United States v. Ernest Tousant

The appellant urges this court to reverse his conviction and dismiss the indictments lodged against him because of preindictment delay. He further claims that the trial court committed reversible error in (1) refusing to have his proffered instruction No. 10 read to the jury, (2) denying his motion to suppress recorded communications and to discover unrecorded conversations and maintenance records for the tape recording equipment, (3) denying his pretrial motion to disclose the identity of the government’s informer, and in (4) denying his motion for severance.

After considering the briefs and the arguments by the parties, we conclude that the conviction should be affirmed for the reasons set forth herein.

The appellant Ernest Tousant and his brother William Tousant were originally indicted on June 28, 1978 in a one-count indictment charging them with possession of heroin with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1). A superseding indictment was returned on August 30,1978 charging appellant Ernest Tousant in two counts with distributing heroin and William Tousant in count one with distributing heroin and in count two with aiding and abetting the distribution.…