Opinion ID: 200371
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Walker's IAD Testimony

Text: On March 27, 1995, IAD agents interviewed Walker about his observations on the night of the Cox assault. During the interview, Walker was shown a group of photographs in order to identify the plainclothes officers Walker observed at the bottom of the incline. When asked to describe the tall white male he saw at the bottom of the hill, Walker testified, All I know is he was a very tall white male. He was medium build. I forget what he was wearing. Walker was then given a group of photographs of officers from the Anti-Gang Unit, a unit that Conley was not in, and asked him to try to identify the officers he saw. During the interview, Walker identified the photographs of two officers, Joseph Teahan and Michael DeStefano. He was notably tentative in his identification, stating, Like I said, I'm not sure about these photographs, but it looks like the tall officer. Conley claims that he was prejudiced by the suppression of the IAD Testimony because access to the testimony would have enabled him to make an issue of Walker's credibility at trial. The testimony would have allowed him to impeach Walker's memory of events, because Walker's subsequent inability to identify the tall white officer conflicts with the inference made at trial that Conley was the tall white officer at the bottom of the hill. -45- In response, the government offers a number of arguments why the IAD Testimony offers no significant impeachment value, and further, why Walker's unimpeached testimony helped, rather than hurt, the defense's theory of the case. First, the government argues that neither Walker nor the government ever suggested that Walker could identify Conley as the tall, white officer he observed. Instead, it was circumstantial evidence, corroborated by Conley's own testimony, that established that the tall, white officer was the same one he chased after and to whom he returned the dropped radio. Second, the misidentification evidence would have actually weakened the defense offered at trial. That the tall, white officer described by Walker's testimony was in fact Conley was a point defense counsel diligently tried to prove at trial. Placing Conley at the bottom of the hill ahead of Walker helped the defense by allowing it to argue that Conley would not have had time to witness Cox's beating before Conley scaled the fence. Defense counsel's closing argument shows that Conley went to great lengths to use the Walker testimony to prove that Walker observed Conley at the bottom of the incline. Discussing Walker's testimony, defense counsel stated, I believe from the evidence it is fair to say that there can be no doubt in your mind that the tall white officer in plainclothes was Ken Conley. The defense alluded to the ample -46- circumstantial evidence tending to show that the tall, white officer was indeed Conley. During the chase, the tall white officer dropped his radio. Officer Walker says he picked it up. And when the tall white officer apprehended the suspect, put the cuffs on him, with Walker assisting, he gave him back his radio, you dropped this. Walker cannot identify Ken Conley as being that officer. He did not know him, he had not seen him before, and, if you will note, he did not identify him in this courtroom as being that officer. But if you take that testimony in conjunction with [Conley's] Grand Jury testimony that was read to you, you will see that Ken Conley, when he testified before the Grand Jury, said that during the pursuit, I dropped my radio and a black uniformed officer picked it up and gave it to me. There is no doubt that Ken Conley was the tall white officer who apprehended Brown. Tr. IV:51-52 (emphasis added). According to the government, whatever impeachment value the IAD Testimony might have in the abstract, it was never in Conley's interest to impeach Walker's ability to recall events at Woodruff Way. Finally, the government argues that the core of Walker's testimony was that he observed Cox running closely behind Brown, chasing him to the fence and reaching for him. This testimony was corroborated by both Cox and Brown and stood in stark contrast to Conley's statement that he followed Brown to the fence and did not observe anyone chasing after Brown. Thus, although Walker's IAD identifications may have sewn confusion about who was at the bottom -47- of the hill, it was immaterial to the essence of Walker's corroborated testimony.