Opinion ID: 1314537
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Brady/Giglio Motion

Text: Spadoni argues that the district court abused its discretion in denying his motion for a new trial on the ground that the government unconstitutionally suppressed material exculpatory and impeaching evidence. We agree. The government has a duty to disclose all material evidence favorable to a criminal defendant. E.g., United States v. Madori, 419 F.3d 159, 169 (2d Cir.2005) (citing Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963)); see also Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154-55, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972) (applying Brady to material that can be used to impeach prosecution witnesses). When the government violates this duty and obtains a conviction, it deprives the defendant of his or her liberty without due process of law. E.g., Rivas, 377 F.3d at 199. A Brady violation occurs when the government fails to disclose evidence materially favorable to the accused. Youngblood v. West Virginia, 547 U.S. 867, 869, 126 S.Ct. 2188, 165 L.Ed.2d 269 (2006). Evidence that is not disclosed is suppressed for Brady purposes even when it is known only to police investigators and not to the prosecutor. Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 438, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995). Evidence is favorable if it is either exculpatory or impeaching. See, e.g., Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 281-82, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999). Evidence is material if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Youngblood, 547 U.S. at 870, 126 S.Ct. 2188 (internal quotation marks omitted). However, a `showing of materiality does not require demonstration by a preponderance of the evidence that disclosure of the suppressed evidence would have resulted ultimately in the defendant's acquittal,' id. (quoting Kyles, 514 U.S. at 434, 115 S.Ct. 1555), but only a `showing that the favorable evidence could reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict,' Youngblood, 547 U.S. at 870, 126 S.Ct. 2188 (quoting Kyles, 514 U.S. at 435, 115 S.Ct. 1555). The assessment of materiality is made in light of the entire record. United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 112, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976). In denying Spadoni's Brady motion, the district court concluded that the government did not possess Silvester's unsigned affidavit and therefore did not suppress its contents. Spadoni II, 2006 WL 2595574, at . This factual finding was not clearly erroneous. See Imran, 964 F.2d at 1318 (We will not disturb the district court's findings of fact in conjunction with a Rule 33 motion unless the findings are clearly erroneous.). However, it is undisputed that the government possessed Agent Urso's proffer notes, and that it did not disclose them until it responded to Spadoni's post-trial motion. The district court found the contents of the notes, as well as of the unsigned affidavit, not to be materially different from the contents of Silvester's statements in the disclosed FBI interview report, in his grand jury testimony, and at trial. With due respect for the district court, we cannot agree with this determination. The district court found that Agent Urso's proffer notes were not materially inconsistent with Silvester's other testimony based on its opinion that [i]n every iteration of the events ..., Spadoni's initial response was to decline Silvester's request to pay finder's fees to Stack and Thiesfield. Spadoni II, 2006 WL 2595574, at . This characterization ignores a critical difference between Agent Urso's notes and Silvester's later statements. The proffer notes support an alternative version of the Silvester-Spadoni conversation about finder's fees, one entirely at odds with the government's theory of the case at trial. In Silvester's later statements, including his testimony at trial, the only requests Spadoni decline[d], id., were the requests to characterize the payments as finders' fees and to make the payments before Silvester left office. These later statements do not include an indication that Spadoni declined to agree to the substance of Silvester's request. Indeed, Silvester claimed that Spadoni agreed to pursue an arrangement economically identical to Silvester's finder's fee proposal, but he would characterize it differently and perform it when Silvester left office. By contrast, when Silvester first proffered (through his attorney) to the government, his statements strongly suggested that Spadoni had declined to make payments that would amount to a bribe. Agent Urso's notes, and particularly the notation that Spadoni responded that the arrangement with Triumph had to be at arms length and needed to make sense, suggest that Spadoni refused to enter into an arrangement economically identical to Silvester's proposal. By far the most natural interpretation of these phrases in Agent Urso's notes is that Spadoni indicated that a deal would have to make economic sense and be at arm's length; that is, that it would be anything but economically identical to Silvester's proposal. The difference between the government's final version of events and the version supported by Silvester's initial proffer, which was suppressed, is directly relevant to the intent element of the consulting contract bribe charges. In the final version, Spadoni agreed in substance to pay Silvester's associates for work they did not perform, which provided strong support for the jury's finding that Spadoni intended to influence an official act and to defraud the people of the State of Connecticut of their right to Silvester's honest services. Silvester's initial version of that conversation, however, provided scant if any support for the inference that Spadoni possessed the requisite intent to bribe or defraud. By suppressing Urso's notes of that proffer, the government deprived Spadoni of exculpatory evidence going to the core of its bribery case against him. Spadoni could have used the proffer notes not merely to support his version of his conversation with Silvester, but also to impeach Silvester's credibility. While the notes did not record Silvester's words, Spadoni could have attributed them to him through cross-examining Silvester, questioning Agent Urso, and if necessary calling Silvester's attorney. See, e.g., United States v. Gil, 297 F.3d 93, 104 (2d Cir.2002) (noting that Brady material need not be admissible if it could lead to admissible evidence or would be an effective tool in disciplining witnesses during cross-examination by refreshment of recollection or otherwise, and citing cases). The notes were taken at a meeting where Silvester's attorney approached the government on Silvester's behalf to relate Silvester's account of his criminal activity in an attempt to convince the government to offer him a cooperation agreement. Spadoni could have argued that Silvester initially authorized his attorney to tell the truth, which inculpated others and exculpated Spadoni, but that once he began to cooperate with the government he fabricated a new, inculpatory version of his dealings with Spadoni to enhance the value of his cooperation and his expected reward. It is by no means certain that this argument would have swayed the jury, but it is a real enough possibility to undermine confidence in the verdict. In contending otherwise, and in maintaining that the phrases arms length and needed to make sense in Agent Urso's proffer notes do not cast the case in such a different light, the government overestimates the strength of its case. Other than Silvester's testimony, the evidence regarding Spadoni's intent was far from overwhelming. See Gil, 297 F.3d at 103 (Where the evidence against the defendant is ample or overwhelming, the withheld Brady material is less likely to be material than if the evidence of guilt is thin.). It is true that suspiciously one-sided consulting contracts with Stack and Thiesfield were eventually signed, but the timing of these contracts was hotly disputed. If the consulting contracts were signed after the investment contract was finalized, as Spadoni contends, the inference that they were intended to influence Silvester's decision to set the final amount of the investment contract is weak absent evidence of some prior agreement or understanding. Silvester's testimony provided evidence of such an agreement. Indeed, based on the strength of Silvester's testimony, the government told the jury in summation that it could convict even if it found that the consulting contracts were signed after the investment contract. However, in the absence of Silvester's testimony, it would be more difficult for the jury to have found that Spadoni possessed the requisite intent to influence Silvester's actions regarding the investment contract unless it found that the consulting contracts themselves were signed before the investment contract was finalized. [12] If the jury credited the government's evidence that Stack's consulting contract was executed on November 11, 1998, the day before the investment contract, it could certainly have found that Spadoni possessed the requisite intent. However, the evidence that Stack's contract was signed on that date is thin. While Triumph's records reflect that Triumph sent him a fax on November 9, 1998 and visitor logs confirm that Stack met with Spadoni and McCarthy on November 11, 1998, Stack's testimony was the only evidence that the fax was a draft contract or that a contract was signed at the November 11, 1998 meeting. Moreover, Silvester corroborated Stack's earlier statements indicating that when the two of them were in Tortola, after the signing of the investment contract, they were still discussing the future prospect of a consulting contract for Stack. In light of this factual dispute, the jury could easily have found that the consulting contract was signed after the investment contract but still convicted Spadoni based on Silvester's account of their conversation. There is thus no reason to believe that the jury would still have concluded that Spadoni possessed the requisite intent if its confidence in Silvester's testimony had been undermined. In short, the government suppressed evidence in its possession which was both exculpatory and impeaching, and there is a reasonable probability that if the evidence had been disclosed, the outcome of the proceeding would have been different. The government argues that we must defer to the district court's determination that the remarks recorded in Agent Urso's notes did not materially differ from Silvester's other statements, noting that the district court is in the best position to assess the impact of an omitted piece of evidence on the proceedings. It is true that we review the denial of a motion for a new trial for abuse of discretion in recognition of the district court's greater familiarity with the proceedings. E.g., Rivas, 377 F.3d at 199. However, we have reversed convictions based on Brady violations where the district court concluded that the omitted evidence was not material in circumstances at least as favorable to the government as these. In United States v. Gil , we reversed a district court's finding that a document was not material even though, if credited, the document would not directly establish a defense. 297 F.3d at 104-05. In that case, a general contractor accused of fraudulently inflating invoices from his subcontractors argued that he had been authorized by his clients to do so in a side deal in consideration for his performance of some additional duties. Id. at 97-98. The government suppressed a memorandum describing a meeting where the defendant agreed to perform extra-contractual work for the client and the client authorized the defendant to charge a premium on subcontractor bills. Id. at 97. The district court found that this memorandum was not material because it did not state that the defendant was authorized to collect this premium by falsifying the amounts recorded on his subcontractor invoices. Id. at 101. However, we found that in providing evidence for a side deal similar to that described by the defendant, the memorandum provided enough circumstantial support for the defense case that it was material. Id. at 104-05. The proffer notes here, which directly tend to negate the intent element in Spadoni's bribe charges, are at least as central to the defense case as the memorandum in Gil, which did not record any indication that the defendant was authorized to falsify the amounts of his subcontractors' invoices. In United States v. Rivas , we reversed the district court and granted a new trial where the suppressed evidence was inculpatory as well as exculpatory, because its exculpatory character harmonized with the theory of the defense case. 377 F.3d at 199-200. That case concerned the appeal of Edgar Rivas, a seaman convicted of smuggling cocaine in his ship cabin. Id. at 196. Rivas's cabinmate Pulgar, the key prosecution witness, testified at trial that he saw Rivas store cocaine in their cabin and that Rivas had told him of Rivas's drug trafficking activity, but no evidence was produced regarding how the drugs were brought aboard the ship. Id. at 197-98. The government suppressed a statement in which Pulgar claimed that he had brought the cocaine onto the ship for Rivas and delivered it to him, believing it to be alcohol until Rivas admitted its true nature. Id. at 198. The district judge denied Rivas's Brady motion, finding the suppressed testimony was not material because it was consistent with Pulgar's trial testimony indicating that Rivas owned the drugs. Id. at 198-99. Although we acknowledged that the suppressed statement was inculpatory as well as exculpatory, we nonetheless vacated the district court's denial of Rivas's Brady motion and remanded for a new trial, as the statements supported the defense's theory that Pulgar had possessed the drugs all along and blamed Rivas for them. Id. at 199-200. The proffer notes here were at least as crucial to Spadoni's defense as Pulgar's statement was to the defense in Rivas. The government contended at oral argument that Agent Urso's proffer notes were inculpatory, arguing that Spadoni's refusal indicated his consciousness of wrongdoing. We find this argument to be strained. In any event, any inculpatory effect of Spadoni's refusal to accept Silvester's proposal is dwarfed by its tendency to exculpate Spadoni. Based on Agent Urso's notes, Spadoni could have contended at trial that the first time Silvester recounted the critical conversation with Spadoni, he told the government that Spadoni would engage only in an arm's length deal that would make sense for Triumph. The fact that Agent Urso was the case agent during the investigation and at trial renders the nondisclosure of his notes of the attorney proffer especially difficult to comprehend. The government could not explain at oral argument why the notes were withheld. We must conclude that there is a reasonable probability that if the government had not inexplicably withheld Agent Urso's proffer notes, the jury would have harbored a reasonable doubt about Spadoni's guilt. Accordingly, Spadoni is entitled to a new trial on the racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, bribery, and wire fraud charges. [13]