Opinion ID: 4553694
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Favorability

Text: We first address the question whether the missing evidence was favorable to Miller, either for his case-in-chief or for impeachment. Miller contends that the district No. 18-3114 Page 7 court “applied the wrong legal standard” because it wrongly thought that he wanted to use the undercover reports as favorable character evidence. In fact, he wanted to use them to bolster his argument that “had the witnesses’ tale occurred certain facts would have been witnessed by any bystander,” including undercover agents. The lack of observations, by this alchemy, turns into favorable evidence. But the district court did not misconceive Miller’s argument; it just disagreed with his contentions about the significance of not detecting criminal activity. Miller next argues that the district court unreasonably found that the reports were not favorable to him. But we share the district court’s assessment. It is notable that the undercover investigation barely overlapped with Miller’s trafficking activities. Mertz first visited the building more than two months after Daniels left the property, and so he could not have seen trafficking involving her. And although the investigation partly coincided with Miller’s trafficking of Breitzke, Mertz was at the property only seven times then, and he approached Miller’s second-floor studio (the site of the trafficking) only once, in late June, after the trafficking had concluded. His opportunity to observe any alleged trafficking was thus limited at best. Nothing in Mertz’s notes or the audio recordings show that Miller did not engage in sex trafficking. In arguing that the absence of incriminating evidence is itself exculpatory, Miller assumes that if forced prostitution was occurring there, the undercover investigators would have detected it. But Miller provides no reason to believe that Mertz, who only periodically visited the building, was there at the key moments, such as when a “date” arrived or left, or when Breitzke tried to leave. (It also is not evident that the officers were “looking for evidence of human trafficking,” as Miller asserts, or for something else.) We also agree with the district court that some of these records are actually inculpatory because they partially corroborate testimony from government witnesses. For instance, Mertz noted the arrival of a man who drove up shortly after Miller told a woman to “keep him waiting as long as possible,” which is consistent with testimony describing Miller’s trafficking activities. Mertz also saw Miller, “Seth” (presumably Schumacher), and “Diamond” (Breitzke) at the building during the relevant time.