Opinion ID: 4554030
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Decision to Dismiss the Indictment with

Text: Prejudice On January 8, 2018, after permitting written briefing, the district court concluded that the Brady violations were so egregious and prejudicial that the indictment needed to be dismissed with prejudice. It found “that retrying the case would only advantage the government by allowing [it] to strengthen [its] witnesses’ testimony based on the knowledge gained from the information provided by the defense and revealed thus far.” The court also highlighted “the prosecution’s failure to look beyond the FBI file that was provided” for additional relevant information constituted a “reckless disregard for its [constitutional] obligations to learn and seek out favorable evidence.” The court characterized the government’s “representations about whether individuals were technically ‘snipers’ or not ‘snipers’ [as] disingenuous” given that the FBI’s own documents referred to government “snipers’ in the operation. It concluded that the FBI’s failure to produce these documents was “flagrant prosecutorial misconduct in this case even if the documents themselves were not intentionally withheld [by the U.S. Attorney’s Office] from the defense.” Thus, it decided that no lesser sanction was available because the government’s “conduct has caused the integrity of a future trial and any resulting conviction to be even more questionable.” Retrial “would only advantage the government.” The court dismissed the indictment with prejudice as a remedy for a due process violation and under its supervisory powers. 20 UNITED STATES V. BUNDY The government moved for reconsideration. First, the government argued that the court had mistakenly found the evidence “material” because there was no legally cognizable way for the defendants to assert the affirmative defenses of provocation or self-defense against a law officer. The government pointed to the district court’s grant of its motion in limine, which determined that evidence related to the affirmative defenses was irrelevant. The district court was unmoved. It highlighted how the motion-in-limine order had specifically left open the possibility that the defendants could raise an affirmative defense if they could make an offer of proof to support a theory of provocation or self-defense. The court said that its order “placed the Government on notice that evidence that could bolster a theory of self-defense might become relevant at trial.” Hence, the court stated that its order did not excuse the government from turning over evidence helpful to the defense. The court again chastised the government for claiming ignorance that the defendants would need evidence about the cameras or snipers because a central part of the government’s case was that the defendants knowingly spread false statements that snipers were surrounding the Bundy Ranch. Second, the government asserted that the court had failed to consider less drastic remedies. In response, the court pointed to its discussion in the record that lesser sanctions could not cure the prejudice. And it said that any lack of consideration for a specific remedy was the fault of the government, because it failed to raise possible alternative sanctions. Thus, the district court denied the government’s motion for reconsideration. The government now appeals. UNITED STATES V. BUNDY 21