Opinion ID: 2567623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence presented at the first reference hearing

Text: At the first reference hearing, the declarations of Joe Ingber and H. Clay Jacke, Sr., petitioner's appointed trial counsel in the Black case, were received into evidence by stipulation, and both attorneys testified in person. Each stated he was never told about, was never aware of, and had never received the Montez letter prior to entry of judgment. Ingber, petitioner's lead trial counsel, testified he first saw the Montez letter in 1996, when petitioner's current counsel showed it to him. Had he been aware of the letter while he was representing petitioner, Ingber stated, he would have conducted petitioner's defense differently and could have used the letter to decimate Saucedo's testimony on cross-examination. Had he received the letter, he would have maintained it in his case file, which he maintained in storage until 1991, when he turned it over to a representative of current counsel's firm. Ingber wrote letters seeking discovery to then Deputy District Attorneys Lance Ito and Frederick Horn, the assigned prosecutors during pretrial proceedings, and filed one motion for discovery. Ito never informed Ingber of the existence of an open file policy, and Ingber was unaware of any procedure in Los Angeles County permitting defense counsel to examine a prosecutor's witness files. H. Clay Jacke, Sr., was appointed as cocounsel for petitioner on March 24, 1982, about two and one-half months before petitioner's capital trial began. He received from Ingber and examined a copy of the murder book, containing materials investigating and arresting officers had compiled in the case. Murder books typically contain Brady material. (See Brady, supra, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215.) The murder book did not contain the Montez letter. Jacke did not have an understanding with the district attorney permitting him to go to the latter's office to review his files and had never heard of the term, open file policy. Nor, when Jacke later tried a case being prosecuted by Ito, did Ito indicate he would provide discovery through any such policy. Jacke was certain he had never seen the Montez letter because it was unique, being a confession to the crime by a witness in the case and memorably contained the word majate, a derogatory, reference to Blacks. Had he received the letter, he would have taken steps at trial that he did not take, such as interviewing and subpoenaing Montez as a witness, cross-examining Saucedo about his statements as recounted in the Montez letter, interviewing Detective Lyle Mayer regarding the circumstances of his receipt of the letter, and obviating or rebutting the prosecution's closing argument that no evidence existed that Saucedo killed Hosey because the defense had presented no such evidence. The March 17, 1997, declaration of Attorney Albert Garber was received into evidence by stipulation. Garber was petitioner's appointed trial counsel in the Hosey murder case, which trailed the Black case. In the penalty phase of the Black case, the People introduced in aggravation evidence about the Hosey killing. After petitioner received the death penalty for killing Black, the prosecution pursued a first degree murder charge against him in the Hosey matter and an allegation of multiple murder (based on the Black conviction). Petitioner, on Garber's advice, pleaded guilty to the second degree murder of Hosey, with the agreement that if the Black conviction were to be reversed on appeal the People would not amend the information in that case to charge multiple murders. As the factual basis for the plea in the Hosey case, the court relied on the testimony from the penalty phase of the Black case. Garber declared he was never told about, was unaware of, and did not receive the Montez letter prior to the entry of judgment in the Hosey case. Garber maintained his case file intact until 1992, when he allowed petitioner's current counsel to review and copy it. Charlotte Strother, a paralegal for petitioner's habeas corpus counsel with the law firm known then as Caldwell, Leslie, Newcombe, & Pettit, had been responsible for maintaining petitioner's case files since 1990. In the course of her duties, Strother went to the police department to obtain a copy of the murder books relating to the Black and Hosey cases. She did not find the Montez letter in either the Black or Hosey murder books. She had obtained and personally copied Ingber's case file on petitioner, and had kept it intact since. The Montez letter is not and was not in Ingber's file. Letters from Ingber to the prosecutor requesting discovery and from the prosecutor to Ingber providing discovery, however, were in the file. Strother also obtained and copied Garber's file on petitioner; the Montez letter was not there. The referee also received evidence from the three prosecutors who handled petitioner's capital case during its progress through the municipal and superior courts: then Deputy District Attorneys Lance Ito (now a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court), Frederick Horn (now a judge of the Orange County Superior Court), and Curt Hazell (now a special operations assistant district attorney). By stipulation, the declarations of the three prosecutors were admitted into evidence; Judge Ito also testified at the hearing. Judge Ito was the deputy district attorney assigned to petitioner's case through the preliminary hearing. He recalled seeing the Montez letter during the time he was prosecuting petitioner's case. The letter was in a manila clasp-type envelope in the rear of a file folder. Judge Ito testified that he did not recall disclosing or delivering the Montez letter to petitioner's trial counsel. He kept an inventory of the materials he received and filed in petitioner's cases, and the Montez letter is not listed thereon. When sending discovery material through the mail to defense counsel, his custom and practice, although not invariable, was to create a cover letter identifying the enclosed documents. It was also his custom and practice to use a standard district attorney's office form on which defense counsel were to acknowledge their review of discoverable materials at the district attorney's office; the form normally would be kept in the district attorney's files. No form reflecting that trial counsel in petitioner's cases had reviewed the district attorney's files existed. When he was a prosecutor, Judge Ito maintained an open file policy; his practice was to invite defense counsel to review his file, and although he could not specifically recall doing so in petitioner's case, he followed the same policy in this as in other cases. Judge Ito's practice was to advise defense counsel of his open file policy. He testified that [d]uring the course of the case, prior to the preliminary hearing, I would ask them if they had everything that they needed. He also customarily sat down with defense counsel and the murder book, going through it page by page to ensure that defense counsel had a copy of everything. Additional information not previously included in the murder book would also be turned over to defense counsel. As a prosecutor in 1980, Judge Ito was mindful of his Brady obligations. He absolutely considered the Montez letter to be Brady material and could think of no reason why he would not have disclosed it, although without further investigation he did not believe the letter necessarily was a statement by Saucedo. Judge Ito acknowledged that a document like the Montez letter might be temporarily withheld from the defense to allow the prosecution sufficient time to conduct an investigation and to afford protection to the witness. Following the preliminary hearing, then Prosecutor Horn assumed responsibility for petitioner's cases. Judge Horn has no memory of the Montez letter and did not recall providing any discovery to the defense; he assumed when he took over the cases that all previous discovery obligations had been met. Immediately after jury selection began, Horn turned responsibility for the Black case over to then Deputy District Attorney Hazell. Hazell also assumed responsibility for the Hosey case. Hazell has no memory of the Montez letter or of providing the defense any discovery. When taking over the cases, he assumed all previous discovery obligations had been met.