Opinion ID: 1399120
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prosecutor's Failure to Tape-record Buckley Interview

Text: Defendant unsuccessfully moved to suppress Buckley's testimony at trial, contending that the prosecutor's failure to tape-record an entire interview he conducted with Buckley interfered with defendant's access to information to be used for impeachment and cross-examination. After Buckley entered into his plea agreement, Don Glynn, the prosecutor, conducted an interview with him. Present with Buckley and Glynn were Wiksell, Buckley's attorney; Jarosz, Buckley's investigator; district attorney investigator Troxel; Deputy Sheriff Rudd; and Ventura County Sheriff's Detective Odle. Fauber's defense counsel had previously requested that the interview be taped. Wiksell too wished to tape-record the entire interview. Glynn, however, wanted to leave unrecorded the first part of the interview and tape only a summary. In order to obtain a disposition for his client, Wiksell did not object. Buckley's interview lasted two and one-half or three hours. One and one-half hours were taped, according to the trial judge, who listened to the tape. [9] Rudd, Odle, Troxel, and Glynn took notes of the interview; Troxel prepared a written report and destroyed his notes. During the unrecorded part of the interview, Buckley was asked broad questions, which he answered in narrative form, according to Wiksell. On a number of occasions, Buckley was unable to remember clearly who made a statement, but after some conversation was able to attribute it to a particular person. At least one fact concerning Buckley's personal background was discussed during the initial part of the interview but omitted during the taped portion: Buckley said he obtained a discharge from the Army by falsely stating he was a homosexual, but this statement does not appear in the recording. The taped portion of the interview was concise, lacking some of the hesitations evident in the unrecorded portion. Defendant moved to suppress Buckley's testimony at trial, contending that the prosecutor's refusal to tape the entire interview interfered with his access to information to be used for impeachment and cross-examination. At the hearing on the motion, the trial court stated it had listened to the tape and read Troxel's summary and the notes taken by Odle and Rudd. Comparing the notes with the tape, the trial court concluded that the tape was not a sanitized version of the earlier portion of the interview; rather, it covered generally the same topics in the same chronological order. The trial court also found that, in not taping the initial portion of the interview, the prosecution had followed a reasonable investigation procedure. The court reasoned that since the prosecution has no duty to tape-record witness interviews, and the defense has no right to dictate the course of the prosecution's investigation, the prosecutor was not required to grant defense counsel's request to tape Buckley's entire interview. (15a) Defendant characterizes the prosecutor's refusal to allow recording of the entire interview as a denial of his Fourteenth Amendment right to disclosure of all exculpatory evidence and as suppression of favorable evidence within the prohibition of California v. Trombetta (1984) 467 U.S. 479 [81 L.Ed.2d 413, 104 S.Ct. 2528]. Defendant also contends the prosecution did not act in good faith. ( Arizona v. Youngblood (1988) 488 U.S. 51 [102 L.Ed.2d 281, 109 S.Ct. 333].) He first suggests that the prosecutor should have turned on the tape recorder, or permitted Buckley's counsel to do so, at the beginning of the interview simply because defense counsel's request was timely and not burdensome. He does not, and cannot, cite direct authority for that proposition. Next, defendant contends that the prosecutor's actions were tantamount to willful suppression of evidence he knew would be helpful to the defense, and thus violated the rule of United States v. Agurs (1976) 427 U.S. 97, 111-113 [49 L.Ed.2d 342, 354-355, 96 S.Ct. 2392]. We cannot agree with defendant that hesitations and difficulties of recollection in the unrecorded portion of the interview amount to material, substantial evidence, the loss of which deprived him of a fair trial. ( People v. Ruthford (1975) 14 Cal.3d 399, 409 [121 Cal. Rptr. 261, 534 P.2d 1341, A.L.R.4th 3132].) (16) The mere possibility that an item of undisclosed information might have helped the defense, or might have affected the outcome of the trial, does not establish `materiality' in the constitutional sense. ( United States v. Agurs, supra, 427 U.S. at pp. 109-110 [49 L.Ed.2d at p. 353].) To meet this standard of constitutional materiality, evidence must both possess an exculpatory value that was apparent before the evidence was destroyed, and be of such a nature that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means. ( California v. Trombetta, supra, 467 U.S. at p. 489 [81 L.Ed.2d at p. 422].) (15b) Assuming, without deciding, that Trombetta applies in the context of a failure to tape-record a portion of an interview of a prosecution witness, we find no deprivation of material evidence. The trial court's finding that the substance of the taped and untaped portions of Buckley's statement was similar leads us to infer that the untaped portion did not possess apparent, independent exculpatory value. Defendant has essentially demonstrated only that a record of Buckley's unrecorded remarks might have helped him attack Buckley's credibility; consequently, he falls short of establishing materiality under the constitutional standard. In any event, defense counsel's cross-examination of Buckley elicited numerous instances of difficulty in recollection, a fact he pointed out in closing argument. Moreover, evidence of Buckley's hesitations was available through the testimony of persons present during the interview. We are unpersuaded that the loss of Buckley's untaped remarks resulted in error. [10]