Opinion ID: 200371
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Bullard Testimony

Text: Charles Bullard was a Boston security guard who was riding in the same vehicle as Officer Cox when Cox's car came to a stop at the end of Woodruff Way. Bullard testified before the grand jury but was not called as a witness at trial. Six months after Conley was convicted, Bullard testified in a civil suit brought by Michael Cox against several officers. In the civil trial, Bullard testified that Cox exited the passenger side of the unmarked police cruiser and went forward to the front of the Lexus. Bullard testified that he lost track of [Cox] after that, and that he never saw Cox run toward the fence. According to Conley (who has argued that Cox did not run directly to the fence), Bullard's testimony that Cox went to the front of the Lexus, and not directly to the fence, contradicted Cox's testimony and supported Conley's theory of events. Although Bullard's subsequent civil trial testimony is obviously not a matter which the government might have been required to disclose under Brady, Conley has argued that Bullard's civil trial testimony was sufficiently similar to his grand jury testimony, such that the grand jury testimony should have been disclosed to the defense. Conley's argument is based upon an affidavit by Bullard, in which Bullard stated that to the best of his recollection, his testimony before the grand jury was the same as the testimony he gave before the civil trial. -41- The district court concluded that the Bullard Testimony was not evidence that the government was required to disclose under Brady. United States v. Conley, 103 F.Supp. 2d 45, 51-52 (D.Mass. 2000) (Conley II). The court found that Bullard's civil trial testimony differed from his testimony before the grand jury in material respects. Specifically, the court noted that in his grand jury testimony, Bullard said nothing about Cox going forward to the front of the Lexus; instead, he testified that Cox jumped out and went toward the right. Id. Because the Bullard Testimony is in no way exculpatory, it does not come within the rubric of Brady. Strickler, 527 U.S. 281-82.