Opinion ID: 776954
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: evidence revealed after trial

Text: 22 Although on December 16, 1988, over two years before the trial began, the defense requested that the prosecution disclose all evidence in its possession that was favorable to the defendant, a great deal of impeachment evidence relating to Patrick, as well as important exculpatory evidence relating to the alleged arson-insurance-fraud allegation, was not turned over to the defense until after both the guilt and penalty phases of the trial had ended.
23 Even though the prosecuting attorneys had taken their first statements from Patrick over a year before the trial, Patrick's identity was not disclosed to the defense until the day before trial when he was added to the witness list. 3 Pierce County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Michael Johnson lied to the defense and stated that Patrick's identity could not be disclosed because he was in a witness protection program. It was later discovered that he was never in such a program. 24 The day that Benn's trial was scheduled to begin, the defense brought to the court's attention the fact that Brady material relating to Patrick had not been provided. The defense noted specifically that it did not have information about Patrick's prior contacts with the police, including whether Patrick had made statements in the past that had turned out to be incorrect. The trial court agreed and ordered the prosecution to turn over any written material relating to Patrick's contacts with law enforcement in the year prior to the murders. No such material was ever produced. The court also stated that the prosecutor would have an obligation to tell [the defense] if there's prior situations where the informant had not been truthful. Prosecutor Johnson acknowledged this obligation and stated that they ha[d] been notified of no such situations, your Honor. The prosecution never turned over any information that Patrick had engaged in improper conduct while acting as an informant. It was later discovered that the prosecution did not attempt to obtain this information from any of the police detectives working on the case. Additionally, the defense later discovered that Detectives Ronald Lewis and Thomas Padukiewicz, both of whom supervised Patrick while he was assisting in law enforcement investigations, knew that Patrick had stolen both drugs and money during drug busts and that he had lied to the police about it. The defense was never told about this. Detective Padukiewicz had even gone so far as to write up a deactivation memo stating that Patrick could no longer work as an informant because he would not abide by department rules. The defense was never told about Patrick's deactivation. 25 The defense was also not informed that Patrick had broken into the evidence room of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement while working as an informant and had stolen drugs that the police had previously seized. Nor was the defense told that, as a result of this offense, Patrick was charged with burglary and numerous counts of obstruction of justice and ultimately pled guilty to burglary. 26 The state did not inform defense counsel that Patrick had admitted to making false charges while in prison on a fraud conviction in the early 1980's. Patrick had believed that he could get his time reduced if he reported the presence of firearms within the prison. He therefore had shotguns smuggled into the prison and then told the officials that he had found them. The prison officials discovered the scheme, and Patrick's prison sentence was extended. 27 The prosecution failed to disclose that Patrick was given $150 during Benn's trial as an advance payment for a video-tape that Patrick claimed he had in his possession, showing a prostitute being murdered by Benn and several other men. Patrick said that the video was related to the Green River case, a high profile serial murder investigation. Patrick never produced the tape, and the detectives working on the case said that they thought Patrick was lying about its existence, and that his story about Benn being involved in the Green River murders was trash. The detectives also stated that they had spoken with the prosecutors in Benn's case about the tape and the money that was paid to Patrick. The prosecution, however, never told the defense about either the false tale of a Green River murder tape or the payment that Patrick had received. 28 When Patrick was in Washington for Benn's trial, he was stopped for a traffic offense and arrested because of some outstanding warrants. He called Prosecutor Johnson from jail, and Johnson ensured that he was released without being charged. The defense was never told about the arrest or Johnson's actions. 29 During the trial, the Fife County Police Department submitted police reports to the Pierce County prosecutor requesting that Patrick be charged with burglary. The prosecutor's office entered an NCF (no charges filed) the same day that closing arguments ended in the penalty phase of Benn's trial. This fact was never disclosed to the defense. 30 During Benn's trial, the prosecution arranged to postpone the filing of a warrant that was going to be issued because Patrick had violated probation. Patrick's probation officer had been told by the prosecutors not to do anything on the violation report or the order to issue a bench warrant. The warrant did not issue until two weeks after the verdict in Benn's case. The prosecution never told the defense that it had prevented the issuance of the warrant. 31 Testimony at the state habeas evidentiary hearing revealed that Patrick had acted as an informant in a murder case prior to Benn's trial, although at the trial he denied ever having done so previously. The defense was never told that Patrick had been an informant in a prior murder case and that in that case also he had claimed that the defendant had confessed to him while in jail. 32 At trial, Patrick denied that he used drugs while acting as an informant; however, testimony at a post-conviction evidentiary hearing revealed that he continuously used drugs during his time as an informant and that the police knew about it. This information was not disclosed to the defense.
33 The prosecution turned over two reports describing the December 11, 1987 fire at Benn's trailer. The first was a February 12, 1988 report tentatively concluding that the fire was an accident. After this report was prepared, Deputy Fire Marshal Ted Thompson and Electrical Inspector Walter Erickson conducted a more thorough re-examination of the site. After the re-examination, Thompson and Erickson both conclusively determined that the fire in Benn's trailer was accidental. According to Erickson, the Coleman furnace in Benn's trailer was the same make and model as the one that he owned, and this particular make and model had been recalled by the manufacturer due to a flaw that causes fires. Moreover, Fire Marshal Thompson concluded that the fire was accidental because: 34 First, it is not uncommon for electrical heaters in older mobile homes to accidentally malfunction and cause fires. Second, there were no accelerants, such as gasoline in the trailer. Third, it is not uncommon for electrical heaters to malfunction in the winter.... Fourth, I opened up the front of the electrical heater and everything appeared to be in place; I observed nothing suspicious.... My fifth reason for determining the fire was accidental, not arson, was that I observed only one locale where the fire originated (the furnace), not multiple locales. Sixth, I saw no signs of forced entry, which are indicative of arson. 35 After the re-examination, a second and more detailed report was prepared on March 30, 1988. The second report, which was turned over to the defense, was misleading. Its only reference to the conclusions of Fire Marshal Thompson and Electrical Inspector Erickson was in a section stating that there was no fault or failure of the lead electrical wire and no evidence of tampering with the fuse panel. The March 30, 1988 report did not state that both the fire inspector and deputy marshal had concluded that the fire was accidental and could not have resulted from arson. Rather, it offered no definitive conclusion regarding the cause of the fire. It did not state that there had been a manufacturer's recall of this type of furnace and that it was the same type of furnace that Erickson had in his own home. To the contrary, it suggested that Coleman furnaces did not cause fires. Specifically, the March report stated that Al Pearson, the furnace technician, said that he could find and think of no situation in which a furnace[such as a Coleman] had caused a fire in a mobile home. Finally, the report did not relate the six reasons Fire Marshal Thompson gave for concluding that the fire was accidental.