Opinion ID: 1427690
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: iv(a denied discovery

Text: This appeal is anchored basically on a due process examination derived from trial court denial of access to information for an adequate defense. With recognition by the prosecution that a factual conflict did exist, this due process inquiry, resulting from denied discovery and deterred trial preparation, assumes importance in denied access to justice for the charged defendant. [9] The course of preparatory efforts and denied discovery to Dr. Gale is consequently significant. The record in itself established documentation, which was not made available to defense counsel, that someone had told D-PASS workers not to talk to Dr. Gale's representative. Interviews with the children were not possible and nothing other than written interview statement information from investigating officers regarding the Rounsaville family was available. On December 12, 1986, Dr. Gale filed a general notice for discovery in typical form requesting all available documentation held by law enforcement officials and the prosecutor. A motion for a bill of particulars was filed February 27, 1987. On March 5, 1987, the State filed a motion in opposition to the requested bill of particulars, stating that everything had been furnished including the criminal file of State of Wyoming v. Gene Rounsaville, Docket No. 86CR-8813. On April 6, 1987, Dr. Gale filed a motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to suppress testimony for failure to preserve evidence. The basis of the motion challenged failure to record interviews by audio or video tape, resulting in the prosecutorial failure to collect or preserve material evidence. On April 6, 1987, an amended motion for bill of particulars and points and authorities was filed, realleging the requirement for greater specificity in the charges. The request was supported in detailed analysis and case law. A motion for psychiatric examination, which was discussed in section III of this dissent, was likewise filed April 6, 1987. Additionally, a motion for disclosure of tape recordings or transcript of the juvenile court hearings and a motion for pretrial discovery, including requests itemized in eighteen paragraphs for informational documentation, were filed on April 6, 1987. Additional motions filed on April 6, 1987 included a motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to suppress testimony of the Rounsaville family premised on the immunity agreement made by Gene and Linda Rounsaville with prosecutor's authority; a motion to compel the disclosure of psychiatric records; a motion for disclosure of impeaching information; and a comprehensive memorandum brief in support of these motions for discovery. Every one of these motions were ultimately denied. No judicial support was given to reach the due process goal of Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375; United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976); Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974); and Brady, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194. See Quinn, Standards of Materiality Governing the Prosecutorial Duty to Disclose Evidence to the Defense, VI Alaska L.Rev. 147 (1989). Topics included in discussion in the memorandum brief in support of the motions for discovery were: 1. Dr. Gale is entitled to immediate W.R.Cr.P. 18 discovery; (a) Dr. Gale's own statements; (b) Documents and tangible objects; (c) Scientific reports and tests. 2. Dr. Gale is entitled to discover the conviction record of all government witnesses. 3. Dr. Gale is entitled to immediate discovery of all exculpatory evidence in the possession of the government. 4. Dr. Gale is entitled to a government witness list. 5. Dr. Gale is entitled to eventually inspect all Jencks Act statements and is entitled to immediate inspection of other documents reflecting non-Jencks Act exculpatory statements of witnesses. Filed also on April 6, 1987 was a motion for disclosure of all Campbell County D-PASS files and a motion for discovery of school records. With the motions, subpoenas were served on D-PASS to produce records for the anticipated motion hearing; on the Sheriff to furnish psychiatric records concerning Linda Rounsaville, Gene Rounsaville, D-17, D-10, S-11 and D-7; on the prosecuting attorney for production of books, documents or tangible materials relating to the juvenile admission agreements between the State and Gene and Linda Rounsaville; to the Clerk of the District Court to produce juvenile proceeding files for the children; to the school district for school files; and to the private school attended by D-17 for her school records. Responsive to the subpoenas, an objection and motion to quash subpoena duces tecum was filed by the State in behalf of the D-PASS organization. On April 23, 1987, the prosecuting attorney moved for notice of alibi and for an order requiring reciprocal discovery, requiring Dr. Gale to make available for examination and inspection, photocopying, etc. the following: 1. List of all witnesses that the defendant intends to call at the trial in this matter. 2. Copies of any and all written statements made by the witnesses to be called by the defendant (excluding statements of the defendant), and copies of all tape recorded interviews of the 3 minor victims and transcripts thereof. 3. Any scientific or medical reports, books, papers, documents, or other tangible objects the defendant expects to produce at trial. 4. Production for viewing of any and all tangible evidence in the possession of the defendant that the defendant expects to introduce at trial. Compliance was provided by Dr. Gale without entry by the trial court of a formal order. See Wardius v. Oregon, 412 U.S. 470, 93 S.Ct. 2208, 37 L.Ed.2d 82 (1973) and Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78, 90 S.Ct. 1893, 26 L.Ed.2d 446 (1970). See also Comment, Limiting Prosecutorial Discovery Under the Sixth Amendment Right to Effective Assistance of Counsel: Hutchinson v. People, 66 Den.U.L.Rev. 123 (1988) and 2 W. LaFave and J. Israel, Criminal Procedure § 19.4 (1984). A hearing was held on April 24, 1987 on all pretrial motions. Subsequently, on May 1, 1987, the State filed a motion in opposition to Dr. Gale's motion for psychiatric examination; a motion in opposition to Dr. Gale's motion for disclosure of tape recordings or transcript of the juvenile court hearings; a motion in opposition to Dr. Gale's motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to suppress testimony for failure to preserve evidence; a motion in opposition to Dr. Gale's motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to suppress the testimony of the Rounsaville family; and a response to Dr. Gale's motion for pretrial discovery, contending generally that all documentation had been or would be furnished as requested involving reports, confessions, all statements of Dr. Gale and other available documentation. On May 8, 1987, Dr. Gale filed a response to the State's opposition to the motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to suppress testimony for failure to preserve evidence; and his witness and exhibit lists in detail. Dr. Gale filed a notice of his defense; a response to the State's opposition to his motion for disclosure of tape recordings or transcripts of juvenile court hearings; a response to the State's demand for notice of alibi; and a further motion to compel. A further affidavit was filed in support of all previously filed discovery requests in detail from the licensed consulting psychologist employed by Dr. Gale stating a factual premise for the request. A further motion to produce was filed May 14, 1987 to obtain notes, memoranda, etc. relating to contact between members of the Sheriff's office with any designated witness proposed by Dr. Gale. Each requested item of discovery was denied in an opinion letter filed May 18, 1987. The equivalency criteria of Wardius, 412 U.S. 470, 93 S.Ct. 2208 and Williams, 399 U.S. 78, 90 S.Ct. 1893 was not required. Denial of the motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to suppress testimony was premised on the lack of demonstrable inducement. The motion for disclosure of school records was denied on the basis of an in camera review and the determination that nothing of materiality or relevance existed. The motion for disclosure of the D-PASS files was denied on the basis that part of the files had previously been furnished and the additional material, examined in camera, was asserted to be immaterial and irrelevant in stating: This has been done pursuant to the holding in Pennsylvania v. Ritchie , 480 U.S. [39], 94 L.Ed.2d 40, 108 [107] S.Ct. [989] (1987). The materiality and relevance of the materials reviewed was determined pursuant to the definition of materiality contained in the Pennsylvania v. Ritchie case, which stated evidence is material only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A [] `reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome'. The trial court considered the motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to suppress testimony for failure to preserve evidence and found that the defense failed to meet the test of the United States Supreme Court in California v. Trombetta, 467 U.S. 479, 479, 104 S.Ct. 2528, 2529, 81 L.Ed.2d 413 (1984) by statement that the material `must possess an exculpatory value that was apparent before the evidence    was destroyed, and [must also] be of such a nature that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means.' It is obvious in the instant case that these two conditions have not been met. The motion for pre-trial discovery was answered by comment that either the item had been resolved by oral rulings or the State agreed to furnish, which is the instant subject of this segment of this dissent: The defendant has requested that there be furnished to him the substance of the opinions which any expert witness to be produced by the State is expected to testify to and the factual basis for each factual opinion of the expert. The State has objected to the defendant's request for the substance of the expert opinion to which the expert is expected to testify and the factual basis for each such opinion. Rule 18(a)(ii) requires the State to permit the defendant to inspect and copy any relevant results of reports of ... scientific tests or experiments made in connection with the particular case, or copies thereof, within the possession, custody, or control of the State, the existance [sic] of which is known, or by the exercise of due diligence may become known, to the prosecuting attorney .... The material requested by the defendant in the instant case does not appear to be mandated by Rule 18 under the quoted subsection or any other portion thereof and accordingly the defendant's motion is denied to that extent. In regard to the motion for disclosure of impeaching information, the trial court said: The Court has considered the defendant's Motion for Disclosure of Impeaching Information. Under the principles set forth by the Supreme Court in previous opinions and reiterated in Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, supra , defense counsel has no constitutional right to conduct his own search of the State's files to argue relevance. Unless the defense counsel becomes aware that other exculpatory evidence was withheld and brings it to the Court's attention, the prosecutor's decision on disclosure is final. If a defendant is aware of specific information contained in a confidential file, he is free to request it directly from the Court and argue in favor of its materiality. Moreover, the duty to disclose is ongoing; information that may be deemed immaterial upon original examination may become important as the proceedings progress and therefore this Court, having denied certain of the confidential matters in its rulings above and also it's subsequent ruling below, still feels obligated to release any information that may later appear material in the fairness of the trial, and will do so. Disposing then of the request for psychiatric examination, the trial court concluded that it was not appropriate to require the children to submit to the trauma of undergoing the indignity of a psychiatric examination. See n. 5, supra. The problem with this conclusion and the entire sequence of denied discovery is the fact that the events could not have occurred in accord with the testimony presented in prosecution and, if proper discovery had been allowed, dispositive proof could have more appropriately been developed before the time the prosecution was about to close and found that records in her hands had revealed that perjury had already been committed in regard to the mid-morning meeting (unless the employment time records possessed by prosecution were different than the record furnished by the mine supervisor and introduced into evidence without objection). The relationship between discovery and due process and the inaneness of the blase critique that there is no constitutional right to discovery as a constituent of due process cannot be more vividly illustrated. 2 W. LaFave & J. Israel, supra, § 19.3 at 481. The relationship between the prosecutorial standard of conduct and denial of accountability by immunity also cannot be ignored. Beatty, The Ability to Suppress Exculpatory Evidence: Let's Cut Off the Prosecutor's Hands, 17 Idaho L.Rev. 237 (1981); Brennan, The Criminal Prosecution: Sporting Event or Quest for Truth?, 1963 Wash.U.L.Q. 279 (1963); Comment, Brady v. Maryland and the Prosecutor's Duty to Disclose, 40 U.Chi.L.Rev. 112 (1972). Effectiveness of counsel cannot be better than the due process opportunities for adequate preparation. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674, reh'g denied 467 U.S. 1267, 104 S.Ct. 3562, 82 L.Ed.2d 864 (1984); Babcock, Fair Play: Evidence Favorable to an Accused and Effective Assistance of Counsel, 34 Stan.L.Rev. 1133 (1982). Somewhere in the records of the prosecutorial files and police officialdom, there are interview statements where Gene Rounsaville stated that on the morning of August 30, he first went out drinking and then came home to the mid-morning meeting with Dr. Gale. Somewhere also in those files are time cards which demonstrate without question, as was determined by another witness whose significance in testimony was obviously missed by the participants at trial, that none of this occurred at that time and that on the morning of August 30, instead of going out drinking, Gene Rounsaville went to work to attend a safety meeting session held by his employer which was the reason for the scheduled change from his normal graveyard working hours during that period. Somewhere also to be found are school records which would directly relate to the presence or absence of the children in that mid-morning hour on August 30, 1985. Davis, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105. Materiality would not be in question. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375; Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392; Quinn, supra, VI Alaska L.Rev. 147. In specificity, due process generalizations from Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545, 97 S.Ct. 837, 51 L.Ed.2d 30 (1977) should not be dispositive. Fletcher, Pretrial Discovery in State Criminal Cases, 12 Stan. L.Rev. 293 (1960); Developments in the Law, Discovery, 74 Harv.L.Rev. 940, 1051 (1961).