Opinion ID: 419603
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Count XI

Text: 42 We can find no similar faults with Count XI. 8 In the suppression hearing Rocca was asked to tell the circumstances in which she became familiar with the stamps. She replied, They were found in the garage at 170 Valley Street in the back of the garage in boxes. She also stated that she then showed the stamps to Mr. Alley and he had never seen them before. The government charged that this testimony was false because she had seen the stamps and knew that Mr. Alley had seen them prior to the incidents described in her testimony. If this charge is proven true, Rocca's statements would indeed be false and might constitute perjury, should the other elements of the crime also be met. 43 Rocca argues, however, that her statements cannot be perjurious because they were not material to the proceeding. It is undisputed that a statement must be material to a proceeding in order to constitute perjury within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1623. The test for materiality, however, is a broad one--whether the false testimony was capable of influencing the tribunal on the issue before it. United States v. Giarratano, 622 F.2d 153, 156 (5th Cir.1980). See also United States v. Berardi, 629 F.2d 723 (2d Cir.1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 995, 101 S.Ct. 534, 66 L.Ed.2d 293 (1980). Given this broad test, we find that the district court erred in dismissing the count. 44 The issue before the court in Alley's suppression hearing was whether or not he had a sufficient expectation of privacy in the evidence to invoke the exclusionary rule. That being the case, the question whether Rocca and he knew about the stamps and microfilm were clearly relevant to the establishment of his interest in the items. Her responses, suggesting that Alley did not have a great deal of interest in the stamps, made it less likely that they were his personal property to which he might have had a reasonable expectation of privacy warranting the protection of the exclusionary rule. That her evidence on this point might not have been dispositive of the issue before the court is immaterial, as long as the statements have some potential for misleading the tribunal; the element of materiality is satisfied and the indictment should not have been dismissed. We accordingly reverse the district court's dismissal of Count XI. 45 Affirmed in part; vacated in part; reversed in part, and remanded for proceedings not inconsistent herewith.