Opinion ID: 767408
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Aldaco's Motion to Dismiss

Text: 10 We review a trial court's denial of a motion to dismiss an indictment de novo. See United States v. Lee, 72 F.3d 55, 57 (7th Cir. 1995). 11 Initially, Aldaco argues that the district court incorrectly denied his motion to dismiss the indictment. He contends that he was denied due process when the shotgun and ammunition recovered from the rooftop were destroyed before the gun could be tested for recent firing or fingerprints. When, as in this case, the failure of the prosecution to preserve evidence is at issue, due process requires that the defendant demonstrate: 1) bad faith on the part of the government; 2) that theexculpatory value of the evidence was apparent before the evidence was destroyed; and 3) that the evidence was of such a nature that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means. United States v. Watts, 29 F.3d 287, 289-90 (7th Cir. 1994) (citations omitted). 12 In Watts, the defendant argued that he was denied due process by the police department's destruction of a videotape of the robbery with which he was charged. The police who investigated the robbery destroyed the videotape evidence after concluding that it was useless because it was blurry. The defendant, Watts, claimed that the videotape was exculpatory because of the hairstyle of the man filmed on the tape 4 and that the government violated his constitutional rights by intentionally destroying the evidence. 13 The district court denied Watts' motion to dismiss the indictment on due process grounds and we affirmed, finding that the defendant had failed to establish a due process violation. We ruled that Watts failed to demonstrate that the actions of the government rose to the level of bad faith. We also found that there was no proof in the record implying, much less establishing, that the destruction of the videotape was done for any other reason than the fact that the videotape was useless due to its blurriness. Furthermore, the totality of the other evidence against Watts was overwhelming. Specifically, there were two eyewitnesses who identified Watts as the robber, additional witnesses who placed Watts near the crime scene during the relevant time period, a sawed-off shotgun like the one used in the robbery was found in the car Watts was in at the time of his arrest, and Watts admitted committing the robbery; thus the tape was not the only piece of evidence that implicated Watts in the robbery. The destruction of the blurred tape was therefore logical in light of the wealth of other evidence establishing Watts' guilt and there was no showing of bad faith on the part of the government. In this context, we held that the trial judge's denial of Watts' motion to dismiss the indictment on due process grounds was proper. 14 Like the defendant in Watts, Aldaco has also failed to demonstrate that the government acted in bad faith as is necessary to establish that his due process rights were violated. Aldaco claims that the destruction of the shotgun just four months before he was indicted and over four years after his state court conviction on the weapons charge provides sufficient grounds from which to infer that the government acted in bad faith. He contends that the fact that the ATF agent requested the test-firing of the gun one month after Aldaco's arrest demonstrates that the federal government contemplated a prosecution from early on in the process. He argues that the government's failure to take possession of the shotgun, much less even request its preservation, lends support to his contention that the government intentionally engaged in an effort to keep important evidence from Mr. Aldaco. 5 15 Aldaco's argument misses the point: the Chicago Police Department, not the federal government, confiscated, tested, retained possession of, recorded, and eventually destroyed the gun some four years after the commission of the crime. Nothing in the record lends credence to the defendant-appellant's assertion that the federal government acted in collusion with the Chicago Police Department to prevent Aldaco from gaining possession of the shotgun for use in his defense; in fact, the only documented contact between the government and the police department regarding Aldaco's case came just one month after his arrest and nearly four years before the gun was destroyed and Aldaco was federally indicted. We cannot reasonablyexpect the Chicago Police Department to continue to store evidence of this nature indefinitely after a defendant had entered a guilty plea in state court and had been found guilty of a similar state crime involving the same events unless it had a sufficient basis to believe that the federal government was going to indict him. In this case, the City of Chicago had no reason to suspect that the federal government was going to indict Aldaco. 16 Aldaco speculates and states that the Chicago Police Department's conscious destruction of the shotgun is sufficient to make a showing of bad faith on its part for which the federal government should be held responsible because it took full advantage of the missing firearm. Even though the defendant has not cited, nor have we been able to discern from our research, any cases from this circuit in which any state or local government body destroyed evidence prior to a defendant's indictment by a federal grand jury, other circuits, when faced with a similar situation, have refused to impute bad faith to the federal government based on the state's actions absent any evidence establishing that any governmental agency was maliciously involved in the destruction of evidence. See, e.g., United States v. Gallant, 25 F.3d 36, 38-39 (1st Cir. 1994) (rejecting defendant's argument that his due process rights were violated where state police officer destroyed roots and stems of marijuana plants seized from defendant's trailer prior to federal indictment on drug charges); United States v. Baca, 687 F.2d 1356, 1359-60 (10th Cir. 1982) (defendant could not establish bad faith necessary for due process violation by the federal government where state authorities destroyed evidence prior to indictment and defendant made no showing of culpability on the part of the federal government for the loss of the evidence). 17 Just as the overwhelming evidence of guilt in Watts diminished the need for the police to retain the blurry videotape, there likewise was far more evidence of Aldaco's guilt than what may have been established by the shotgun. The government was never asked nor did it have any need to offer fingerprint evidence to establish Aldaco's possession of the firearm; rather, it offered the testimony of a Chicago police officer to establish the defendant's possession of the shotgun. In addition to Officer Sanchez' testimony and Aldaco's admission to him at the time of his arrest, Aldaco had also previously pled guilty to the same set of facts in state court proceedings. We are aware of no reason to continue to retain and store evidence after the defendant has admitted to its possession under oath in open court. One can hardly blame the Chicago Police Department for concluding that the shotgun was no longer needed in light of these circumstances, especially because Aldaco had not yet been indicted in federal court after four years. Obviously the police department's capacity for the storage of items of evidence is not boundless, and certainly a four-year period of waiting prior to the destruction of evidence cannot be considered an unreasonable span of time given the factual situation in this case. 18 Because Aldaco has failed to make a showing, as required by Watts, that the government acted in bad faith when it destroyed the shotgun, we hold that the district court's denial of his motion to dismiss was proper. 6 19