Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER REGARDING GOVERNMENT’S NOTICE OF INTENT TO USE EVIDENCE AND DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE BENNETT, Chief Judge. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. BACKGROUND.800 II. FINDINGS OF FACT A. The Informant’s “Résumé” of Cooperation in Federal Investigations 1. Cooperation with Pennsylvania authorities. 2. The Scotter Clark investigation. 3. The Stefani information. 4. The Daniel Dice investigation. 5. Scotter Clark revisited and the Garrett investigation 6. The Dr. Shultice investigation. 7. McNeese’s motivations. 8. Effects of McNeese’s prior cooperation. B. Acquisition Of Incriminating Statements. 1. Johnson’s placement in the Benton County Jail. a. The decision-maker. b. Benton vs. Linn. c. The rationale for Johnson’s placement. 2. “First contact” and reaction. a. Johnson’s cell assignments. b. First contact between McNeese and Johnson_ c. First notice of contact and reactions. i. The August 13th notice to a jailer . ii. The August 14th meetings . iii. Johnson’s removal to a different cell. 3. Continued contacts . a. Frequency and manner of contacts. b. The August 30th incidents. c. The September 3rd note-passing report . d. September 6th meeting.. e. Incidents from September 6th to September 11th 4. The September 11th instructions and aftermath. 5. Termination of the contacts . 6. McNeese’s admissions to another inmate . 7. Summary of findings. III. SUBSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS.827 A. The Second Indictment.827 B. Framing Of The Admissibility Dispute.827 1. The government’s “Notice Of Intent To Use Evidence”. 00 to 2. The defendant’s response. OO DO 00 C. Hearings And Other Proceedings. 00 to 00 1. The ñrst evidentiary hearing. OO 00 2. Post-hearing submissions. OO to 00 3. The second evidentiary hearing. OO to CO 4. Oral arguments. OO to CD IV. LEGAL ANALYSIS. oo to CO A. The “Deliberate Elicitation” Rule Iii Supreme Court Precedent. oo to CO 1. Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (1964). Oí (M oo a. Facts of the case. ca eg oo b. The Supreme Court’s analysis . o co oo 2. Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 51 L.Ed.2d 424 (1977). O CO 00 a. Facts of the case. O CO 00 b. The Supreme Court’s analysis . r-i CO 00 3. United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264,100 S.Ct. 2183, 65 L.Ed.2d 115 (1980). 00 00 CO a. Facts of the case. 00 CO to b. The Supreme Court’s analysis . 00 CO to 4. Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. 159,106 S.Ct. 477, 88 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985) 00 CO ^ a. Facts of the case. 00 CO ^ b. The Supreme Court’s analysis . 00 CO OX 5. Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U.S. 436, 106 S.Ct. 2616, 91 L.Ed.2d 364 (1986). a. Facts of the case.. b. The Supreme Court’s analysis . B. Application Of The Rule. 1. Preliminary considerations. a. Burden of proof. b. “Elements ” of the claim. 2. Attachment of the right to counsel . a. Attachment of the right. b. To what charges the right had attached. 3. Agency of the informant. a. “Luck,” “happenstance,” “entrepreneurs,” and “volunteers” b. Indicia of agency. i.The Moore decision. ii. “Control,” “roving agency,” and “symbiotic relationships.” . 00 iii. Other indicia of agency. 00 iv. The Moore decision revisited. 00 v. The governing rule. 00 c. When was McNeese a government agent?. 00 4. “Deliberate elicitation”. 00 a. Conduct of the government. 00 i.“Intentional creation ” of the opportunity. 00 ii. “Knowing exploitation” of the opportunity. 00 iii. “Legitimate purposes” of the surveillance. 00 iv. Did the constable just blunder?. 00 b. Conduct of the informant. 00 i. “Passive listening” vs. “deliberate elicitation”. 00 ii. Was McNeese only a “passive listener”?. 00 iii. Impact ofMcNeese’s “ultra vires” actions. 00 iv. Impact of the voluntariness of Johnson’s disclosures_ 00 5. Scope of the preclusion. 00 a. Extent of the “taint”. 00 i. What statements were obtained in violation of Massiah?.896 ii. What evidence, besides statements, is “tainted”?.898 b. Does the government’s “good faith” remove the “taint”?.901 c. Can the evidence be used for impeachment?.902 V. CONCLUSION. .902 Was there a “Massiah violation” of a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel when a singularly adept and seasoned federal jailhouse informant obtained self-incriminating statements from the defendant shortly after her indictment and arrest on charges that carry the federal death penalty? The government contends that the informant initially procured incriminating statements as an “entrepreneur,” but thereafter followed instructions to act merely as a “listening post” while the defendant volunteered more incriminating statements, including the location of the bodies of murdered witnesses. The government also contends that its continuing investigation of the defendant, including use of the informant, was appropriate to discover evidence of other potential, but uncharged or inchoate, crimes. The defendant, however, asserts that the informant was ever and always a “government agent” who “deliberately elicited” incriminating statements from her as part of a carefully orchestrated effort by the government to obtain such statements in violation of her Sixth Amendment right to counsel. While the consequences of admitting or suppressing the evidence obtained by the jailhouse informant may be particularly dire here, either for the government’s case or the defendant’s, in light of the nature of the evidence and the gravity of the charges involved, that is not a consideration under Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (1964), and its progeny, which are controlling on the issue presented. Rather, the question is whether the defendant will be denied the basic protections of the Sixth Amendment guarantee of the right to counsel if evidence of her own incriminating words is used at trial, because federal agents deliberately elicited that evidence from her after she had been indicted and in the absence of her counsel. See, e.g., Massiah, 377 U.S. at 206, 84 S.Ct. 1199. That issue, surely, is a weighty one, whatever the charges against the defendant, and whatever the nature of the incriminating evidence obtained from her. As Justice Stewart explained in Massiah, what is at issue here is a constitutional principle established as long ago as Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 53 S.Ct. 55, 77 L.Ed. 158 [ (1932) ], where the Court noted that ‘ * * * during perhaps the most critical period of the proceedings * * * that is to say, from the time of their arraignment until the beginning of their trial, when consultation, thorough-going investigation and preparation (are) vitally important, the defendants * * * (are) as much entitled to such aid (of counsel) during that period as at the trial itself.’ Id., 287 U.S., at 57, 53 S.Ct., at 59, 77 L.Ed. 158. Massiah, 377 U.S. at 205, 84 S.Ct. 1199; accord United States v. Red Bird, 287 F.3d 709, - (8th Cir.2002). The court will give that issue all due consideration here, in its disposition of the government’s “notice of intent to use evidence” from the jailhouse informant, and the defendant’s responsive motion to suppress that evidence. I. BACKGROUND Federal prosecutions against defendant Angela Johnson began on July 26, 2000, with the filing, in Case No. CR 00-3034-MWB, of the first of two indictments against her involving charges that grew out of a continuing investigation of the criminal conduct, including drug trafficking, of Johnson’s sometime boyfriend, Dustin Honken, and his associates. This first seven-count indictment against Johnson charges her with five counts of aiding and abetting the murder of witnesses, one count of aiding and abetting the solicitation of the murder of witnesses, and one count of conspiracy to interfere with witnesses. A warrant issued for Johnson’s arrest on these charges on July 26, 2000, the same day the indictment was filed. Johnson was arrested on this federal warrant by officers with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) on July 30, 2000, the following Sunday, and was then brought to the Benton County Jail. Johnson was arraigned before a magistrate judge in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is in Linn County, on Monday, July 31, 2000, at which time, while represented by court-appointed counsel, she entered a plea of not guilty to all of the charges against her. At the arraignment on July 31, 2000, a further detention hearing was set for August 2, 2000, and the Clerk of Court was directed to appoint other counsel to represent Johnson in further proceedings. Johnson was returned to the Benton County Jail where she remained incarcerated, except when she appeared in court, until October 3, 2000, when she was transferred to the Black Hawk County Jail in Waterloo, Iowa. Johnson contends that, while she was incarcerated in the Benton County Jail, a jailhouse informant named Robert McNeese, acting as a government agent, deliberately elicited incriminating statements from her. II. FINDINGS OF FACT A. The Informant’s “Résumé” of Cooperation in Federal Investigations Robert McNeese, the jailhouse informant in this case, already had a long history of cooperation with the government, including the United States Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Iowa, in the form of obtaining incriminating statements from fellow inmates and other targets of criminal investigations, before he ever had contact with Angela Johnson in the Benton County Jail in the late summer of 2000. McNeese had been convicted of a bank robbery charge in the Northern District of Iowa in 1988, and since that time had been incarcerated in various federal penitentiaries. He is currently serving a life sentence on federal charges of importation of heroin in the Middle District of Florida, a crime he committed while incarcerated in a federal correctional facility, and in the course of which he conspired with members of organized crime also incarcerated in federal prisons. He was recently sentenced on a money-laundering charge in this district stemming from the Scotter Clark drug-trafficking investigation discussed below. Conviction on the money-laundering charge is pursuant to a plea agreement, which reduced the charge from conspiracy to distribute more than 50 kilograms of marijuana to conspiracy to commit money laundering, in part because of McNeese’s cooperation in this case. McNeese testified, and the court finds, that he hopes that his cooperation in this and other cases will lead to reductions in his life sentence on the importation conviction in Florida. It has already led to reduction of his sentence on the money-laundering charge in this district. 1. Cooperation with Pennsylvania authorities McNeese cooperated with Pennsylvania authorities and the FBI in investigations of organized crime in 1998 by obtaining information on criminal activities of incarcerated persons. McNeese accomplished this, in part, by allowing investigators to record telephone conversations and what he described as “active” collection of information. See Suppression Hearing Transcript, Yol. II (Testimony of Robert McNeese), at p. 395, ll. 9-19. 2. The Scotter Clark investigation McNeese’s potential for cooperation in criminal investigations involving Iowa defendants first came to the attention of law enforcement officers in Iowa in the second half of 1997. At that time, members of a DEA task force, including officers from the Cedar Rapids Police Department, were contacted by officials at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, where McNeese was then incarcerated, about telephone calls between McNeese and others that they had intercepted, which they believed suggested criminal activity in the Cedar Rapids area. Agents learned that McNeese was involved with a New York “crime family” with connections to a drug trafficking operation in Cedar Rapids involving Scotter Clark and McNeese’s brother, Floyd McNeese. Robert McNeese was interviewed by task force agents and, in mid-1998, agreed to cooperate with law enforcement officials. He was, therefore, brought back to the Linn County Jail in September of 1998. Once in Cedar Rapids, McNeese testified before a Grand Jury concerning drug trafficking by Scotter Clark’s organization in February of 1999. 3. The Stefani information Also, while in the Linn County Jail, McNeese began to provide the authorities, particularly Cedar Rapids Police Detective and DEA task force member Mark Fischer, with information about Steve Stefani, a local attorney serving time for a probation violation arising from drug charges. Although Scotter Clark was not then in custody, both McNeese and Stefani were. In March of 1999, McNeese was returned to a federal penitentiary, this time in Terre Haute, Indiana. 4. The Daniel Dice investigation Before leaving Cedar Rapids, Iowa, however, McNeese provided information to Detective Fischer concerning criminal activity of a childhood friend, Daniel Dice, who was, according to McNeese, then involved in large-scale importation of controlled substances across the border from Mexico into the San Diego, California, area. Detective Fischer and an agent from the San Diego area eventually met with McNeese in Terre Haute, and McNeese agreed to cooperate in an investigation of Mr. Dice. Consequently, in November of 1999, McNeese was taken to California, where he participated in recorded telephone calls with Mr. Dice that produced incriminating evidence about Mr. Dice’s drug-trafficking operations. 5. Scotter Clark revisited and the Garrett investigation McNeese returned to the Cedar Rapids area in mid-March of 2000 to provide additional cooperation in the Scotter Clark trial. At that time, McNeese was housed in the Linn County Jail. However, about a week later, on March 22, 2000, McNeese was moved to the Benton County Jail, possibly because he had been disruptive in the Linn County Jail. In September of 2000, McNeese entered into a plea agreement regarding charges stemming from his involvement in the Scotter Clark drug-trafficking operations. However, well before that, while he was incarcerated in the Benton County Jail, McNeese began to provide authorities with information that a private investigator named Jeff Garrett, who had purportedly been hired by the New York “crime family” to assist Mr. McNeese, had burgled the office of a Cedar Rapids attorney — indeed, one of the attorneys now representing Angela Johnson — and had obtained documents from the investigation of Scotter Clark. McNeese agreed to allow authorities to record a one-on-one conversation between himself and Mr. Garrett in a visitor’s room at the Benton County Jail, which led to the issuance of a search warrant for Mr. Garrett’s office. 6. The Dr. Shultice investigation In early April of 2000, McNeese again contacted Detective Fischer, this time with information that his cellmate, a Dr. Shul-tice, had confided to him that he was attempting to have at least two persons testify falsely for him at his sentencing on federal charges. Dr. Shultice, a Cedar Rapids physician, was the principal defendant in a high-profile drug distribution case in the Cedar Rapids area, which involved, among other things, charges that Dr. Shultice had dispensed prescriptions outside of the usual course of medical practice and without legitimate medical purpose, and those prescriptions had resulted in the death of a patient. After McNeese contacted Detective Fischer about Dr. Shultice, Detective Fischer contacted the United States Attorney’s Office. On April 11, 2000, McNeese signed a “Memorandum of Instruction” from the United States Attorney’s Office providing him with what the parties have referred to as “listening post instructions” concerning what he could and could not do to obtain incriminating information from Dr. Shul-tice. See Government’s Exhibit 3. McNeese signed those “listening post instructions” after going through it “line-byline” with Detective Fischer. See Suppression Hearing Transcript, Vol. I (Testimony of Detective Fischer), at p. 23, l. 23, to p. 24, l. 6. This set of “listening post instructions” was limited to authorization to obtain information from Dr. Shultice. Id. at p. 24, ll. 8-20. At this point, another investigator, FBI Special Agent Scott French, became involved in the investigation of Dr. Shultice. McNeese agreed with Agent French and Detective Fischer to wear a “wire” to record a conversation with Dr. Shultice. In that recorded conversation, Dr. Shultice made incriminating statements about plans to hire a “hit man” to kill some witnesses and to hire “a couple of women” to lie at his sentencing. Dr. Shultice made similar statements in a recorded interview with a DEA agent who posed as a prospective “hit man.” Also, a female police officer posed as a woman willing to he at Dr. Shultice’s sentencing, and authorities thereby obtained incriminating statements in another recorded meeting with Dr. Shultice at the Benton County Jail. 7. McNeese’s motivations The court finds that it was readily apparent that McNeese had two specific goals in mind when providing to the government incriminating statements made by other inmates: (1) he wanted assistance with his efforts to reduce his life sentence in Florida, as no other reductions on other sentences could lead to his earlier release; and (2) he wanted assistance with getting himself and his brother into the federal witness security program (WITSEC). As to McNeese’s interest in assistance with his efforts to get into the WITSEC program, Detective Fischer testified that there were two significant problems: (1) McNeese’s habit of making contact with the media; and (2) his demonstrated lack of self-control and inability to abide by terms and instructions given to him. 8. Effects of McNeese’s prior cooperation Detective Fischer testified that the situations involving Dice, Stefani, and Shultice involved persons or incidents of which law enforcement officers were simply unaware until McNeese brought them to their attention. Similarly, there is no evidence that any law enforcement officers ever expressly asked McNeese to obtain information from Angela Johnson before McNeese informed them that he had had contact with Angela Johnson in the Benton County Jail. However, the court finds that, prior to Angela Johnson’s arrival at the Benton County Jail, McNeese was well-known to federal prosecutors in the Cedar Rapids office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa and to federal and state law enforcement officers working with them as a cooperative “jailhouse informant” — and indeed, an “entrepreneur” — who would obtain and then volunteer information when it suited him, whether or not he had been given instructions from authorities to obtain information about any specific inmates, and that he had been led to believe by experience with government agents that he would thereby obtain some assistance with his efforts to reduce his life sentence and/or to get himself and his brother into the witness security program. The court also finds that it was clear to government agents that McNeese, even when given detailed instructions by the government, could be something of a “loose canon” who played the game for himself. Indeed, at his sentencing hearing on the money-laundering charges in this district, the prosecuting AUSA, who is also prosecuting the charges against Angela Johnson, remarked that his request for a reduction in McNeese’s sentence was somewhat tempered by “some starts and stops in the cooperation and — some rocky roads on whether the defendant was complying with all the instructions given and other difficulties that certainly were presented, and that certainly was factored in on the nature and extent of his cooperation.” McNeese Sentencing Transcript, Case No. Cr. 00-52 (Sept. 18, 2001), at 14-15. On the other hand, the sentencing judge, Judge Michael Melloy, who has since been elevated to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, found that McNeese’s cooperation in this and other prior and concurrent investigations in this district had been unprecedented: [A]s I say, it’s hard to imagine — and certainly I can’t think of anybody in my nine plus years of experience who’s done more by way of cooperation. The cooperation, in so far as the drug conspiracy itself, was substantial. Then you add to that the Shultice/Angela Johnson/Dustin Honken matters and I believe the defendant clearly qualifies as the most important and valuable cooperator that this district has probably ever seen. Id. at 28-29. The court, therefore, imposed a sixty percent reduction in McNeese’s sentence based on his cooperation, even though the prosecuting attorney had only recommended a departure of thirty-five to forty percent off his sentence. Id. at 13 & 30. These specific observations about McNeese’s value as an informant are, admittedly, after the fact of his cooperation in this case. Nevertheless, the court finds that it was clear to government agents, based on McNeese’s “ré-sumé” of cooperation even before Johnson was placed in the Benton County Jail with McNeese, that it was likely that, given any sort of opportunity, McNeese would attempt to obtain incriminating information from Angela Johnson, where Johnson’s case was an especially high-profile one in the Northern District of Iowa, involving a great deal of press coverage, which included the fact that the bodies of the alleged murder victims had never been found. It was also clear to government agents that McNeese’s attempts to obtain such information would not necessarily be in compliance with the letter of any “listening post instructions.” Finally, it was clear to government agents that McNeese would then attempt to trade any incriminating information he obtained, quid pro quo, for assistance with his personal agenda to reduce his sentence or to get into the witness security program. B. Acquisition Of Incriminating Statements 1. Johnson’s placement in the Benton County Jail Johnson contends that her initial placement in the Benton County Jail, rather than the Linn County Jail, was part of the government’s plan to elicit information from her, in the absence of counsel, through McNeese, a known and accomplished jailhouse informant, already incarcerated there. Thus, the circumstances under which Johnson was placed at the Benton County Jail may be significant to Johnson’s claim of a “Massiah violation.” a. The decision-maker On July 28, 2000, after Johnson’s indictment, but prior to her arrest, Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Patrick Reinert, the prosecutor in this ease, telephoned Roger Arechiga, the Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Iowa, concerning Johnson’s possible arrest and incarceration. Chief Deputy Arechi-ga’s duties include entering into contracts with the sheriffs departments in various counties of this state, the State of Iowa itself, and a private corporation in Minnesota for bed space for federal inmates pending trial. There is no federal holding facility in the State of Iowa for inmates pending trial in federal court. The county jails in Linn County, Benton County, and Black Hawk County, among others, have contracts with the Marshal’s Office to hold federal inmates prior to trial and/or sentencing. Chief Deputy Arechiga is also involved in the placement of individual federal inmates following their arrest. However, the record evidence is, and the court finds, that the state DCI officers who arrested Johnson could have taken her to any jail under federal contract. Chief Deputy Arechiga testified, and no party disputed, that, if state officers arrest a person on a federal warrant, the state officers can take that prisoner to any convenient jail under federal contract, although they ordinarily check with the U.S. Marshal’s Office to determine what jail under a federal contract has space available. Chief Deputy Arechiga also testified, and the court also finds, that the arresting officers, not the Marshal’s Office, are responsible for transporting the prisoner to an initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge. The U.S. Marshal’s Office is not responsible for placement or transportation of a prisoner until the magistrate judge directs the Marshals to take custody of the prisoner at an initial appearance or arraignment. Even when prisoners have been placed in the custody of the Marshals, they are in fact incarcerated in the contract facilities identified above in the keeping of local jailers. Arrestees were sometimes placed in one jail or another with which the U.S. Marshal’s Office had a contract based on matters including requests from defense counsel, opportunities for visitation with family members, concerns about isolation of a detainee from other inmates who might pose a danger to the detainee, threats by detainees to staff members or other inmates at a particular jail, or ease of transportation to the pertinent judicial proceedings. However, it is, in Chief Deputy Arechiga’s words, “fairly unusual” for a federal prosecutor to request placement of an arrestee in a particular jail — although less unusual for a prosecutor to request relocation of an inmate who has decided to cooperate after his or her arrest. See Suppression Hearing Transcript, Vol. II, p. 377, l. 20, to p. 378, l. 19. On the other hand, Chief Deputy Arechiga testified, and the court agrees, that “[Mr.] Reinert is a very aggressive prosecutor” who “gets involved in a lot more details.” Id at p. 378, ll. 18-21. While it is still “not very common,” Mr. Reinert has occasionally requested a particular placement for a person upon arrest where that person “could be a possible informant,” id. at 378, l. 25 to p. 379, l. 3; however, that is not the reason that AUSA Reinert gave for requesting a particular placement for Angela Johnson upon her arrest. In his telephone call on July 28, 2000, prior to Johnson’s arrest, AUSA Reinert advised Chief Deputy Arechiga that Johnson might be arrested that weekend by DCI officers on a federal warrant, “ ‘and if she was, could they put her in the Benton County Jail.’ ” Id. at p. 355, ll. 4-5 (Testimony of Chief Deputy Arechiga). Chief Deputy Arechiga responded with what the defense contends is one of the burning questions in this case: “What’s wrong with Linn County?” Id. at ll. 5-6. According to Chief Deputy Arechiga, AUSA Reinert explained, “ Well, Linn County doesn’t tape their telephone conversations but Benton County does, and so I prefer that she would be out there.’ ” Id. at ll. 6-9. Chief Deputy Arechiga testified that AUSA Reinert indicated that the government’s interest in taping Johnson’s telephone calls “was something to do with the possibility that she may try to arrange an escape.” Id. at p. 356, ll. 5-6. Chief Deputy Arechiga also confirmed that it was his understanding that the Linn County Jail did not routinely tape inmates’ telephone conversations, although jail staff could apparently listen to inmates’ calls in that jail. Chief Deputy Arechiga agreed to place Johnson in the Benton County Jail, and asked to be paged if any difficulties were encountered in booking her in there, but he never received such a page. Chief Deputy Arechiga assumed that AUSA Reinert would direct the DCI officers to take Johnson to the Benton County Jail; he testified, that it was not his responsibility to direct them to do so. Chief Deputy Arechiga also testified that he asked to be kept up to date on any information about a planned escape attempt by Johnson, but that he never communicated concerns about an escape threat to staff at the Benton County Jail. Rather, he thought that passing on such information was the responsibility of the DCI officers who brought Johnson in after her arrest, although he admitted that he did not know whether AUSA Reinert had advised the DCI officers of his concerns about an escape attempt. After her arrest on July 30, 2000, Johnson was, in fact, placed in the Benton County Jail. The court finds that, in this case, the decision to place Johnson in the Benton County Jail, rather than the Linn County Jail, was made by AUSA Reinert, not Chief Deputy Arechiga, or the DCI officers who actually arrested Johnson. Agent Basler of the DCI testified that he did not make the decision to place Johnson in the Benton County Jail, but instead, he had had a conversation with AUSA Rei-nert before Johnson was arrested about her placement, in which AUSA Reinert indicated certain security concerns and a desire to monitor her telephone calls, and that Agent Basler “knew when I arrested Angela that we were going to be taking her to Benton County to be held.” Suppression Hearing Transcript, Vol. Ill (Testimony of Agent Basler), p. 672, l. 20 to p. 673, l. 20. Although AUSA Reinert denied that he had the authority to direct Johnson’s placement in the Benton County Jail, he acknowledged that he was “sure” he told Agent Basler that Johnson was going to go to the Benton County Jail “after I talked to the marshal’s service about where she would be housed when she was arrested.” Id. (Testimony of AUSA Rei-nert) at 765, ll. 11-19. b. Benton vs. Linn The court turns next to a comparison of the Benton County Jail, where Johnson was placed after her arrest, and the Linn County Jail, which, for reasons indicated below, seems like the more logical place for arresting agents to have taken her. As reflected in Chief Deputy Arechiga’s testimony, the Linn County Jail is located a very short distance from the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, and thus makes transportation of federal prisoners to and from court proceedings considerably easier for the Marshal’s Office than placement of prisoners elsewhere. Several of the witnesses — like Chief Deputy Arechiga — stated that it was their understanding that AUSA Reinert nevertheless wanted Johnson placed in the Benton County Jail and that his primary concern was that Johnson might attempt to escape. Although various government -witnesses expressed a subjective belief that the Benton County Jail “might be” more secure than the Linn County Jail, because it is a smaller facility that purportedly permits greater scrutiny of the activities of the various inmates, there is no objective evidence in the record upon which the court could base a finding that the Benton County Jail was either more or less secure than the Linn County Jail. In the circumstances of this case, a more critical distinction between the Benton County Jail and the Linn County Jail is that, while male and female prisoners were detained in separate cellblocks (called “pods”) in the Linn County Jail, there was no such separation of male and female prisoners into separate cellblocks in the much smaller Benton County Jail. Rather, the Benton County Jail had only a single cellblock and, as this case demonstrates, male and female prisoners could be placed in adjacent cells. Moreover, the small inmate population — jail capacity was only about thirty inmates — and configuration of the single cellblock at the Benton County Jail, see Government’s Exhibit 2 (Benton County Jail Floor Plan), reproduced on page 23, made it likely that every prisoner in the Benton County Jail would be aware of the gender and location, and likely the name and face, of every other prisoner in the jail. Although there is little record evidence on this point concerning the Linn County Jail, in light of that jail’s larger population and separation of male and female prisoners into separate cell blocks, it seems unlikely that prisoners would be as fully aware of the name, face, or gender of all other inmates in that jail. As the record in this case also demonstrates, it was possible for any prisoner in the Benton County Jail, male or female, to find a way to have extensive communication — oral, written, or both — with any other prisoner, male or female, in the Jail, even though contact between male and female prisoners and the passing of notes were supposedly prohibited by jail rules. The uncontradicted testimony of witnesses who had been inmates of the Benton County Jail, including Robert McNeese and Sara Bramow, was that inmates routinely shouted through walls of adjacent cells, largely unimpeded by jail staff, making the Benton County Jail a “loud” place, and inmates routinely spoke to other inmates in the exercise yard, which was used by all of the inmates, through cell windows overlooking the yard. Benton County Jail officials recognized that communications between inmates occurred, for example, through the windows of the cells overlooking the exercise yard and via notes, which were passed among inmates in books and magazines or tossed through the food slots or bars of cells, even though such contact was also supposedly prohibited. However, jailers at the Benton County Jail did not always impose written citations for rules violations or punishment on occasions when they observed prohibited communications between inmates. Indeed, as shall be discussed more fully below, jailers actually facilitated such communications by passing books and magazines between inmates, while turning a blind eye to the possibility that notes were concealed in those items, by actually passing sealed notes between inmates, and upon occasion, by permitting face-to-face contact of inmates in transit to or from the exercise yard with other inmates allowed out of their cells. c. The rationale for Johnson’s placement Turning to the reasons expressly advanced for Johnson’s placement in the Benton County Jail, although several witnesses testified that it was their understanding that AUSA Reinert wanted Johnson placed there out of concern that Johnson might attempt to escape, that was not the reason AUSA Reinert himself first gave at the suppression hearing. Instead, on direct examination by defense counsel, he testified as follows: Q. There’s already been testimony, Mr. Reinert, that you wanted her taken to the Benton County Jail, correct? A., Yes, sir. Q. And the explanation that has been given so far in the record, one of the explanations, is that you wanted her monitored, correct? A. I wanted the opportunity to limit her ability to tamper with witnesses, and in the Benton County facility, since it’s a small jail, it’s much easier to monitor mail and monitor outgoing phon[e] calls. And if we can monitor those two things and make sure that the prisoners know that they’re being monitored, then that cuts down on her ability to tamper with a witness by having face-to-face contact with someone in the visiting room, so I thought it was — it was very protective of our witnesses to try to make sure that we were able to ensure we knew what was going on, or if there was a threat that we picked up on phone monitoring, we could take steps to protect our witness. Q. Your concern was witness tampering? A. Yes, sir. Q. That was your only concern? A. Yes, sir. Suppression Hearing Transcript, Vol. Ill (Testimony of AUSA Reinert), at p. 764, l. 8, to p. 765, l. 7. Only on cross-examination by the government did AUSA Reinert suggest that “[w]e were always concerned about escape, and I know there have been some references that we have looked at very closely about whether there was any plan for an escape attempt.” Id. at p. 774, ll. 17-20. On examination by the court, AUSA Reinert stated that his concerns were both witness tampering and escape, when he discussed Johnson’s placement with Chief Deputy Marshal Arechiga. Id. at 777, ll. 3-8. While such evolving explanations of the reasons for Johnson’s placement in the Benton County Jail might simply be the result of gradual recollection of past events, the court also recognizes that they provide an inference of post hoc justification and pretext that cannot be ignored. That inference may or may not be reinforced by other evidence in the case, upon further examination below. The government’s witnesses all staunchly deny that Johnson was placed in the Benton County Jail just because a known “superstar” federal jailhouse informant, Robert McNeese, was already detained there. Agent Basler, one of the officers who arrested Angela Johnson and transported her to the Benton County Jail, professed no knowledge of Robert McNeese prior to Johnson’s arrest, and so was apparently unaware that Mr. McNeese was already at the Benton County Jail. Id. at p. 676, ll. 10-21. However, AUSA Reinert was aware of Robert McNeese’s past cooperation with the government, because he had been the prosecutor in the Scotter Clark and Stefani cases. See Suppression Hearing Transcript, Vol. Ill, at 734, ll. 7-9. AUSA Reinert was also aware that McNeese was already incarcerated in the Benton County Jail, and that, as of March 2000, well before Johnson’s placement in the same jail, McNeese was “familiar with the mechanics of talking to someone and capturing the conversations on tape.” See id. at p. 753, l. 16, to p. 754, l. 1. Although AUSA Reinert knew that McNeese was in the Benton County Jail, he professed himself to be “surprised” upon learning that McNeese and Johnson had been in contact with each other at the Benton County Jail, id. at p. 773, ll. 13-16, and that he would not have wanted to deal with McNeese or to bring him into any more of his cases. Id. at p. 777, l. 11, to p. 778, l. 4. This court finds the latter comment surprising, given Judge Melloy’s view of the extraordinary impact of McNeese’s assistance in the Dr. Shultice investigation. Even if McNeese was difficult to work with, it was clear that he was capable of obtaining extremely useful information. AUSA Reinert stated that McNeese had been placed in the Benton County Jail — admittedly, long before Angela Johnson was also placed there— “so we could keep track of him too, because of — his involvement in Linn County showed he wanted to engage in potentially future criminal conduct, so we needed to— keep that from happening as well.” Id. at 767, ll. 1-5. 2. “First contact” and reaction a. Johnson’s cell assignments The floor plan of the Benton County Jail, from Government Exhibit 2, is shown below. Upon her arrival at the Benton County Jail, Johnson was placed in cell # 2, a two-person cell directly adjacent to the cell occupied only by Robert McNeese, which was cell # 1. Benton County Jail officials testified that no one instructed them to place Johnson in that cell; rather, her placement there was attributable solely to the happenstance that cell #2 was the only cell, other than the temporary holding cell, then occupied by a female inmate, and no other cells were completely vacant. Although the court finds it suspicious that Johnson was placed in a cell adjacent to a known jailhouse informant, the court must, perforce, agree with the government’s assertion, in response to what the government described as the defendant’s “conspiracy theory,” that the government “just isn’t that good.” Nevertheless, the court finds that Johnson’s initial placement was in proximity to McNeese and that she remained incarcerated in close proximity to him for the remainder of the time they were both in the Benton County Jail. Based on commissary records, Johnson remained in the cell adjacent to McNeese from Johnson’s admission to the Benton County Jail on July 30, 2000, until at least August 15, 2000, and she was joined in that cell by Sara Bra-mow, who testified that she reported to the Benton County Jail to do a sixty day sentence on August 6, 2000. Bramow remained Johnson’s cellmate throughout much of Johnson’s stay at the Benton County Jail. From August 19 to August 29, the commissary records indicate that Johnson was in cell # 6, one of the cells overlooking the exercise yard. See Government’s Exhibit 2. Sara Bramow testified that she was moved with Johnson to cell # 6. The commissary records indicate, further, that from September 7 until she was transferred to the Black Hawk County Jail, Johnson was in cell # 7, which also overlooks the exercise yard, and Ms. Bramow testified that she again was transferred to that cell with Johnson. Thus, for all but the last week of her stay at the Benton County Jail — when McNeese was in isolation — Johnson’s placement was such that oral communication with McNeese was possible, either through the wall of their adjacent cells, by yelling directly across the hall, or by talking through the window of Johnson’s cell into the exercise yard, which McNeese was allowed to visit regularly. Also, during almost the entire time that Johnson and McNeese were both at the Benton County Jail, they passed notes back and forth almost daily, and Johnson and McNeese’s relative cell placements had no impact on their ability to pursue communications in that way. As explained more fully below, the court finds that each of these kinds of contacts between Johnson and McNeese, as well as others, occurred frequently during Johnson’s stay at the Benton County Jail. The court finds, further, that some contact between McNeese and Johnson was likely simply by virtue of the fact that they were both incarcerated in a jail of the size and nature of the Benton County Jail. That likelihood of contact approached inevitability when a jail of the size and nature of the Benton County Jail was combined with the presence in that jail of a highly motivated jailhouse informant and a defendant in a high-profile case in which press coverage disclosed that key evidence, the bodies of the alleged murder victims, had never been found. The record makes clear that McNeese received the Cedar Rapids newspaper while he was in the Benton County Jail, for example, from evidence that McNeese sent Johnson clippings of newspaper stories about himself and that he commented to investigators on the effect of a newspaper story about himself upon Johnson. It is but a small step to infer that McNeese soon learned enough about Johnson after her arrival at the Benton County Jail, either from the press or from her own explanation of the charges against her, to find her as interesting as any of the prior targets of his skills as an informant. b. First contact between McNeese and Johnson McNeese testified that Johnson had been at the Benton County Jail for about a week before he first had contact with her, which he said consisted of yelling through the wall of their adjacent cells, which he had initiated. See Suppression Hearing Transcript, Vol. II, at p. 421, ll. 3-6. Sara Bramow also testified that McNeese first made contact with Johnson and Bramow about the second day that Bramow was in the Benton County Jail, that is, on or about August 7, 2000, by beating on and yelling through the wall between their cells, and by sending a letter over in a crossword puzzle book with newspaper ar-tides on who he was, with requests for information about who the two women were. See Suppression Hearing Transcript, Vol. IV, at p. 796, ll. 9-21 (Testimony of Sara Bramow). Bramow testified that the crossword puzzle book was passed to the women by a jailer, Andy Rich. Id. at p. 797, ll. 10-25. The timing of “first contact” as identified in McNeese’s testimony at the suppression hearing differs somewhat from what he told Agent Basler in an interview on September 6, 2000, at which time McNeese told Basler “that on the first day that Johnson was in the Benton County Jail, [he] talked to Johnson, and Johnson told him what she had been charged with.” Defendant’s Exhibit F, p. 1. Although it is not clear whether it was a week or a day after Johnson arrived at the Benton County Jail that she had first contact with McNeese, the court finds that disposition of the admissibility of McNeese’s evidence in this case does not turn on this uncertainty about the timing of that first contact. Quite soon after their first contact, Johnson told McNeese about the charges against her, but McNeese testified that he did not ask Johnson any questions about her case “at that time.” Id. at Vol. II (Testimony of Robert McNeese), p. 421, l. 24, to p. 422, Z. 15. Sara Bramow testified that “a lot of letters” between McNeese and Johnson followed,, which were passed directly between Johnson and McNeese through the food slot in his cell door, which was always left open, and by Officer Rich, one of the jailers, passing notes between them. See id. at Vol. IV, p. 798, Z. 17, to p. 800, Z. 15. Bramow testified that Officer Rich passed notes almost daily, sometimes twice a day, “[j]ust like a mail run.” Id. at 800, ll. 16-21. Moreover, Bramow testified that the notes were not always concealed in books, magazines, or newspapers, but were sometimes simply in sealed envelopes that Officer Rich placed in the bars of Johnson’s and Bramow’s cell door. Id. at 800, Z. 22, to p. 801, Z. 4. Officer Rich denied that he ever knowingly passed notes between inmates, but admitted that he passed magazines or newspapers between inmates “all the time,” even though he knew that inmates sometimes hid notes in such items. Rich testified that he only searched the items passed from one inmate to another before delivering them “[i]f we think about searching through the games sometimes or books or whatever it may be.” Id. at p. 881, Z. 28, to p. 882, Z. 17. The court finds that Officer Rich had either actual or constructive knowledge that he was passing notes between Johnson and McNeese, based on this and other testimony discussed below. c. First notice of contact and reactions i. The August 13th notice to a jailer. On or about August 13, 2000, during the time that Johnson was still in cell #2, McNeese first informed a jailer — that is, a jailer other than Officer Rich — that he was having contacts with Johnson. On that date, McNeese informed Officer Merino that Johnson was talking to him through the wall between their cells. Merino testified that he had not been aware of McNeese talking to other females housed in cell #2 prior to that time. At about this same time, a dispatcher, who had a view down the cellblock hallway from her office, reported that she had seen a note being passed between McNeese and Johnson (although she wasn’t sure which way) through the food slot in the door of McNeese’s cell. The dispatcher reported the note-passing incident to Detective Pete Wright of the Benton County Sheriffs Department, and a member of the DEA Drug Task Force in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after a jailer, Bill Reese, refused to do anything about it. See Defendant’s Exhibit E (Memorandum of August 14, 2000, from Detective Wright to AUSA Reinert), p. 1, ¶1. ii. The August 14th meetings. After receiving the dispatcher’s report of a note passing between McNeese and Johnson, Detective Wright, whose responsibilities included investigation of incidents at the Benton County Jail, had a meeting with McNeese and jailer Les Wood. At that point, Detective Wright understood that there was to be no contact between male and female • inmates, including McNeese and Johnson, but that McNeese had reported that Johnson talked to him and “everyone” by yelling or talking through the wall between their cells. -Detective Wright testified that he told McNeese during the August 14, 2000, meeting to stop talking or sending notes to the women in cell # 2. Detective Wright then e-mailed the jail administrator about stopping such contacts. After that meeting, McNeese again contacted Officer Merino to tell him that he had in his possession some notes that he had received from Angela Johnson, which he had not mentioned at the meeting with Deputy Wright and Officer Wood, apparently because he did not trust Officer Wood. Again on August 14, 2000, after receiving copies of the notes McNeese had given Merino, see Government’s Exhibit 10, Wright had a second meeting with McNeese and the jail administrator. McNeese then clarified that the note the dispatcher had seen being passed had actually been from McNeese to Johnson and indicated that he was quite fully informed by Johnson about the circumstances of her case, including the fact that no bodies had been found. Indeed, Detective Wright’s memorandum on the meeting states the following: McNeese had asked Johnson about the murder charges and no bodies. Johnson had made some sort of statement to McNeese that there was no need to worry, no one would be able to find the bodies, or words to that effect. McNeese had other information from Johnson. Defendant’s Exhibit E, pp. 2-3, ¶ 5. Detective Wright instructed McNeese not to have any more contact with Johnson, see Suppression Hearing Transcript (Testimony of Detective Wright) at 271, ll. 21-25 (“I simply, I guess, didn’t want to become more involved in this than that, and so I said, ‘Okay, don’t talk to her any more. I’ll talk to the United States Attorney’s Office,’ and try to get out of it.”), at least “until this matter was resolved.” Defendant’s Exhibit E (Memorandum of August 14, 2000, from Detective Wright to AUSA Reinert), p. 3, ¶5. Wright then wrote a memorandum to AUSA Reinert, to which he attached his previous e-mail to the jail administrator, and asked AUSA Reinert for further guidance. iii. Johnson’s removal to a different cell. It was about this time, or shortly thereafter, that Johnson and her cellmate were moved to another cell, on the basis of instructions that Detective Wright had received from AUSA Reinert. Johnson was moved to cell # 6, which was across from, instead of adjacent to, McNeese’s cell, but which overlooked the exercise yard. Sara Bramow testified that she and Johnson were. told that they were being moved because they were “too loud.” Suppression Hearing Transcript, Vol. TV, at p. 802, l. 18, to p. 803, l. 1. Far from stopping contacts between McNeese and Johnson, the move had no real impact on the possibility or frequency of their contacts, and instead opened up new means for them to communicate. 3. Continued contacts a. Frequency and manner of contacts McNeese testified that he had contact with Johnson shortly after she was moved when she knocked on her cell window overlooking the exercise yard while he was in the yard, and they were able to talk. Opportunity for this kind of contact, of course, had not existed when McNeese and Johnson were in adjacent cells, neither of which overlooked the exercise yard. As before, McNeese also passed notes to Johnson and received notes from her through the food slot in his cell door, which was kept open, ostensibly to allow air to circulate in his cell, because he has asthma. On the other hand, an apparently new channel of communication between McNeese and Johnson after she was moved was the exchange of notes by leaving them in a book in a particular place on a book shelf in the jail library, having made such arrangements through Johnson’s cell window ■into the exercise yard. Finally, McNeese testified that he and Johnson exchanged notes or letters by placing them in magazines and asking one of the jailers if they would pass the magazine for them, but without telling the jailer that there was a note inside, which, again, was nothing new. See Transcript, Vol. II, p. 456, ll. 7-16. Also, after Johnson was moved, McNeese began to take notes on their contacts and conversations, see Government’s Exhibit 5, which, he testified, was on his own initiative and contrary to Detective Wright’s instructions. McNeese testified that he did this, because Johnson began to tell him “things concerning her crimes.” Transcript, Vol. II, p. 430, ll. 7-12. Thus, the date on which McNeese testified that he began to learn “things concerning [Johnson’s] crimes” is actually after several jail officials not actively involved in passing notes between McNeese and Johnson had been notified by McNeese that he and Johnson were in communication. Sara Bramow’s testimony largely corroborates McNeese’s testimony concerning the frequency and manner of McNeese’s contacts with Johnson, including Officer Rich’s facilitation of note-passing. Even Officer Rich admits that, if every magazine or newspaper he passed between McNeese and Johnson, and vice versa, contained a note, he would have passed upwards of twenty notes between them. See Tran-cript, Vol. IV, at 887-92. There are some differences, however, in Bramow’s testimony about who initiated and pushed contacts between McNeese and Johnson. Bramow testified that Johnson seemed uninterested in sharing information with McNeese, and had been cautioned by her attorney and relatives not to share information about her alleged crimes with anyone, but that McNeese kept “bugging her” until she gave him information, in response to his offers to help her with her case. See id. at 813-14. Bramow testified that McNeese, not Johnson, initiated contacts through the women’s cell window after the women were moved by banging on their cell window when he was in the exercise yard. Bramow testified that McNeese might bang on their cell window as often as three times a day, although other inmates did not get out to exercise more than once a day, and were entitled to only three outings a week under jail rules. Bramow also testified that McNeese would be very annoyed and persistent if Johnson did not come to the window to talk to him, and that their conversations through the window were usually several minutes, not just several seconds. See id. at Vol. IV, pp. 804-07. Sara Bramow also testified that on two occasions, Officer Rich allowed McNeese and Johnson to have face-to-face contact in the jail corridor or yard, for several minutes, not just seconds, when Johnson and Bramow were being brought in from the exercise yard and McNeese was out of his cell, another privilege Bramow testified that McNeese enjoyed to a degree other inmates did not. Bramow testified that, on the two occasions of direct contact in the jail corridor, Officer Rich simply continued on his way with Bramow, after McNeese stopped Johnson, returning Bra-mow to her cell and only later bringing in Johnson. See id. 807-08 & 809; and compare id. at 819-22 (cross-examination by the government). Officer Rich denies allowing incidents of direct contact to occur — a denial the court does not find credible — but acknowledged that there may have been “accidental” face-to-face contact in the jail corridor, although he doesn’t remember any specific incidents. See id. at 882-83. b. The August 30th incidents On August 30, 2000, following a verbal confrontation between a dispatcher and Angela Johnson regarding Johnson’s violation of jail rules by sitting on a table in her cell, Johnson made threats to the dispatcher. Detective Wright then apparently learned through McNeese that Johnson was trying to learn the dispatcher’s name and what kind of car she drove, and also was planning an escape from the jail. Consequently, with McNeesé’s agreement, Detective Wright arranged a meeting between McNeese and DCI Agent Bill Bas-ler, which took place on September 6, 2000. c. The September 3rd note-passing report Backtracking briefly, on September 3, 2000, one of the jailers, Officer Rich, normally a courier between McNeese and Johnson, confiscated a note from McNeese to Johnson, which a dispatcher had seen McNeese pass to Johnson through his cell door. Officer Rich confiscated the note, see Government’s Exhibit 8, and placed Johnson in her lock-down cell. Rich testified that he was unaware of any notes passing between the two prior to that time, which the court does not find credible, although Rich acknowledged that note-passing happens with some regularity in the Benton County Jail, which the court readily accepts is both true and that Rich knew it. Also, the note itself indicates that “It sucks only getting to hear from you once a week,” see id. at p. 2, and provides other indications of frequent and extensive communications between McNeese and Johnson. McNeese also testified, and the' court finds, that there had been several contacts, oral and written, between McNeese and Johnson between August 14 and September 3. See Government’s Exhibit 5 (McNeese Notes 8/13/00— 9/10/00) & Exhibit 11 (Letters from Johnson to McNeese given to Agent Basler on 9/6/00). In the note intercepted on September 3, however, McNeese seems to characterize his side of things as “mere listening,” or at least, as having been instigated by Johnson: For real Angie you don’t really even know me and hell I could be a[sic] informant and testify against you and just tell the jury every thing you’ve told me and trust me you would probably be convicted. I know you told me you’ve never been in jail but hell wise up I mean you just started rattling things off to me without me even asking so hell I know the whole picture. I’d hate to hear what you would tell me if I started asking questions. All I’m saying is you need to use caution that’s all. Since you don’t know the law you need to just take the advice of your attorney.... I don’t know how you talked me into writing a letter to you anyway. I don’t wanna get into trouble and I don’t wan’t [sic] you to get into trouble either. Don’t get me wrong it’s great to hear from you but hell you need to concentrate on your case and not piss these people off. Government’s Exhibit 8 at pp. 8-4. The court simply cannot accept McNeese’s characterization of having been “talked into writing a letter to [Johnson],” when it is clear from both Sara Bramow’s testimony and McNeese’s later statements to Agent Basler, which the court finds more credible, that McNeese initiated and pushed for continued contacts with Johnson. Moreover, in light of his record as an informant for government agents, McNeese was shrewd enough to know that he shouldn’t suggest in a note that he was pumping Johnson for information. d. September 6th meeting At the meeting between Agent Basler and McNeese, on September 6, 2000, which Detective Wright had arranged, prompted by concerns about threats to jail personnel and a possible plan for Johnson to escape, McNeese told Agent Basler that he had obtained more information from Johnson, including Johnson’s statement that the missing witnesses were dead. McNeese testified at the suppression hearing as to the manner in which he had obtained that information, as follows: I believe she said that — I think I said something like, “if they don’t have any bodies, you’re not going to get found guilty” or — and said something about if they were alive or something, and she said that they were dead, and I told [Agent Basler] that. Transcript, Vol. II, p. 434, ll. 11-15. Thus, McNeese’s own characterization of the conversation is that he was involved in and forwarded a conversation about Johnson’s crimes by commenting on the effect of the absence of the alleged murder victims’ bodies; McNeese was not simply “listening.” Also during the meeting on September 6, 2000, Agent Basler learned from McNeese that Johnson wanted McNeese’s help with having a girl named “Christi” killed, that Johnson had disclosed to McNeese extensive information about the murders of witnesses with which Johnson is presently charged, as well as information about Johnson’s plans for an escape and Dustin Honken’s plan to have an inmate in a federal prison in Colorado admit to lolling the five witnesses. Transcript, Vol. Ill, pp. 679-681. Agent Basler characterized McNeese’s further revelations concerning plans to suborn a perjured confession to the murder of witnesses as follows: Q. What did McNeese relate concerning how that discussion developed then beyond that point? A. Mr. McNeese told me that he then fabricated a story, which he told Angela Johnson, and that fabricated story involved a[n] individual by the name of Greg Long, that apparently was from Iowa and had been incarcerated in the federal prison at Leavenworth on a methamphetamine charge. Mr. McNeese further explained that this story that he told Angela involved the fact that this Mr. Long, while at Leavenworth, had committed a murder and had been sentenced to an additional life sentence because of that killing. Mr. McNeese said that he thought that if he could convince Greg Long to admit to killing the five people, once that happened, why, Angela Johnson would obviously be released from jail and would also be in a position to sue the Government for false arrest. Suppression Hea