The Wired Co-Defendant

The Defendant, a merchant seaman, was indicted after narcotics agents found roughly three and a half pounds of cocaine aboard a ship in New York harbor. A later indictment added conspiracy counts against him and a co-defendant. Both men hired lawyers, pleaded not guilty, and were released on bail. A few days afterward, without the Defendant's knowledge, the co-defendant secretly agreed to work with federal agents and let one of them hide a small radio transmitter under the front seat of his own car. Not long after, the co-defendant invited the Defendant to sit with him in that parked car on a New York street and talk about the pending narcotics case. Down the block, out of sight, an agent sat in another car with a receiver and listened to their entire conversation as it happened. During that talk, unaware he was being overheard or that his lawyer knew nothing of the meeting, the Defendant made a series of statements about the case that prosecutors later sought to use against him at trial.