Opinion ID: 697383
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Jencks Ruling

Text: 26
27 The chief error alleged by Riverol and Delgado is the district court's denial of a timely motion for disclosure of material they allege falls under the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500. Upon review of the record we find no judicial error. Defense counsel failed to lay the predicate required to invoke the Jencks Act protections. 28 Jaime Costa, a cooperating co-defendant, testified for the government against Riverol, Delgado, and the other defendants. Costa's direct testimony comprised his own drug crimes for the nine years preceding his arrest. Defense counsel requested the DEA agent's notes from debriefings of Costa on these other crimes. The prosecutor responded that neither he nor the DEA agent in the instant case had participated in the debriefings and neither of them had seen the requested DEA-6's because they exclusively concerned the other, unrelated crimes. Defense counsel argued they were entitled to the reports because anything tending to show bias or prejudice relates to the subject matter of the witness's testimony as required by Jencks. In the alternative, defense counsel requested the reports be produced and sealed as part of the appellate record. The trial judge denied the defense motion. 29 The Jencks Act applies to any witness statement in the United States's possession that relates to the subject matter of the witness's direct testimony. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500. Statement, however, is a legal term of art. Agents's reports of witness interviews, or debriefings, are not Jencks statements unless they are substantially verbatim, contemporaneously recorded transcripts, or are written by the witness and signed or otherwise ratified by the witness. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500(e)(1)-(2); United States v. Cole, 634 F.2d 866, 867 (5th Cir.), 1 cert. denied, 452 U.S. 918, 101 S.Ct. 3055, 69 L.Ed.2d 422 (1981); United States v. Gaston, 608 F.2d 607, 611 (5th Cir.1979). 30 Further, the defense must establish that the document falls within the reach of Jencks. Gaston, 608 F.2d at 611. The district court need not examine the reports in camera when nothing before it suggests a verbatim account or adoption by the witness. Id. When defense counsel fails to establish Jencks applies, the trial court does not err in refusing to order the government to produce reports for inclusion in the record. Id. Jencks does not authorize fishing expeditions, United States v. Graves, 428 F.2d 196, 199 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 960, 91 S.Ct. 360, 27 L.Ed.2d 269 (1970); the foundation must be laid before the protections are triggered. 31 In the instant case, defense counsel failed to lay that predicate. The only defense lawyer to attempt the foundation, counsel for Hernandez, elicited testimony that the witness had never adopted or approved the reports; the agent never read back his notes or asked Costa to confirm their accuracy (R. 12:1342). In addition, the defense proffered nothing to show the statements were verbatim transcripts. Based on these facts and the controlling caselaw, we conclude the trial court properly found the statements did not come under the Jencks Act and therefore were not subject to compelled production. 32
33 Hernandez argues the trial court erred in denying his motions to strike or dismiss for alleged violations of the Jencks Act when the government did not provide transcripts of prior grand jury and trial testimony by the 404(b) witness. See III.B. below. We disagree. 34 The following factors impel us to conclude the error, if any, was harmless: Jencks Act statements are strictly limited to impeachment. Palermo v. United States, 360 U.S. 343, 349, 79 S.Ct. 1217, 1223, 3 L.Ed.2d 1287 (1959). The most Hernandez could have achieved with the requested statements was to discredit the agent who gave 404(b) testimony regarding the separate, later, unrelated crime. Most important, independent evidence linking Hernandez to the crimes charged in the instant case was overwhelming. See III.C.ii. below. Strictly applying the harmless error standard, see Goldberg v. United States, 425 U.S. 94, 111 n. 21, 96 S.Ct. 1338, 1348 n. 21, 47 L.Ed.2d 603 (1976), we find no reversible error.