Source: https://secondcircuit.lexroll.com/united-states-v-aaron-457-f-2d-865-2nd-cir-1972/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 05:53:43+00:00

Document:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE, v. ROBERT AARON, APPELLANT.
No. 232, Docket 71-1765.United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.Argued November 3, 1971.
Marshall Tamor Golding, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Robert A. Morse, U.S. Atty., for appellee.
Jerome Lewis, Thomas R. Newman, Benjamin H. Siff, New York City, for appellant.
Before WATERMAN, SMITH and TIMBERS, Circuit Judges.
 Appellant, Robert Aaron, after a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, was convicted of having violated 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 495, and 2. He had been charged in three counts of a five count indictment and was convicted on all three. In one count it was charged that he and one Michael LaBarbara forged the endorsement of the payee, one Robert P. Fleisher, on a $4,000 U.S. Treasury check, in a second that he and LaBarbara uttered and published that forged check, and in a third that he, LaBarbara, together with a Henry Mandatto, a Stuart Vort, and a co-conspirator, one Allen Magid, an informer, conspired to forge and to utter forged U.S. Treasury checks. In the two remaining counts of the indictment only LaBarbara, Mandatto and Vort were charged. The jury acquitted LaBarbara upon all five counts and Mandatto upon the three for which he had been indicted. Vort was convicted on the three counts upon which he had been charged. Neither Aaron nor LaBarbara nor Mandatto took the stand in his own behalf.
 During the trial the prosecutor, pursuant to the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500, furnished defense counsel with certain materials. Due to an apparent inadvertence on the part of the Government one of two reports of an FBI agent, one Anthony Villano, was not included in the materials. During the cross-examination of the agent it became obvious that the failure to supply this report to the defense prior to the cross-examination prejudiced the defendant, and the presiding judge, Judge Weinstein, made efforts aimed at minimizing this prejudice so as to prevent a mistrial. In spite of the judge’s well-intentioned and well-calculated measures the policies underlying the Jencks Act require us to reverse the conviction and demand that we order a new trial.
 The relevant facts may be stated briefly. Appellant was the manager of a jewelry store and had been earning between $20,000 and $25,000 a year. He had full authority to buy and sell diamonds and to cash checks. LaBarbara possessed a package of stolen U.S. Treasury checks, among them one made payable to a Robert P. Fleisher in the amount of $4,000. Appellant was approached by codefendants Vort and Mandatto and by a co-conspirator, Allen Magid, a government informer and the Government’s principal witness at the trial, in order to have appellant assist in disposing of LaBarbara’s package of checks.
package. Magid was the first government witness. He testified that they adopted a scheme by which the appellant would accept one or two of LaBarbara’s stolen checks as payment for items of jewelry from the shop appellant managed, and that one exchange was actually made in which the $4,000 check made payable to Robert Fleisher was taken by Aaron as “payment” for a $4,000 diamond ring sold at a discounted price of $3600. Aaron then gave the ring so “sold” to Magid, Vort and Mandatto with the understanding that it was to be delivered by them to LaBarbara.
 Despite the fact that it would appear from the record that Magid’s credibility had been so tarnished by the cross-examination of trial counsel as to cause his testimony relative to the subject-matter of any conversations to be of doubtful validity, Magid also testified that Aaron had told him that he had endorsed Fleisher’s name on the check.
 Appellant’s employer was the Government’s second witness. He testified that Aaron told him of the $3600 sale for which Aaron had taken the $4000 check and told him that the $400 in change taken from the till had been given to Fleisher when Aaron agreed to sell Fleisher the ring, priced at $4000, at a 10% “discount.” Beyond peradventure, therefore, if the testimony of these two witnesses could be believed, appellant defrauded his employer of a ring of the retail value of $4000 and cash of $400 which appellant pocketed.
 Inasmuch as appellant was a trusted employee, was earning between $20,000 and $25,000 a year, and had every prospect of continuing in his employment, the Government sought to establish by these two witnesses that appellant risked his job and his future because he badly needed a large amount of money. Neither of the witnesses was free on the ground of personal interest from impeachment attack. Although Magid’s demolishment occurred on cross-examination, on direct he testified that he was involved as a principal in this criminal affair. Norman Savel, the employer, had suffered a $4400 unrecoupable loss. Moreover, appellant himself, unless in some way indebted to the others in the scheme, more particularly perhaps to LaBarbara, had personally profited by his risky performance to the extent of only $400. Magid testified that he had been introduced to Aaron by one whom he described as a loan shark who claimed Aaron owed him money from dealings many years earlier and that Aaron owed Magid $4000 for work done by him on Aaron’s house.
 Savel testified, over objection, that he had been contacted by hotels in Puerto Rico and Las Vegas which claimed Aaron owed them some $13,000 and that Aaron had acknowledged that he had, in fact, signed “markers” to such hotels for $13,000 of gambling debts but that these sums were actually owed by another person who would pay them.
 It is in connection with this effort to ascribe to appellant a motive for his criminality that the Government’s failure to comply with the Congressionally-imposed requirements of the Jencks Act after Villano had testified on direct examination prejudiced the defense.
told you that he owed $15,000 to gambling casinos?
Q. Show it to me in that report.
A. I prepared two reports, sir.
Q. You mean the government has another report that they didn’t turn over to us?
A. I didn’t furnish it to the — to Mr. Lynch here.
Mr. Lewis [defense attorney]. I ask for a recess, Judge.
I have examined the reports in connection with this case and I find nothing in connection with the applicable report that says anything about a gambling debt by Aaron in connection with the statement made by Aaron to this agent.
 Clearly, the purpose of Judge Weinstein’s remark was to cause the jury to believe that the agent’s recollection of his conversation with Aaron about gambling debts was not supported by any memorandum he made of that conversation.
cross-examination in this area might have brought the jury’s attention to the ambiguity of the court’s words “nothing in connection with the applicable report [emphasis added].” Again the jury’s attention would have focussed on Aaron’s disputed gambling debts. In light of these factors Aaron’s attorney was well advised to steer clear of the area and instead to move for the mistrial denied him.
 It is indeed true, as the Government points out, that the cross-examination of Agent Villano was the product of a tactical decision made by the defense and the Government claims “harmless error” here. Yet the first decision was undoubtedly decided upon by the cross-examiner because of the Government’s knowing failure to comply with Section 3500, and the court’s later well-intentioned instruction could not neutralize the damage done by that government omission.
Frankly, we cannot understand why Assistant United States Attorneys in this circuit should fail to observe the procedures relative to the turning over of Jencks Act material that was specified in United States v. Gardin, 382 F.2d 601, 605-606 (2 Cir. 1967). We take this opportunity to warn them and their supervisors that further lapses may not be condoned.
case, 414 F.2d supra at 1304, where he pointed out that “[u]nless it is perfectly clear that the defense was not prejudiced by the omission, reversal is indicated.” Moreover, it is of little significance to the defense in this case that the Government’s failure to furnish was inadvertent. The prosecutor before turning the witness over to the cross-examiner knew of the existence of the second report and had an opportunity to relay that information to Aaron’s counsel. This he did not do. We are convinced from a reading of the record that it is not perfectly clear that the defense was not prejudiced by the Government’s failure.
 Accordingly, the judgment is reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.
is a prime example of good judgment on the part of the trial judge.
 The government admits its error in initially producing only the one report by Agent Villano, without informing defense counsel or the court that a second report existed. But failure to comply with the Jencks Act is reversible error only if the defense has been prejudiced. Rosenberg v. United States, 360 U.S. 367, 371 (1959); United States v. Hestie, 439 F.2d 131, 132 (2 Cir. 1971); United States v. Gardin, 382 F.2d 601, 606 (2 Cir. 1967). Here the trial record, in my view, shows that the error in question was harmless.
 Appellant essentially contends that delayed production of the agent’s second report led his counsel into an improvident line of cross-examination which resulted in the jury’s knowing that the agent had given a prior consistent statement, a fact which otherwise would have been inadmissible. The court, however, removed any possible prejudice by an instruction which in effect told the jury that no prior consistent statement existed — an instruction, if anything, more favorable than appellant deserved.
 Assuming arguendo that the court’s instruction neutralized the corroborative impact of the agent’s reply, the majority nevertheless concludes that the combination of the government’s failure to comply with the Jencks Act and the court’s instruction to the jury precluded the defense from impeaching the agent’s testimony on the ground that he had made two materially different reports about the content of a single conversation he had had with the accused. With deference, however, I do not believe that this conclusion is supported by the record. The majority tends to gloss over the fact that the second report was made available in time to afford the defense ample opportunity to use it to impeach the agent. Furthermore, prior to the court’s suggestion that it give the instruction which appellant now challenges on appeal for the first time, defense counsel had time to review the second report and to ascertain whether it could be used to impeach the agent. If defense counsel had believed that the report would be valuable in cross-examining the agent, he would have objected to the proffered instruction or suggested an alternative way of handling the problem. Indeed, the trial judge, in addressing defense counsel, offered to do “[a]nything you want me to do.” Defense counsel’s failure to object to the instruction and to pursue a line of cross-examination based on the material differences between the two reports reflected a deliberate tactical decision on his part that greater advantage lay in foregoing further cross-examination and relying upon the court’s instruction. Thus, defense counsel’s failure to cross-examine the agent with respect to the second report resulted not from the combination of the government’s error and the court’s instruction, but from defense counsel’s belief that such cross-examination would be of no avail to appellant.
trial judge’s extraordinarily fair offer, nor to object to the instruction as given. I am left with the firm conviction that no prejudicial error was committed.
 Absent prejudicial error in the only point raised on appeal and in view of the overwhelming evidence of guilt so clearly set forth in Judge Waterman’s complete and fair statement of the facts in the majority opinion, I would affirm the judgment of conviction.

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