Source: http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/740/50/233946/
Timestamp: 2017-09-20 04:02:59
Document Index: 224898125

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1341', '§ 1001', '§ 3500', '§ 3500', '§ 3500', '§ 3500', '§ 3500']

United States of America v. North American Reporting, Inc., Appellant.united States of America v. Richard Lee Boyd, Appellant, 740 F.2d 50 (D.C. Cir. 1984) :: Justia
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United States of America v. North American Reporting, Inc., Appellant.united States of America v. Richard Lee Boyd, Appellant, 740 F.2d 50 (D.C. Cir. 1984)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - 740 F.2d 50 (D.C. Cir. 1984)
Argued May 30, 1984. Decided July 27, 1984
In this case, North American Reporting, Inc. and Richard Lee Boyd appeal convictions on eight counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341, and eight counts of making false statements, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. Appellants press two central claims.1 First, they contend that the district judge improperly excluded from evidence a summary chart proffered by the defense. Second, they find error in the government's failure to produce, and the district court's failure to examine, notes taken by the prosecutor during interviews with various prosecution witnesses. Appellants argue that these notes must be produced under the Jencks Act. See 18 U.S.C. § 3500.
For these, and additional,4 reasons, we believe that the district judge had ample basis for excluding the defendants' chart on the ground that it was confusing. Evidence may be excluded, although it is relevant, if "its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury." Fed.R.Evid. 403. The decision to exclude relevant evidence pursuant to Rule 403 is committed to the sound discretion of the trial judge. See, e.g., United States v. Lemire, 720 F.2d 1327, 1348 (D.C. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S. Ct. 2678, 81 L. Ed. 2d 874 (1984); United States v. Wright, 489 F.2d 1181, 1186 (D.C. Cir. 1973). Defendants' Exhibit No. 24 presents a frequently observed danger associated with summary charts: the jury might "treat the summary as additional evidence or as corroborative of the truth of the underlying testimony." Lemire, 720 F.2d at 1348; see United States v. Scales, 594 F.2d 558, 564 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 946, 99 S. Ct. 2168, 60 L. Ed. 2d 1049 (1979). When, as here, the "evidence" summarized derives from such diverse sources, of various shades of unreliability, including mere surmise, undocumented recollection and questionable assumptions, we do not think the district judge abused her discretion in preventing the exhibit from influencing the jury.
Before trial, the defense requested that the prosecution produce certain notes taken during interviews with witnesses. The defense maintained that the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500, required the production of such notes. Without examining the contents of the prosecutor's notes,6 the district judge ruled that the notes were "work products" of the government attorneys, and were not producible under the Jencks Act. Tr. 24; see Tr. 25-30.
Appellants ask this court to rule that the prosecutor's notes were in fact producible under the Jencks Act. Further, appellants, citing 18 U.S.C. § 3500(d), contend that because Jencks Act materials were not produced, the testimony of the witnesses with whom the prosecutor conducted the relevant interviews, several of whom were key witnesses for the prosecution, should be stricken from the trial record. Accordingly, appellants conclude, this court should rule that the failure to produce the prosecutor's notes was reversible error.
We note, to begin with, that the district judge ruled against the Jencks Act request on an erroneous legal ground. Without examining the prosecutor's notes, the district judge determined that they were "work products," and accordingly held that they were not producible under the Jencks Act. However, the Supreme Court has held unequivocally that the work product doctrine does not bar the production of the notes of government attorneys that are otherwise producible under the Jencks Act. See Goldberg v. United States, 425 U.S. 94, 105-08, 96 S. Ct. 1338, 1345-47, 47 L. Ed. 2d 603 (1976).
a Government objection to production may require that the trial court inspect documents or hold a hearing to gather extrinsic evidence bearing on the extent to which the documents are statements producible under Sec. 3500. In Campbell I [Campbell v. United States, 365 U.S. 85, 81 S. Ct. 421, 5 L. Ed. 2d 428 (1961) ] the Court unanimously concluded that the trial judge was obliged to conduct some inquiry into the circumstances of the witness' interview there in question. The circumstances of this case compel the same conclusion. [The defendant's] testimony raised a sufficient question under the Act to require the trial judge to conduct such an inquiry, and since we hold that the trial judge erred in exempting the material from production as attorneys' "work product," a remand for such an inquiry by the District Court is required....
Goldberg, 425 U.S. at 108-09, 96 S. Ct. at 1347 (citations and footnotes omitted). Furthermore, this court has held that a district judge "has an affirmative duty to determine whether any [Jencks Act] statement exists and is in the possession of the Government and, if so, to order the production of the statement." Saunders v. United States, 316 F.2d 346, 349 (D.C. Cir. 1963); see also Hilliard v. United States, 317 F.2d 150 (D.C. Cir. 1963). The district court's inquiry "may involve the interrogation of the witness or of the government agent, or an in camera examination of what is purported to be a statement under the statute." Saunders, 316 F.2d at 349. The district judge in this case entirely failed to make a reasonable inquiry into whether the prosecutor's notes should be produced under the Jencks Act.7
Nor do we believe it is proper for this court to make the Jencks Act determination in this appeal. As a general rule, the initial determination of whether the documents constitute producible "statements" under the statute should be made in the district court. See Goldberg, 425 U.S. at 108, 96 S. Ct. at 1347 ("The Court of Appeals erred in undertaking to make the initial determination whether the materials constituted producible 'statements.' "); id. at 109 n. 15, 96 S. Ct. at 1347 n. 15 (examination of the documents "is initially a task for the District Judge"). Accordingly, we remand for the district court to make the Jencks Act determination.
In doing so, the district court should consider whether the prosecutor's notes qualify as "statements" under either section 3500(e) (1) or section 3500(e) (2) of title 18. If the notes qualify as "statements" under either subsection, they must be produced. Under section 3500(e) (1), the notes constitute the statements of witnesses if they have been "adopted or approved" by those witnesses. While prior to trial the prosecutor maintained her "very, very firm position that [the notes] ... have not been adopted by the witnesses," Tr. 24, the Jencks determination is to be made by the court, not the prosecutor. See, e.g., Campbell v. United States, 365 U.S. 85, 92-93, 81 S. Ct. 421, 425, 5 L. Ed. 2d 428 (1961); United States v. Harrison, 524 F.2d 421, 428 (D.C. Cir. 1975); see also Palmero v. United States, 360 U.S. 343, 361, 79 S. Ct. 1217, 1229, 3 L. Ed. 2d 1287 (1959) (Brennan, J., concurring). Thus the trial court must "determine whether the prosecutor's notes were actually read back to [the witness] and whether he adopted or approved them." Goldberg, 425 U.S. at 110, 96 S. Ct. at 1348. Under section 3500(e) (2), the notes constitute statutory "statements" if they are a "substantially verbatim" account of the witness interview. Notes that "evidence substantial selection of material, or which were prepared after the interview without the aid of complete notes" do not meet this standard. On the other hand, this standard does not require that the notes reflect a "delusive exactness." See Palmero v. United States, 360 U.S. 343, 352-53, 79 S. Ct. 1217, 1224-25, 3 L. Ed. 2d 1287 (1959). So long as the notes can be fairly characterized as the witness' own words, they should be made available to the defense. Id. at 352, 79 S. Ct. at 1224.
We do not vacate the appellants' convictions pending resolution of the Jencks Act issue. If the district court, after adequate examination of the issues, determines that the notes do not constitute Jencks Act "statements," it should supplement the record with findings and enter a new final judgment of conviction. However, if the district court finds that any of the notes should have been produced pursuant to the Jencks Act, and that the error was not harmless,8 the judgment of conviction should be vacated and a new trial should be conducted. See, e.g., Goldberg, 425 U.S. at 111-12, 96 S. Ct. at 1348-49; United States v. Del Toro Soto, 676 F.2d 13, 17 (1st Cir. 1982); United States v. Peters, 625 F.2d 366, 371 (10th Cir. 1980); United States v. Conroy, 589 F.2d 1258, 1273 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 831, 100 S. Ct. 60, 62 L. Ed. 2d 40 (1979).
The defense maintained that the question was necessary to show that the chart reflected "the government's point of view." See Tr. 618-19. However, we believe that it would be obvious to the jury that Coy was presenting the government's position in the case. After all, he was introduced as a government agent who had been involved in the investigation of North American, see Tr. 563-64, and the purpose of his testimony was to summarize the government's evidence. We therefore believe that the jury had sufficient information to appraise the bias and motives of the witness without the appellants' proposed cross-examination, and accordingly hold that the district court acted within its discretion in disallowing the line of inquiry. See, e.g., United States v. DeLuca, 692 F.2d 1277, 1282 (9th Cir. 1982); United States v. Hughes, 658 F.2d 317, 321 (5th Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 922, 102 S. Ct. 1280, 71 L. Ed. 2d 463 (1982); United States v. Singh, 628 F.2d 758, 763 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1034, 101 S. Ct. 609, 66 L. Ed. 2d 496 (1980).
It is often noted that a trial court enjoys broad discretion to reduce "undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence." Fed.R.Evid. 403; see Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 94 S. Ct. 2887, 41 L. Ed. 2d 590 (1974). In this case, the prolonged enumeration of the numerous instances in which Boyd claimed he had "undercharged" would have created such undue delay. Boyd's testimony regarding the actual dollar amount of the total alleged undercharges would have had no probative value as to whether his overbilling had been intentional. Since Boyd's testimony regarding the underbillings was offered only to prove his lack of guilty knowledge and intent, see Tr. 995-97, we believe that the judge did not commit reversible error by preventing testimony regarding the total alleged undercharges. As the trial judge explained, "I don't really think it's material how much money he thinks he has undercharged them." Tr. 1014.
The appellants also requested production of notes taken by FBI agents during witness interviews. After examining these notes, the district judge ordered the production of five sets of notes taken under oath. See Tr. 27. These notes were evidently "adopted or approved" by the witnesses. See 18 U.S.C. § 3500(e) (1). As to the remaining sets of FBI notes, the district judge determined that they "sounded as though it was the reporter, not the person," i.e., the witness, whose thoughts were reflected in the notes. Id. Thus, the district court made a reasonable determination that the remaining FBI notes were not "substantially verbatim." See 18 U.S.C. § 3500(e) (2)
In that concurrence, Justice Powell, joined by the Chief Justice, took issue with the majority's ruling that the trial judge was required to make further inquiry into the nature of the documents in issue. Instead, he found the witness' "cursory and ambiguous testimony" to be "wholly insufficient to require the judge to interrupt the trial and conduct a collateral inquiry." 425 U.S. at 120, 96 S. Ct. at 1352 (Powell, J., concurring). Building upon this concurrence, some circuits have now ruled that in order to give rise to a judicial responsibility to make an inquiry, the defendant must "first meet the burden of specifying with reasonable particularity (normally by his cross-examination at trial) that a certain document exists, that there is a reason to believe that the document is a statutory 'statement,' and that the Government failed to provide it in violation of the [Jencks] Act." United States v. Robinson, 585 F.2d 274, 280-81 (7th Cir. 1978) (en banc), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 947, 99 S. Ct. 2171, 60 L. Ed. 2d 1051 (1979); see United States v. Gaston, 608 F.2d 607, 611 (5th Cir. 1979).
425 U.S. at 129, 96 S. Ct. at 1356 (Powell, J., concurring). In the case before us today, the district judge made precisely the same ruling, holding that the work product doctrine barred production of the prosecutor's notes. Accordingly, the appellants "may not have sought to supplement their foundational showing" because of the broad bar established by the trial judge's ruling. Thus, remand of this case would be proper even under the reasoning of Justice Powell's concurrence.
Courts cannot "speculate whether [Jencks material] could have been utilized effectively" at trial. Clancy v. United States, 365 U.S. 312, 316, 81 S. Ct. 645, 648, 5 L. Ed. 2d 574 (1961). The harmless error doctrine must therefore be strictly applied in Jencks Act cases. See, e.g., Goldberg, 425 U.S. at 111 n. 21, 96 S. Ct. at 1348 n. 21; Campbell v. United States, 373 U.S. 487, 497 n. 14, 83 S. Ct. 1356, 1362 n. 14, 10 L. Ed. 2d 501 (1963)