United States v. Kenneth A. Makekau and Yoichi Takahashi

Defendant Makekau was convicted of selling heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 174 and 26 U.S.C. § 4704 (a). Defendant Takahashi was convicted of violating section 4704(a). We affirm both convictions.

Defendants contend that they were denied effective assistance of coun sel by a pretrial order .limiting their counsel’s access to the government informer who made the purchases in the transactions for which they were indicted. The order instructed the government to disclose the informer’s identity to the defendants but forbade both defendants and their counsel from “directly or indirectly contact[ing] or attempting] to contact [the informer] without prior authorization in writing of this Court.”

Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16(e) authorizes district courts to issue protective orders limiting discovery “[u]pon a sufficient showing.” In this instance the order was amply justified by the prosecuting attorney’s representations that threats had been made against the lives of the informer and his family and that his wife had been murdered after receiving such threats. In the ordinary case, the informer may be afforded sufficient protection by an order limiting disclosure of his…