Opinion ID: 212690
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Lonas Testimony

Text: AREA/Noble's former marketing director, Grace Lonas, testified that she had once asked Darrell Crosgrove, Mark Haukedahl, and Tim Foreman (another employee) about all the complaints the company was receiving, and that one of them (she thought Haukedahl) responded that there was no insurance or insurance company, and the others laughed. On cross-examination, Crosgrove's trial counsel had Lonas acknowledge that she had not mentioned this conversation in either of her interviews with government investigators. Lonas testified that she had disclosed the contents of the statement in her third interview, which was revealed to be her trial preparation session with the prosecutor and two government investigators. Crosgrove argues that the district court should have stricken this aspect of Lonas's testimony because of a Jencks Act violation, but his argument misstates the district court's ruling and is without merit. At the first opportunity outside the presence of the jury, Crosgrove's trial counsel raised concerns about the fact that he had not received any information about this aspect of Lonas's testimony before trial. Trial counsel initially articulated his concern that this was unfair but did not identify any rules of evidence that would require prior disclosure. The prosecutor stated that there were no agent notes from the trial preparation meeting, and that his own outline of the meeting was non-discoverable work product. Crosgrove's trial counsel never made a formal motion to have the prosecutor's documents reviewed in chambers, but he did eventually contend that the withholding of the prosecutor's outline of the session was a violation of the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500, which requires that the Government provide the defendant with statements made by Government witnesses. Trial counsel moved for a mistrial or, alternatively, that Lonas's testimony be stricken. The trial court denied this motion. The district court explained that the Jencks Act does not provide for a work product exclusion for statements made to federal prosecutors, and the interview outline could not be withheld on work product grounds. However, the district court said that it did not have reason to believe that the Act's definition of statement was satisfied in this case, because there was no evidence that there was a substantially verbatim recital of an oral statement made by the witness and recorded contemporaneously with the making of the statement. Because there was no Jencks material, there was nothing for the Government to turn over. The district court further stated that the defense had ample opportunity to call the credibility of the testimony into question by revealing the time delay between Lonas's initial contact with the Government and her relaying of this story to the prosecutor. In his brief, Crosgrove argues that the district court abused its discretion by finding [Lonas's] statement to be work product and therefore not discoverable as Jencks material. This claim misstates the trial court's findings, as the district court clearly stated that there was no work product exception to the Act's disclosure requirements. Crosgrove does not argue that the court's actual finding that the prosecutor's outline did not amount to Jencks material was erroneous. Further, there is no argument as to the harm Crosgrove suffered as a result of not receiving the memo. The Act is meant to facilitate meaningful cross-examination. 1 Crim. Prac. Manual § 20:4. Yet, Crosgrove's trial counsel was able to meaningfully cross examine Lonas about the statement and otherwise call Lonas's credibility into question through examination of the investigators who had previously interviewed her. Therefore, the trial preparation outline would be helpful only if it contained no reference to the conversation to which Lonas testified. Crosgrove has never argued a belief (or even hinted at the possibility) that the document would reveal such an inconsistency. Because Crosgrove misunderstands the district court's findings and has not articulated other grounds for arguing a Jenks Act violation, he has not shown that the district court committed error in denying his motions related to Lonas's testimony.