Opinion ID: 613237
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Lynne Altpater

Text: Lynne Altpater was an acquaintance of Jalowiec and Danny Smith who testified for the prosecution in Jalowiec's trial. She testified that she was working at a doctor's office in December 1993 when Danny Smith approached her and asked if she could get him some poison to take care of a person who could cause him to be in a lot of trouble. She had previously given recorded statements to the police on January 6, 1995 and January 19, 1995statements that were not disclosed to the defense. Her testimony was consistent with her prior statement of January 19, but inconsistent with her January 6 statement, when she told Detective Leiby that Danny Smith wanted the poison to kill some cats that had crawled on his car at work. Although Jalowiec could have used the January 6 version as a prior inconsistent statement to impeach Altpater, the district court concluded that the statement was not material for Brady purposes. The court reasoned that Altpater's testimony was not that damaging to Jalowiec, considering (a) there was no evidence that he was privy to the conversation between Altpater and Danny, and (b) poison was not used to kill Lally. Jalowiec, 2008 WL 312655, at . We find no error in this assessment. Altpater's testimony was useful to the prosecution to show that Danny Smith, one of the persons Jalowiec was suspected of conspiring with, had explored at least one other way of preventing Lally from testifying against him and his father on the then pending drug-trafficking charges. Otherwise, it had no tendency to incriminate Jalowiec. Further, even if Jalowiec could have used the January 6 statement to attack Altpater's credibility, the prosecution could have used the January 19 statement to rehabilitate her by showing that Altpater had gradually become more cooperative and forthcoming. Considering the broader context, the January 6, 1995 statement was not so material as to warrant a finding that its disclosure to the defense would have made a difference. Jalowiec asserts a second Brady violation in relation to witness Altpater. At Danny Smith's trial, subsequent to Jalowiec's, prosecution witness Lynne Altpater testified that Detective Leiby had offered her husband, Richard Altpater, assistance with drug charges pending against him in exchange for his cooperation with the prosecution of Danny Smith. That is, according to a statement recorded by attorney Michael Duff on October 23, 1995, Richard Altpater said Detective Leiby asked him to corroborate information obtained from other witnesses to the effect that Danny Smith had offered him, Richard Altpater, money to kill a person or take him out of town. Richard Altpater purportedly told Leiby he would cooperate, even though, in truth, Danny Smith had not offered him money, but had only asked if he knew anyone who could hurt someone for money. In his recorded statement, Richard Altpater went on to explain that he used to whoop people's ass for money, but that he's getting too old for that. As it turned out, Richard Altpater was not called to testify and Leiby did not provide assistance with Richard Altpater's pending charges. Nonetheless, Jalowiec argues that the prosecution should have disclosed evidence of Leiby's offer to induce Richard's cooperation for his use in impeaching Lynne Altpater's testimony in his trial. The district court held that information relating to Leiby's offer should have been disclosed to Jalowiec, but that the nondisclosure did not result in cognizable prejudice. Jalowiec, 2008 WL 312655, at -73. Although the district court carelessly referred to the nondisclosure of the information as a  Brady violation, Jalowiec has not otherwise demonstrated error by the district court. Jalowiec has failed to identify evidence that Lynne Altpater's testimony in his case was actually induced or influenced by any promise or offer of assistance with her husband's charges. Even though she actively participated in the statement recorded on October 23, 1995, the statement includes no suggestion that she was influenced by Leiby's offer to her husband. Moreover, as indicated above, Lynne Altpater's testimony in Jalowiec's trial about Danny Smith's request for poisonirrespective of whether he couched his request in terms of a need to kill a cat or a personwas of marginal relevance in establishing Jalowiec's guilt. There is no reasonable basis to conclude that the disclosure of Leiby's offer would have affected the verdict.