Opinion ID: 462493
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Missing 302 Reports

Text: 155 If an FBI agent acquires information as to which he may later be called to testify, FBI regulations require that he make a written report of the information on form FD-302. Agent Cobb authored several such 302s during the period in 1978 when he worked undercover in the investigation of Balistrieri. One of them covered the Peppercorn conversation of August 27, 1978 (Peppercorn 302), see supra sec. II E 1; another covered the conversation in Snug's Restaurant on September 13, 1978, when Balistrieri talked about his appearance before the grand jury (Snug's 302). See id. Cobb dictated the Peppercorn 302 on August 30, 1978, and the Snug's 302 on September 18, 1978. They were promptly transcribed. Under normal procedures, a transcribed report is returned to the author, who either initials it as correct or sends it back for correction, the process being repeated until he initials it. The record is unclear whether Cobb had initialed the Peppercorn or Snug's 302 before he left Milwaukee for another assignment in December 1978, though Cobb testified that he thought he had not. 156 At some time during 1979, Agent Potkonjak, the case agent for the Balistrieri investigation in the Milwaukee office of the FBI, reviewed the results of the investigation in which Cobb had participated and sent several of Cobb's 302s back to Cobb with some questions. Cobb reviewed the 302s and dictated some changes. His secretary transcribed the changes, each on a separate sheet of paper (the change sheets). Each of the more than twenty change sheets identified the 302 to be changed, as well as the page and paragraph, and supplied the language as it ought to read, without specifying how the passage originally read. Cobb apparently sent the change sheets to Potkonjak, who had new 302s (or perhaps just replacement pages) typed in October of November 1979. The originals were discarded, and the revised 302s were sent back to Cobb for initialing. The government produced both revised 302s, bearing Cobb's initials, as well as the change sheets for the Peppercorn 302, before trial. 32 But the government could not produce either the original 302s or any tape or other document that showed how the 302s originally read. 157 Cobb made changes to each of the Peppercorn and Snug's 302s. Only one of the changes to each document is pertinent here. One change sheet shows as revised language to paragraph 1 of page 5 of the Peppercorn 302: ... Frank advised that Sam, the individual he had last ...; the other shows as revised language to the last paragraph of page 2 of the Snug's 302: ... Sam Libirzzi [sic], the Sam mentioned previously, in the parking lot.... 158 The pertinent passage of the Peppercorn 302, after incorporation of the change, here italicized, reads as follows: 159 FRANK [Balistrieri] advised that SAM, the individual he had last year who worked right under DI SALVO running the day-to-day book, did not tend to business; and therefore, FRANK did not want him running the day-to-day book for this coming football season. 160 The pertinent passage of the Snug's 302, with the revised language incorporated, reads: 161 PETER [Balistrieri] and FRANK [Balistrieri] advised DI SALVO that the Government had photographs of him, DI SALVO, meeting SAM LIBRIZZI, the SAM mentioned previously, in the parking lot of a Milwaukee hospital. 162 These passages correspond to the parts of Cobb's and Pistone's testimony that constituted the principal evidence against Balistrieri and DiSalvo on Count 2 of the indictment. Both changes involve references to Sam or Sam Librizzi, the only such explicit references attributed to Balistrieri or DiSalvo by the undercover agents. 163 Balistrieri and DiSalvo contend that the government's failure to produce the original 302s violated their rights under the Jencks Act, Brady v. Maryland, and the Confrontation Clause. They take the position that in 1979 the government fabricated the evidence linking them to Sam Librizzi's gambling business in 1977, either by making up the entire Peppercorn and Snug's conversations or by inserting spurious references to Sam or Sam Librizzi into them. According to their theory, the government covered its tracks by destroying the original 302s that lacked such references, contrary to express FBI regulations. 164 If Cobb had initialed the original 302s, then discarding them was a violation of FBI regulations. 33 But a violation of agency regulations not prohibited by the Constitution or federal law is not reversible error. See United States v. Bastanipour, 697 F.2d 170, 174-75 (7th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1091, 103 S.Ct. 1790, 76 L.Ed.2d 358 (1983). 165 Whether initialed or not, the original 302s were statements of Cobb's within the meaning of the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500(e)(2). The government's failure to produce them was thus an apparent violation of the act. But this is not a case in which the government has producible documents that it chooses not to produce despite a court order. The government failed to produce the documents because they had previously been destroyed, discarded, or otherwise lost. We think the loss was inadvertent, or at worst, negligent. There is no evidence that the government acted in bad faith to deliberately place these documents beyond the reach of the defendants. Thus the sanctions of Sec. 3500(d) are not automatically required. 166 Congress does not appear to have contemplated how the Jencks Act should apply when documents that would otherwise have been producible are destroyed in good faith. One approach, entirely consistent with the statute, would be to hold that documents destroyed in good faith cease to be documents in the possession of the government and are therefore not producible under the act. But we need not go so far, for we have previously recognized a narrower exception that can be readily adapted to the circumstances of this case. In United States v. Batchelder, we held that an agent's handwritten notes of his meetings with the defendant need not be retained after they have been typed. 581 F.2d 626, 635 (7th Cir.1978), rev'd on other grounds, 422 U.S. 114, 99 S.Ct. 2198, 60 L.Ed.2d 755 (1979). In United States v. Bastanipour, we held that an agent's handwritten draft of a report need not be retained after the report has been typed. 697 F.2d at 174. Both of these holdings were based on the premise that the typescript contained all the information in the handwritten materials. 167 These holdings do not apply straightforwardly to the instant case. Nevertheless, we know the crucial questions: whether the original 302s contained accounts of the Peppercorn and Snug's conversations paralleling those of the revised 302s, and if so, whether they contained references to Sam Librizzi. And we know that these questions were fully ventilated before the jury during the trial. Agent Cobb's testimony supported affirmative answers to both. 34 Cobb and Potkonjak were vigorously cross-examined by numerous defense counsel on the contents of the original 302s and the circumstances under which they were changed. Agent De Marco was thoroughly examined on his use of the original Peppercorn 302 in preparing his affidavit of October 20, 1979, see supra sec. II B, with special emphasis on the question why it contained no mention of that part of the Peppercorn conversation that dealt with gambling. We think the question of the contents of the original 302s was in effect submitted to the jury as a question of fact relevant to its determination of the guilt or innocence of Balistrieri and DiSalvo on Count 2. The fact that the jury returned verdicts of guilty shows that it credited the testimony of the government's witnesses and rejected the defense's theory of later fabrication. Implicit in its determination was a finding that the original 302s were as Cobb testified. Otherwise, it would have had to find that Cobb had lied on the stand, and the integrity of the government's evidence would have been undermined. We shall not disturb this finding, based as it is on the jury's assessment of the credibility of the government's witnesses. 168 But if the original 302s were as Cobb testified, it is clear that their production would not have aided the defense, for the entire argument that these conversations, or at least the references to Sam Librizzi, were later fabrications, would have been decisively refuted. The defense was better off without the originals, if that is what they contained. 35 Thus, in the unusual circumstances of this case, where we are confident that the trier of fact, having been fully informed as to the facts and having heard the thorough cross-examination of witnesses and the arguments of counsel, has made a determination as to the pertinent contents of the missing documents, and where its determination implies that the documents would not have been helpful to the defense, we hold that the government's failure to produce them because they were destroyed or discarded in good faith does not violate the Jencks Act. 169 For similar reasons, the nonproduction of the original 302s did not violate Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). Original 302s containing accounts of the Peppercorn and Snug's conversations with references to Sam Librizzi would have been neither exculpatory nor impeaching. Thus the government had no duty founded on the Due Process Clause to produce them. 170 Finally, the nonproduction of the original 302s did not violate the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. The right of confrontation is violated when the court imposes an unwarranted restriction on the scope of cross-examination but not when the government fails to produce certain documents that the defense might find useful for cross-examination. The nonproduction of documents amounts to a constitutional violation only if it deprives the defendants of a fair trial under the Due Process Clause. See United States v. Bagley, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 3381, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). 171 We caution the FBI to use greater care in preserving potential Jencks Act material. It is better to err on the side of unnecessary retention than to risk the loss of crucial testimony at trial.