Opinion ID: 742598
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Government's Failure To Produce a Document

Text: 176 At trial, the government introduced a document, seized by NYPD officers during a search of David Robinson's residence, which contained detailed records of drugs and money. The government concedes that it failed to provide the document to Robinson prior to trial as required by Fed.R.Crim.P. 16. David Robinson contends that the trial court should have excluded the document and that its failure to do so entitles him to a new trial. We disagree. 177 When the government has failed to comply with Rule 16, the district court has broad discretion to determine what remedial action, if any, is appropriate. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 16(d)(2) (court may order [the government] to permit the discovery or inspection, grant a continuance, or prohibit the [government] from introducing evidence not disclosed, or it may enter such other order as it deems just under the circumstances). The court's determination will not be set aside absent abuse of discretion. United States v. Giraldo, 822 F.2d 205, 212 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 969, 108 S.Ct. 466, 98 L.Ed.2d 405 (1987). A reversal will only be warranted if the nondisclosure results in substantial prejudice to the defendant. United States v. Sanchez, 912 F.2d 18, 21 (2d Cir.1990). We have described substantial prejudice in the Rule 16 context as mean[ing] more than that the statement was damaging to the defendant: the defendant must demonstrate that the untimely disclosure of the statement adversely affected some aspect of his trial strategy. United States v. Adeniji, 31 F.3d 58, 64 (2d Cir.1994). 178 In the present case, the government disclosed the document in question to David Robinson shortly before calling its final direct-case witnesses in the two-month-long Miller Trial. When Robinson moved to exclude the document, the government explained to the court that the government had only belatedly realized that it did not have the document in its possession and that the government had then obtained the document pursuant to a subpoena to the NYPD property clerk and disclosed it to Robinson. There seems to have been no dispute that the government's nondisclosure to Robinson was the inadvertent consequence of the belatedness of the subpoena. (See Miller Trial Tr. at 3609 (MR. STEIN [Attorney for David Robinson]: Of course, they didn't get it themselves until the other day.)) When Stein was asked what prejudice Robinson claimed from the late disclosure, he stated that he was deprived of the opportunity to consult handwriting and fingerprint experts with respect to the document. The court indicated that this was not an adequate demonstration of prejudice since Robinson could present such expert testimony during the defense case, that the court would entertain a request for a continuance if needed, and that in the absence of prejudice the court would admit the document. We see no abuse of discretion in this ruling. 179 In this Court, David Robinson states that the belated disclosure of the document adversely affected his trial strategy of arguing that he could not have been a member of a drug gang because he was so poor; he contends that the document's references to money refuted his claim of penury. We are unpersuaded. Robinson plainly was not prevented from pursuing his strategy of claiming destitution. He introduced a photograph of the poorly furnished basement apartment he shared with his girlfriend and their five children, showing graphically that he lived in relative squalor, and he called an FBI agent in his defense case to testify to that effect. Moreover, the government in no way suggested that Robinson had kept the money listed in the document seized from his apartment. Rather, the government's evidence showed that the Supreme Team lieutenants turned their sales revenue over to Miller, who then paid them as he saw fit. We conclude that David Robinson was not substantially prejudiced by the delay in his receipt of the document. 180