State v. Gonzales

Undercover police officer Tim Freel went to the Golden Slipper nightclub as part of a routine law-enforcement operation. While he was at the club, Ernest Gonzales (defendant) motioned to Freel and called over the bartender. The bartender asked Freel to buy her a drink, and Freel did so. The bartender then offered to engage in prostitution. Freel accepted the offer and gave the bartender three marked $20 bills. The bartender placed the money in the cash register and then went with Freel to Gonzales’s apartment. After the bartender took off her clothes, Freel arrested her. Freel, the bartender, and two other officers then returned to the Golden Slipper. The officers arrested Gonzales and asked him to empty his pockets. When Gonzales did so, the officers found a roll of bills including the three marked bills from Freel. The State of Louisiana (plaintiff) charged Gonzales with receiving support from the earnings of a prostitute, and the case went to trial. At trial, Freel testified that after he bought the bartender a drink, the bartender asked him if he “would like to go to a party.” Freel further testified that he asked the bartender “how much and where and when,” and she told him that it would be $50 plus $10 for a room. Freel said that he agreed and asked the bartender how they would get to the room, and the bartender responded that she would call a taxi. Freel testified that he then gave the bartender $60. The jury ultimately found Gonzales guilty, and he appealed. On appeal, Gonzales asserted that Freel’s testimony about the bartender’s statements was inadmissible hearsay and that the trial court’s admission of the testimony violated Gonzales’s substantial rights.