Opinion ID: 1266317
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Cobaugh's Firearms Forms

Text: Cobaugh's misrepresentation of her criminal history in attempting to purchase a handgun, and the prosecution's assistance in helping her to avoid liability for that misrepresentation, were also highly relevant to Simmons's case. [8] First, Cobaugh made a misstatement under penalty of perjury, a fact that itself could have been used to impeach her testimony. The D.C. Circuit has described such prior perjurious statements as an infirmity ... that is almost unique in its detrimental effect on a witness' credibility. United States v. Cuffie, 80 F.3d 514, 517-18 (D.C.Cir.1996) (holding that undisclosed evidence of witness's prior perjury was material, despite availability of other types of impeachment material). Additionally, exposing Detective Rok's and ADA Kiniry's assistance to Cobaugh could have cast a new light on her October 1992 revelations regarding the statement made about Knaze during her assault and her ability to identify Simmons as her attacker. It is not clear from the record whether Rok and Kiniry found out about the gun charges and intervened in Cobaugh's case before or after her October meeting with Rok; however, the chronology of events is irrelevant, since the defense could just as well have argued either that Cobaugh came up with the October statements with the intent of leveraging them for help from the investigators, or that she was pressured into making those statements by the investigators armed with knowledge of her predicament. The Supreme Court has expressly stated that evidence regarding a witness's arrangements with the prosecution regarding pending criminal charges may affect the witness's credibility and thus may be material for Brady purposes. In Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972), the Court held that where the government's case depended almost entirely on one witness's testimony, the credibility of that witness was therefore an important issue in the case, and evidence of any understanding or agreement as to a future prosecution would be relevant to his credibility and the jury was entitled to know of it. Id. at 154-55, 92 S.Ct. 763. Similarly, the Ninth Circuit has concluded that knowledge of a leniency deal between the prosecution and a key witness was important Brady material because it constituted powerful and unique impeachment evidence demonstrating that [the witness] had an interest in fabricating his testimony. Horton v. Mayle, 408 F.3d 570, 579 (9th Cir.2005). The Commonwealth suggests that knowledge of Rok's and Kiniry's actions would have made no difference because the disclosure of similar efforts that the prosecution made on behalf of Gary Blough did not affect the verdict; however, that reasoning ignores the far more central role that Cobaugh played at trial compared to Blough, a role similar to that of the witnesses in Giglio and Horton. The prosecution's case rested in no small part on Cobaugh's credibility, and thus evidence relevant to her motives for testifying cannot be so easily dismissed as immaterial.