by a person who is not drug-dependent in violation of General Statutes § 21a-278 (b), and possession of cocaine in violation of General Statutes § 21a-279 (a). The state claims that the trial court should have merged, rather than dismissed, the convictions.
The jury reasonаbly could have found the following facts. In May, 1990, David Ciarlelli, an undercover patrol officer assigned to the narcotics unit of the Ham-den police department, began working with an informant, Anthony Gentile. Gentile, who had been arrested in North Haven on April 25, 1990, and had outstanding charges there, was a confidential informant for the North Haven police department, and was willing to cooperate with the Hamden police also. Gentile told Ciarlelli that the defendant, an acquaintance of Gen
Over the next few months, Ciarlelli met with Gentile several times. Ciarlelli also conducted periodic drive-by surveillance of the defendant’s house in Ham-den but did not notice any suspicious activity there. On August 10, 1990, Ciarlelli, acting undercover, drove with Gentile to a parking lot near a soccer field in North Haven, where they met the defendant. Gentile introduced Ciarlelli to the defendant as his friend, Dave. Ciarlelli then observed what he believed to be a controlled buy of cocaine from the defendant, conducted by Gentile for the North Haven police department.
On August 16, 1990, Gentile called the defendant from the North Haven police department and arranged a purchase of narcotics. Ciarlelli and Gentile drove together to the defendant’s house. The defendant gave a plastic bag, which he had removed from his sock, to Gentile in exchange for money; Gentile later gave the bag to the North Haven police department. Ciarlelli then told the defеndant he wanted to purchase a gram of cocaine. The defendant went into his house and returned with a plastic bag containing a white powder, which he then sold to Ciarlelli for $100 of Hamden police department funds. The powder purchased by Ciarlelli tested positive for cocaine.
On August 29,1990, Ciarlelli telephoned the defendant from the Hamden police department to arrange a purchase of an “eight-ball,” the equivalent of two grams of cocaine. The defendant agreed and told Ciarlelli to drive оver to his house. Ciarlelli drove there alone. On this occasion, he wore a transmitter that enabled Hamden police officers to monitor and tape the conversation between him and the defendant. The defendant met Ciarlelli at the door and, in exchange
On August 31,1990, Ciarlelli telephoned the defendant to inquire about the eight-ball he had ordered. The defendant said he had it and that Ciarlelli should come and get it. Ciarlelli, again wearing a transmitter that permitted monitoring and taping of the transaction, proceeded to the defendant’s house. Upon Ciarlelli’s arrival, the defendant went into the house and returned with a plastic bag containing a white powder that he sold to Ciarlelli for $200 of pоlice department funds. This substance also tested positive for cocaine.
On September 7, 1990, officers from the Hamden police department and the statewide narcotics task force executed a search warrant at the defendant’s house. A quantity of cocaine, two marijuana seedlings, drug paraphernalia, and several firearms were seized. The defendant was arrested outside of his house prior to the search.
Gentile was arrested by North Haven police on September 13, 1990, on unrelated fеlony charges.
I
The Defendant’s Appeal
The defendant first claims that Ms state and federal constitutional due process rights to a fair trial and to establish a defense were violated by the trial court’s failure to conduct a hearing on Gentile’s intent, as rep
The defendant testified on his own behalf and presented the following evidence in support of his defense of entrapment. The defendant claimed that he met Gentile in 1981 but had not seen him for several years until 1990. In April or May, 1990, the defendant’s fiancee, Roseann DeGolo, was attending drug rehabilitation meetings in North Haven; Gentile was also attending these meetings and he asked DeGolo to purchase drugs for him. Gentile telephoned DeGolo frequently to press this request. The defendant interceded on several occasions, demanding that Gentile stay away from DeGolo. On two or three occasions, however, the defendant purchased drugs and sold them to Gentile, in an effort to keep him from bothering DeGolo. The defendant stopped selling drugs to Gentile after DeGolo stopped attending the meetings.
According to the defendant, Gentile persisted in contacting him between May and July, 1990, calling his house as many as seven times a week to ask him to buy drugs. The defendant claimed that during this time he withstood Gentile’s demands. On August 1,1990, however, the defendant met with Gentile in North Haven. Gentile proposed a plan whereby he would obtain drugs from an East Haven dealer, sell them to the defendant, and then buy them back. Gentile said that his friend, Dave, would also buy drugs. The defendant agreed to thе proposal. Thereafter, he bought cocaine from Gentile and sold half of it back to him on August 10,1990, when he and Gentile met at a soccer field in North Haven. Ciarlelli was present at that time. The defendant alleged that Gentile bought the remaining cocaine from him around August 12, 1990. The defendant claimed that he again purchased cocaine
The defendant testified that he purchased cocaine again from Gentile some time between August 16 and August 29, 1990; he claimed that he sold part of this cocaine to Ciarlelli on August 29 and the remainder to Gentile some time before that date.
The defendant testified that early in the morning on August 31, 1990, the defendant met Gentile in New Haven and sold cocaine to him. At that time, Gentile allegedly gave him a paper bag containing drug paraphernalia that was seized from the defendant’s house on September 7, 1990. Finally, the defendant claimed that he purchased more cocaine from Gentile on September 6, 1990, which he intended to sell to Ciarlelli. This cocaine, he claimed, was seized from his house on September 7, 1990.
The defendant’s testimony indicated that Gentile was buying, selling and using cocaine during the time he was working with Ciarlelli as a police informant. He also presented a witness who corroborated his testimony that a transaction between him and Gentile occurred prior to the August 16, 1990 sale of cocaine to Gentile and Ciarlelli.
To support his claim that Gentile had induced him to take part in illegal activity, the defendant attempted to cаli Gentile as an adverse witness. Both the defendant and the state had issued a writ of habeas corpus ad testificandum for Gentile, and he was in the courthouse on April 29,1991. Gentile did not appear before the trial court; his counsel, John Keefe, appeared on his behalf. Outside the jury’s presence, the trial court asked Keefe whether, if a hearing was held to test the limits of the fifth amendment privilege, Gentile would invoke the privilege regardless of the question he was asked. Keefe said yes. The defendant objected, saying
All persons enjoy a constitutional right of immunity from being compelled to testify against themselves. U.S. Const., amend. V; Conn. Const., art. I, § 8. That right is a personal one. State v. Horwitz,
A hearing was also required, particularly in the circumstances of this case, for the trial court to determine whether Gentile’s claim of privilege against self-incrimination should be sustained. To sustain the privilege, “it need only be evident from the implications of the question, in the context in which it is asked, that a responsive answer to the question or an explanation of why it cannot be answered might be dangerous because injurious disclosure could result. State v. Simms, [
Both the state and the defendant evidently felt that Gentile was a necessary witness in this case. Both had sought his presence at trial. The defendant’s entrapment defense may have caused Gentile to be concerned that his answers to questions pertaining to his possession of drugs or supplying them to the defendant might expose him to criminal liability. While this concern might seem to be well-foundеd, the court had no opportunity to make a determination of such exposure. The defendant argues that there may have been other areas of inquiry available to him that would not be subject to a valid fifth amendment claim by Gentile and that would corroborate the defendant’s claim of entrapment. It was the duty of the judge, not the witness or his counsel, to determine whether the witness could properly
In not conducting a hearing, the trial court here failed to establish, through specific questions posed, the validity of Gentile’s сlaimed privilege. In upholding the claim of a blanket fifth amendment privilege, the court delegated to Gentile’s attorney its own responsibility to determine if and when Gentile would respond to specific questions, and whether his invocation of the privilege was valid. The defendant claims that he was denied the opportunity to inquire as to whether any charges were pending against Gentile at the time of the alleged entrapment, whether Gentile had been promised anything for his cooperation as an informant for two poliсe departments, or what motivated him to approach the defendant. In general, it was for the court to determine, through a voir dire examination of the witness, outside the jury’s presence, whether a valid privilege was properly claimed as to questions dealing with the scope and extent of Gentile’s actions as a police informant. The court, however, never determined whether this was a nonprivileged area of inquiry. It had previously determined that questions concerning Gentile’s September 13,1990 charges were not a legitimate area of inquiry.
While a question-by-question invocation of the privilege against self-incrimination may not be required under all circumstances, we cannot accept the state’s contention that the sustaining of a blanket privilege claim was appropriate here in view of the proffer made by the defendant. That proffer, which the state argues “provided the trial court with sufficient information to evaluate the blanket assertion of the privilege without engaging in impermissible speculation,” was made аfter the defendant had been convicted, at a hearing on the defendant’s posttrial motions.
The defendant asks that we remand this matter for a new trial. He argues that, even if, after a proper hearing, the trial court determines that Gentile has properly invoked his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, that invocation must also be made before the jury. The defendant argues that not doing so may tend to bolster the state’s case, and that Gentile’s invocation of his privilege before the jury would corroborate, to some degree, the defense of entrapment. We disagree that it is necessary for the jury to see Gentile, if, after a hearing, the trial court determines that he properly invoked his fifth amendment privilege.
“[A] witness may not be called to the stand in the presence of the jury merely for the purpose of invoking his privilege against self-incrimination. State v. Person,
On remand, the trial court is directed to conduct a hearing. If Gentile does not invoke this privilege, or if hе improperly invokes it as to relevant questions that, if answered, would provide admissible evidence, then the convictions are reversed and a new trial is ordered.
B
The defendant next contends that the trial court improperly refused to strike Ciarlelli’s testimony. The facts pertinent to this claim are as follows.
Outside the presence of the jury, Ciarlelli testified that the incident reports he prepared relating to events occurring on August 10, August 16, August 29, August 31 and September 7,1990, were first dictated by him. The tapes were then transcribed by a secretary at the Ham-den police department. The tapes and the transcribed reports were delivered to Ciarlelli, who then reviewed the reports and returned the tapes for reuse. The policy of the Hamden police department was to reuse and therefore erase the tapes. The department had no policy of preserving the tapes.
Ciarlelli’s own routine procedure was to read the prepared transcripts and sign them if they appeared true and accurate. He would listen tо a tape before returning it for reuse only if something in a transcript did not appear to be accurate. The transcript of the August 10 tape was signed on August 22, the August 16 tape on August 31, the August 29 tape on September 20, the August 31 tape on September 10, and the September 7 tape on September 27.
The trial court refused to strike Ciarlelli’s testimony, finding that, although the tapes were intentionally destroyed, that destruction was not done in bad faith. The court found that the state had met its burden of
It is undisputed that the tapes dictated by Ciarlelli concerning the events to which he testified constitute statements that must be preserved pursuant to Practice Book §§ 749 (2) and 752. State v. Jones,
The appropriate sanctions for the state’s failure to comply with discovery are set forth in Practice Book § 755, which requires the trial court either to strike the testimony of the state’s witness or to declare a mistrial, if the defendant seeks it and the interests of justice require it. Id., 313. Our Supreme Court has recently set forth the analysis to be applied in such cases. “[I]f a case involves intentional, but not bad faith, destruction of the statement of a state’s witness, an automatic sanction of striking that witness’ testimony is not required. [State v. Williamson,
Absent а showing that the defendant’s constitutional right of confrontation was violated by erasure of the tapes, the state need prove only that it was more probable than not that the failure to produce them was harmless. State v. Belle,
The defendant alternatively asks that we expand our Supreme Court’s construction of bad faith to include constructive bad faith because the Hamden police department either recklessly or deliberately failed to estаblish standards for maintaining and preserving evidence, in this case, the dictated tapes. Our Supreme Court has construed bad faith to require a specific intent to thwart the defense. State v. Williamson,
II
The State’s Appeal
The state appeals, claiming that the trial court improperly dismissed the defendant’s convictions of possession of cocaine with intent to sell and possession of cocaine. We agree with the state’s claim.
The defendant contends that the record is insufficient for review by this court. We find the record sufficient. The facts relevant to this issue are not in dispute. The record of the court’s finding, while not completely articulating the court’s basis for decision, clearly and unambiguously sets forth the legal finding. Thе parties were heard on the issue and the state properly preserved this claim. The trial court stated that its reading of current case law required dismissal of both of these convictions. We disagree.
Apparently, the trial court treated possession with intent to sell and simple possession as lesser offenses included in the charge of sale of narcotics. The two possession offenses were not lesser offenses included in the sale offense, however, because the possession charges stem from аn incident separate from the incident of sales. The three charges of sale of narcotics are supported by separate sales that occurred on August 16, 29 and 31, 1990. The charges of possession are supported by the events that occurred on September 7, 1990, when the warrant was executed at the defendant’s house.
Combining the convictions also eliminates the risk of collateral consequences. “A combined lesser conviction could not properly be considered, for instance, in determining a defendant’s eligibility for parole, in sentencing him in the future under a recidivist statute or in impeaching his credibility at a later trial.” United States v. Aiello,
We conclude that the trial court improperly dismissed the two convictions. The court should have combined the conviction on the lesser count of possession of cocaine with that on the greater count of possession of cocaine with intent to sell, and sentenced the defendant on the greater count.
The case is remanded for a hearing on the witness-informant’s invocation of his fifth amendment privileges against self-incrimination. If the witness does not invoke the privilege, or if he improperly invokes it as
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
Notes
In 1984, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit set forth the procedure for combining lesser offenses with greater offenses in United States v. Estrada,
