Opinion ID: 726087
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Information from Joseph O'Daniel

Text: 47 For evidentiary purposes, information obtained from the prison visit with Joseph O'Daniel is fatally flawed. The record, although vague, leads to the inescapable conclusion that Badaracco asked O'Daniel about Leake and the U-Haul trip before O'Daniel volunteered any information. 14 48 Such questions were impermissible. Badaracco's questions were based upon knowledge obtained as a result of the illegal search. He queried O'Daniel about Leake, his alias and the U-Haul trip--questions he could formulate only by virtue of illegally obtained evidence. The government may not use tainted evidence to induce production of competent evidence. Simply put, Badaracco cannot ask O'Daniel about John Sandusky and the U-Haul trip when the government knew of the alias and the trip through Robin. 15 Testimony from O'Daniel fails the test whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, [the evidence has] been come at by the exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488, 83 S.Ct. 407, 417, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). 49 Accordingly, we hold that Leake's involvement in the conspiracy cannot be proven with testimony or information obtained from Joseph O'Daniel. This is true of future as well as past testimony and information. The court can never know whether O'Daniel would have implicated Leake absent the questions grounded in illegally obtained evidence. 16 The government has failed to meet its burden of proof that any information from O'Daniel would have been inevitably discovered absent the illegal search. Future prosecution of Leake must proceed without information provided by O'Daniel. 50