Opinion ID: 3015311
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Dismissal under Supervisory Powers

Text: The Territorial Court also dismissed the charges against Fahie under Rule 16(a)(1)(F).11 The Appellate Division reversed, determining that dismissal with prejudice for an unintentional Rule 16 violation is an improper exercise of a court’s supervisory powers. We note first that, contrary to the Government’s position, the failure to disclose the ATF Report was indeed a discovery violation. Fahie’s counsel asked the prosecution for all evidence material to Fahie’s defense in his blanket Brady request. The Government argues that the requirements of Rule 16(a)(1)(F) do not apply here because the exception to Rule 16 found in Rule 16(a)(2), regarding reports prepared in connection with a criminal investigation, applies to the ATF Report. Because the ATF Report was prepared for the Virgin Islands Police Department in response to the Department’s request about a gun that it had seized, the government claims the trace report is exempted from disclosure. 11 Having already concluded that dismissal was an improper remedy for a Brady violation, the District Court initially described this second issue as moot (but went on to discuss it). We disagree with that characterization, since the trial court’s order of dismissal could be upheld independently on Rule 16 grounds. 17 The exception in Rule 16(a)(2) applies to work product. See United States v. Armstrong, 517 U.S. 456, 463 (1996) (“[u]nder Rule 16(a)(2), [a defendant] may not examine Government work product in connection with his case.”). The ATF Report was not government work product of a type exempted from discovery. It did not contain “mental impressions, conclusions, opinions or legal theories concerning litigation of an attorney or other representative of a party.” See In re Cendant Corp. Sec. Litig., 343 F.3d 658, 663 (3d Cir. 2003) (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 26, Advisory Comm. Notes, 1970 Amendment). Rather, the ATF Report was a computergenerated printout from a government database maintained for broader purposes than the prosecution of Fahie. The federal employees who maintain the database and who generated the ATF Report are not agents of the Virgin Islands or its prosecutor. Nor did the ATF Report reveal any confidential information pertaining to the Government’s prosecution strategy. Finally, the contours of Rule 16’s exceptions should be interpreted to minimize conflict with the government’s constitutional disclosure obligations under Brady. See Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 842 (1999) (adopting a “limiting construction” of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(1)(B) in part to avoid “serious constitutional concerns”); see also Edward DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Building & Construction Trades Council, 485 U.S. 568, 757 (1988) (“[W]here an otherwise acceptable construction of a statute would raise serious constitutional problems, the Court will construe the statute to avoid such problems unless such construction is plainly contrary to the intent of Congress.”). 18 Since the Government was obligated to share the kind of objective fact evidence contained in the ATF Report with Fahie under the Sixth Amendment, we will not exempt the government from this obligation under Rule 16(a)(2) in the absence of language compelling a contrary result. In light of the Government’s discovery violation, we next decide whether the Territorial Court properly dismissed the charges against Fahie under its supervisory powers. A trial court need not rely on Brady to justify dismissal of an indictment as a remedy for improper prosecutorial conduct; it may also remedy Rule 16 discovery violations under its supervisory powers. See United States v. Restrepo, 930 F.2d 705, 712 (9th Cir. 1991) (“[D]ismissal of an indictment because of outrageous government conduct may be predicated on alternative grounds: a violation of due process [such as a Brady violation] or the court’s supervisory powers.”); see also United States v. Ross, 372 F.3d 1097, 1107 (9th Cir. 2004). The purposes underlying the use of courts’ supervisory powers are broad and include implementing remedies for violations of recognized rights and remedies designed to deter illegal conduct. See United States v. Hasting, 461 U.S. 499, 505 (1983). A trial court’s remedy for a discovery violation under its supervisory powers is reviewed for abuse of discretion while factual findings upon which the decision was based are reviewed for clear error. See Restrepo, 930 F.2d at 712; see also Govn’t of V.I. v. Blake, 118 F.3d 972, 978 (3d Cir. 1997) (“[T]he trial court sits in a unique position to evaluate . . . evidentiary and discovery questions, including the selection of 19 sanctions.”). This Court has held in the civil context that whether a trial court has abused its discretion in dismissing a case depends on the balance of six factors: (1) the extent of the party’s personal responsibility; (2) the prejudice to the adversary; (3) a history of dilatoriness; (4) whether the conduct of the party or the attorney was willful or in bad faith; (5) the effectiveness of sanctions other than dismissal, which entails an analysis of alternative sanctions; and (6) the meritoriousness of the claim or defense. See Poulis v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 747 F.2d 863, 868 (3d Cir. 1984). Those factors “should be weighed by the district courts in order to assure that the ‘extreme’ sanction of dismissal . . . is reserved for the instances in which it is justly merited.” Id. at 870 (holding district court did not abuse its discretion when it dismissed case). Given the “societal interest in prosecuting criminal defendants to conclusion,” it is especially important in the criminal context that a court applying sanctions for violation of Rule 16 carefully assess whether dismissal with prejudice is necessary to exact compliance with discovery obligations. Coleman, 862 F.2d 455. In particular, as discussed above, a court must look to both the need to undo prejudice resulting from a violation and the appropriate deterrent value of the sanction in each case. Other courts have considered the question of when a court may dismiss an indictment under its supervisory powers. The Ninth Circuit has held that “[d]ismissal under the court’s supervisory powers for prosecutorial misconduct requires (1) flagrant misbehavior and (2) substantial prejudice.” United States v. Kearns, 5 F.3d 1251, 1253 (9th Cir. 1993). It has 20 suggested that prosecutorial conduct might satisfy those requirements even where it would fail to justify dismissal under Brady directly. See Ross, 372 F.3d at 1110; United States v. Barrera-Moreno, 951 F.2d 1089, 1091 (9th Cir. 1991). The Seventh Circuit has adopted a more restrictive approach, holding that a sanction under supervisory powers is only appropriate where the conviction could not have been obtained but for the failure to disclose exculpatory evidence. See United States v. Johnson, 26 F.3d 669, 683 (7th Cir. 1994). At least two other circuits instruct courts to balance a number of factors in their choice of a sanction, including “the reasons for the Government’s delay in affording the required discovery, the extent of prejudice, if any, the defendant has suffered because of the delay, and the feasibility of curing such prejudice by granting a continuance or, if the jury has been sworn and the trial has begun, a recess.” United States v. Euceda-Hernandez, 768 F.2d 1307, 1312 (11th Cir. 1985); see also United States v. Wicker, 848 F.2d 1059, 1061 (10th Cir. 1988). While we appreciate the importance of all these factors, we believe that, to merit the ultimate sanction of dismissal, a discovery violation in the criminal context must meet the two requirements of prejudice and willful misconduct, the same standard applicable to dismissal for a Brady violation. Accordingly, we do not expect that trial courts will dismiss cases under their supervisory powers that they could not dismiss under Brady itself. Neither the trial court nor the Appellate Division systematically considered the factors relevant to a sanction for prosecutorial misconduct, and in particular, the two prerequisites to dismissal with prejudice. Nevertheless, since, as discussed in the context of a remedy for the Brady violation, 21 there has been no showing here of willful government misconduct, there was no basis for the trial court’s conclusion that dismissal under its supervisory powers was necessary to effectively deter such conduct in the future. Prejudice to Fahie could be corrected with the lesser remedy of mistrial. Therefore, dismissal with prejudice for the government’s Rule 16 violation was an abuse of discretion.