Opinion ID: 2994954
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Challenges by Mr. Gaughan

Text: Mr. Gaughan maintains that his due process rights were violated when the Government failed to provide Agent King’s grand jury testimony to him prior to the suppression hearing on his in- custody statements. According to Mr. Gaughan, the Government had a duty to provide the material prior to the suppression hearing pursuant to the rule of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). We set forth below the facts relevant to Mr. Gaughan’s contention. After Mr. Gaughan’s arrest, he made a statement to Agent King in which, according to Agent King, Mr. Gaughan admitted supplying Bonner with cocaine on many occasions. Furthermore, Mr. Gaughan admitted that on the day of his arrest he had been traveling to Indiana to receive payment for cocaine he had fronted to Bonner. Prior to trial, Mr. Gaughan moved to suppress this statement on the ground that agents coerced the statement from him by exploiting his serious medical condition./7 At the suppression hearing, Mr. Gaughan introduced testimony from medical experts explaining that at the time of his arrest he was taking multiple medications for both diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Mr. Gaughan testified that, as the officers approached the car to arrest him, he stated: Look, I’m a heart patient and I’m diabetic. I haven’t had may [sic] medication this evening yet. Suppression Hearing Transcript (Supp. Tr.) at 35. After his arrest, he repeatedly told officers that he did not feel well and asked for his medication; the agents, however, refused to provide him with his medication until he answered their questions and made recorded telephone calls to his supplier. The agents present during the interview contradicted Mr. Gaughan’s version of events. Specifically, Officer Thomas Stipanich testified that, during the course of questioning Mr. Gaughan, he became aware of Mr. Gaughan’s medical conditions. Then, according to the officer, [w]e asked him if he needed any immediate medical attention. He told us no, that he does take pills and things like that for him. [He] [d]id not request any medical assistance at all. Supp. Tr. at 72. DEA Agent Maurice King also testified at the suppression hearing. Agent King recalled that Mr. Gaughan’s medical condition came up and that he was offered--he was asked whether he needed anything. And he basically said no, some water. Supp. Tr. at 120. Finally, DEA Agent Tom Decanter testified that he had observed that Mr. Gaughan looked nervous during his interview. At that point, Agent Decanter inquired whether Mr. Gaughan was okay. Mr. Gaughan then informed the officers of his medical condition. Like the other officers who testified, Agent Decanter stated that Mr. Gaughan was asked if he needed anything and that Mr. Gaughan responded that he did not. Including the testimony set forth above, evidence at the hearing established that, after Mr. Gaughan’s interview, he was transported to the Calumet City police station where he was to be held until his initial appearance the next morning. After being checked in, Mr. Gaughan requested medical assistance and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Against his doctors’ recommendation, Mr. Gaughan checked himself out of the hospital the next morning. Based on the evidence presented at the hearing, the district court denied the motion to suppress. The court rejected Mr. Gaughan’s arguments that the statement was coerced and allowed the statement to be used at trial. It stated: The Defendant did not ask the arresting officers for his medication or for medical assistance. The Defendant did not tell the arresting officers that he was not feeling well, suffering chest pains, feeling faint or suffering from any other discomfort. The Court further finds that the statements that this--that the Defendant seeks to suppress were made knowingly and voluntarily, and not as the result of coercion, breach of promises or lack of medical assistance and medication. Therefore, the Defendant’s Motion to Suppress is denied. Supp. Tr. at 151-52. Agent King’s testimony at the suppression hearing differed in some respects from the testimony that he had given before the grand jury. In front of the grand jury, Agent King apparently stated that, after being transported from the initial interview site, Mr. Gaughan asked for his medications, that agents had gone to Mr. Gaughan’s car to gather the medications but that only an empty bottle of medication was found in the car. On cross-examination of Agent King at Mr. Gaughan’s sentencing hearing, counsel established that Mr. Gaughan’s request for his medication must have been made before Mr. Gaughan was transported because his car was not taken to Calumet City. See Gaughan Sentencing Transcript (Gaughan Sent. Tr.) at 20-24. The prosecution did not inform the defense of Agent King’s grand jury testimony prior to the suppression hearing; thus, at the suppression hearing, Mr. Gaughan could not impeach Agent King with his earlier statements. However, the statements to the grand jury apparently were provided to the defense prior to trial, and the statements were used for impeachment purposes both at trial and, as noted above, at the sentencing hearing. After learning of the grand jury testimony, Mr. Gaughan did not argue that the disclosure was belated or renew his motion to suppress. On appeal, Mr. Gaughan argues that the rule of Brady v. Maryland applies to suppression hearings and, in these circumstances, required the Government to furnish Agent King’s grand jury testimony prior to the suppression hearing. Because Mr. Gaughan did not present this argument to the district court, our review is only for plain error. See United States v. Brumley, 217 F.3d 905, 909 (7th Cir. 2000)./8 In United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725 (1993), the Supreme Court explained the criteria for establishing plain error. First, the error must be plain. The court explained that, properly understood, ’[p]lain’ is synonymous with ’clear’ or, equivalently, ’obvious.’ Id. at 734. It is inappropriate, therefore, to find plain error when current law is unsettled. See, e.g., United States v. Stafford, 136 F.3d 1109, 1114 (7th Cir. 1998); United States v. Klinger, 128 F.3d 705, 712 (9th Cir. 1997); United States v. Brewer, 1 F.3d 1430, 1435 (4th Cir. 1993). Second, the error must affect substantial rights. Olano, 507 U.S. at 734. In order to meet this burden, [n]ormally, . . . the defendant must make a specific showing of prejudice . . . . Id. at 735. Finally, the error must seriously affect[ ] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Id. at 736. According to the Court, this last requirement will always be met if a plain forfeited error . . . cause[d] the conviction or sentencing of an actually innocent defendant; however, it was not willing to define this last element strictly in terms of actual innocence. Id. With these standards in mind, we turn to Mr. Gaughan’s Brady claim. In Brady v. Maryland, the Supreme Court held that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution. 373 U.S. at 87. Since Brady, the scope of the prosecutor’s duty to disclose such information has been more sharply refined in several important respects: The duty is applicable regardless of whether there has been a request by the accused, see United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 107 (1976); the duty encompasses impeachment evidence as well as exculpatory evidence, see United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 676 (1985); and the duty applies to evidence known to police investigators even if unknown to the prosecutor, see Kyles v. Whitney, 514 U.S. 419, 438 (1995). See also Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 280-81 (1999). However, a Brady violation only occurs if material evidence is withheld, that is if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Bagley, 473 U.S. at 682. Furthermore, [a]s long as ultimate disclosure is made before it is too late for the defendants to make use of any benefits of evidence, Due Process is satisfied. United States v. Ziperstein, 601 F.2d 281, 291 (7th Cir. 1979). The Government does not argue that Agent King’s testimony was not valuable for impeachment. Instead, it contends that Brady does not require the disclosure of exculpatory or impeachment material prior to a suppression hearing. The rule of Brady, contends the Government, only applies to evidence that is material to either guilt or punishment; therefore, disclosure prior to the suppression hearing was not required. Because the duty only applies to the guilt or punishment phase, the Government submits that it fulfilled its obligations under Brady by providing the material prior to trial. We find it unnecessary to decide whether Brady applies to suppression motions because it is clear that the district court did not commit plain error by not applying Brady here. Although, as noted above, the rule of Brady has been refined in several respects, the Supreme Court has not had the occasion to determine whether this rule requires disclosure of impeachment evidence prior to a suppression hearing. Similarly, we have not had an opportunity to focus definitively on this issue. Mr. Gaughan points to United States v. Veras, 51 F.3d 1365 (7th Cir. 1995), as support for his argument that the issue has been resolved in favor of extending Brady disclosure requirements to suppression hearings. In Veras, the defendant had moved for a new trial based on the government’s failure to disclose impeachment evidence concerning one of the government’s primary witnesses; the witness had testified both at a suppression hearing and at trial. The district court denied the motion for a new trial on the ground that the undisclosed information was not material because it was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 608(b). The district court concluded that, [b]ecause the suppressed evidence would not have affected the outcome of the suppression hearing or the trial, defendant’s due process rights were not violated and his motion for a new trial pursuant to Brady and Giglio [v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972)] is denied. Id. at 1375. In reviewing the district court’s rationale for denying the new trial motion, we stated that [w]e [found] no fault with the district court’s holding. Id. Given the context in which this statement arose, we cannot conclude that it squarely establishes that Brady applies to suppression hearings. The issue came to us as part of a new trial motion that involved both a pretrial suppression hearing and a trial. The district court did not address the issues separately. Furthermore, because the defendant appealed from the denial of the new trial motion, this court did not have the occasion or the need to address, as a discreet issue, Brady’s application to a pretrial suppression hearing. We consequently cannot conclude that our holding in Veras makes it obvious that Brady disclosures are required prior to suppression hearings. Furthermore, there is no consensus among the other circuits as to whether Brady should apply to suppression hearings. The Ninth Circuit has held explicitly that it does, at least with respect to some categories of suppression hearings. See United States v. Barton, 995 F.2d 931, 935 (9th Cir. 1993) ([W]e hold that the due process principles announced in Brady and its progeny must be applied to a suppression hearing involving a challenge to the truthfulness of allegations in an affidavit for a search warrant.). The Fifth Circuit, too, has applied Brady disclosure requirements to a motion to suppress, see Smith v. Black, 904 F.2d 950, 965- 66 (5th Cir. 1990), vacated on other grounds, 503 U.S. 930 (1992); however, the undisclosed evidence in that case was found to be immaterial, see id. at 966. The Fourth Circuit has taken an approach similar to the one we took in Veras, assuming without deciding that Brady applies to suppression hearings. See United States v. Williams, 10 F.3d 1070, 1077 (4th Cir. 1993) (Even if Brady were applicable in the context of a pretrial suppression hearing, application of the law to the facts of the instant case would not require a different result. . . . In light of the inconsequential nature of the Brady case to these proceedings, we assume arguendo but decline to address definitively on the merits the issue of whether Brady should call for disclosure of material evidence at pre-trial suppression hearings.)./9 The District of Columbia Circuit however, has expressed its doubts as to whether Brady applies to suppression hearings. See United States v. Bowie, 198 F.3d 905 (D.C. Cir. 1999). Focusing on the same language as the Government, that circuit stated: [I]t is hardly clear that the Brady line of Supreme Court cases applies to suppression hearings. Suppression hearings do not determine a defendant’s guilt or punishment, yet Brady rests on the idea that due process is violated when the withheld evidence is ’material either to guilt or to punishment.’ Id. at 912 (quoting Brady, 373 U.S. at 87). In summary, we cannot say that the law is clear on the question of whether Brady should apply to suppression hearings. There is no clear statement on the issue from either the Supreme Court or this court, and there is no prevailing national standard. Because the law concerning Brady’s application to suppression hearings is not clear or obvious, we cannot find plain error. Olano, 507 U.S. at 734; see also United States v. Pandiello, 184 F.3d 682, 688 (7th Cir. 1999); United States v. Lindsey, 123 F.3d 978, 985 (7th Cir. 1997); United States v. Mims, 92 F.3d 461, 465 (7th Cir. 1996). However, we have, in the present case, an even more compelling reason to reject Mr. Gaughan’s Brady claims. To meet the plain error standard, Mr. Gaughan must establish that the error seriously affect[ed] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Olano, 507 U.S. at 736. We do not believe that this criterion has been satisfied. In the present action, it is undisputed that the Government did not produce Agent King’s grand jury testimony prior to the suppression hearing on Mr. Gaughan’s post-arrest statements, the time in the usual course of judicial proceedings that the evidence would have been most useful to Mr. Gaughan. However, the record shows that the grand jury testimony was disclosed prior to the admission of Mr. Gaughan’s statement into evidence at trial and, therefore, at a time when Mr. Gaughan’s counsel still had the option of asking the district court to reconsider its ruling on the motion to suppress. Indeed, the record not only establishes that the material was in the hands of the defense at this time, but also that it was used by the defense to cross-examine Agent King and to undermine his credibility. Under these circumstances, we do not believe that the Government’s failure to disclose Agent King’s grand jury testimony prior to the suppression hearing seriously affect[ed] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of [the] judicial proceedings. Consequently, Mr. Gaughan has not established that the Government’s failure rose to the level of plain error.
Mr. Gaughan objects to the district court’s instruction to the jury regarding the fronting of cocaine. The instruction read as follows: The delivery of drugs with an agreement to pay for them after a subsequent sale is typically referred to as fronting. The repeated fronting of cocaine, alone, may be sufficient to establish a conspiracy. R.295, Inst. 34A. Mr. Gaughan contends that this instruction improperly highlights fronting as a method by which conspiracy may be proven. We review a claim of instructional error for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Aldaco, 201 F.3d 979, 989 (7th Cir. 2000); United States v. Wilson, 159 F.3d 280, 291 (7th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 527 U.S. 1024 (1999). The district court’s instruction relied upon our opinion in United States v. Ferguson, 35 F.3d 327 (7th Cir. 1994). In that case, we wrote that [t]he repeated ’fronting’ of cocaine, alone, has been held sufficient to support the jury’s conclusion that the defendant had knowingly joined a distribution conspiracy. Id. at 331. The principle stated in Ferguson continues to be the law of this circuit. See, e.g., United States v. Frazier, 213 F.3d 409, 415 (7th Cir. 2000) (We have held that an ongoing relationship involving numerous purchases and the fronting of drugs indicates the existence of a conspiracy.), cert. denied, 2001 WL 135828 (Feb. 16, 2001). Thus, the district court’s instruction was a correct statement of the law. If the instructions are adequately supported by the record and are fair and accurate summaries of the law, the instructions will not be disturbed on appeal. United States v. Lanzotti, 205 F.3d 951, 956 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 120 S. Ct. 2746 (2000); see also Aldaco, 201 F.3d at 989; United States v. Wimberly, 79 F.3d 673, 676 (7th Cir. 1996). Mr. Gaughan has not argued that the fronting instruction was inadequately supported by the record, and we believe that it was a fair and accurate summary of the law. Accordingly, we shall not vacate Mr. Gaughan’s conviction on the ground that this instruction tainted his trial.