Opinion ID: 1684899
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Brady Violation for Improperly Withholding Evidence

Text: Overton contends that the State committed the following Brady violations, which prevented a full and fair evidentiary hearing: (1) failed to provide the notes from the brainstorming sessions of law enforcement in which Overton was eliminated as a suspect; (2) failed to provide the evidence that Dr. Pope's DNA work had been sloppy in other cases; (3) failed to provide evidence of three other possible suspects that were investigated by law enforcement; and (4) failed to provide pages that were missing from police reports. Generally, for a Brady violation to exist, the defendant must establish the following: (1) the State possessed evidence favorable to the accused because it was either exculpatory or impeaching; (2) the State willfully or inadvertently suppressed the evidence; and (3) the defendant was prejudiced. Allen v. State, 854 So.2d 1255, 1259 (Fla.2003). Prejudice exists if the suppressed evidence was material. See id. at 1260. Finally, evidence is material if a reasonable probability exists that disclosure of the suppressed evidence would have led to a different result at the proceeding. See Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 280, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999); Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The claim based on notes from police brainstorming sessions is clearly without merit. Overton was provided the Rough Notes from Profilers Meeting 05-06-92, which suggested that he be eliminated as a suspect. He contends that he should have been provided additional notes from subsequent brainstorming sessions during which he was eliminated as a suspect. Overton contends that he must have been eliminated as a suspect in a subsequent meeting because he was not arrested and charged with the MacIvor murders until 1996. Notwithstanding that some evidence exists that subsequent profiler meetings did take place (Detective Visco testified that he recalled being present for a similar type of meeting after 1992), Overton's argument that additional reports with exculpatory information were generated is based on pure speculation, which is insufficient to establish a Brady violation. See Wright, 857 So.2d at 870 (holding that there was no Brady violation because the exculpatory effect of the disputed documents was merely speculative); Gore v. State, 846 So.2d 461, 466-67 (Fla.2003) (holding that the Brady claim was insufficiently pled in the rule 3.851 motion because the defendant presented no factual basis that the disputed item ever existed or contained exculpatory information). During the evidentiary hearing, it was established that there were no further reports as Overton argues. Reports did exist with regard to two other suspects but not Overton. Unlike these other two suspects, the evidence does not support that Overton was eliminated as a suspect after the 1992 profilers' meeting. Even if elimination did occur and additional reports do exist, Overton has not provided a convincing reason why or how these reports would demonstrate that he had been eliminated as a suspect because his work alibi defense had been confirmed by law enforcement. See Carroll v. State, 815 So.2d 601, 620 (Fla.2002) ([T]he prosecution is not required to provide the defendant all information regarding its investigatory work on a particular case regardless of its relevancy or materiality.). More convincing is the testimony from law enforcement personnel that they did not investigate Overton's alleged alibi defense until much later. For all these reasons, this particular Brady claim is without merit. With regard to the alleged evidence that Dr. Pope's DNA work had been sloppy in other cases, the State is correct that there could be no prejudice with this particular Brady claim. First, the alleged evidence with regard to Pope's performance in Allen, 854 So.2d 1255, is of minimal value. Overton has not identified whether this alleged similar sloppy work occurred before or after Pope's DNA work in the instant case. Additionally, this evidence reflects only that which occurred in another case, rather than providing evidence of that which occurred in the instant case. Second, the challenges presented by Overton's counsel to Pope during trial were significant. Pope was impeached with evidence of his conduct in the instant case. Along with other forms of impeachment, Overton's counsel elicited evidence from Pope that he transported pieces of evidence to his home and placed evidence in his household refrigerator, which is not certified as a storage facility or lab. This evidence did impeach Pope, and the alleged evidence of similar sloppy work in another case would be cumulative. See Ponticelli v. State, 941 So.2d 1073, 1086-87 (Fla.2006) (holding that the alleged Brady material was merely cumulative to the significant impeachment that already occurred during trial, so there was no prejudice for a Brady violation); Guzman v. State, 868 So.2d 498, 508 (Fla.2003) (concluding that there was no prejudice under Brady because with the significant impeachment evidence that was presented during trial, evidence of the reward given to the witness by the State would have been merely cumulative). Therefore, this particular Brady claim is also without merit. The claim based on alleged evidence of three other possible suspects also fails on the merits. The record refutes Overton's argument that information on Hector Hernandez was not disclosed to his counsel. Overton's counsel testified that he was given the information about Hernandez. Consistent with that testimony, Ellsworth testified that he advised Overton's counsel about Hernandez as a suspect upon his receipt of the information. Moreover, the information was actually inculpatory rather than exculpatory. These statements from Hernandez would establish that he was at the murder scene while Overton was murdering the MacIvors. Overton's counsel clearly did not want to pursue the alleged involvement of Hernandez because it would place Overton at the scene, which was totally inconsistent with the defense theory that Overton was not at the scene and that his DNA had been planted. Overton fails to include names of other suspects allegedly concealed. Due to law enforcement's investigation of multiple suspects here, the failure to include identification of which suspects were allegedly not disclosed constitutes an insufficient pleading. See Gore, 846 So.2d at 466-67. Even if this sub-issue had been sufficiently pled, it is without merit as the record illustrates that nothing fruitful resulted from law enforcement's investigation into other suspects. See Wright, 857 So.2d at 870 (holding that the information contained in the police files with regard to other possible suspects was not Brady material). The Brady claim as to missing pages from police reports is also insufficiently pled as Overton does not present any information as to what these pages included or how such would be exculpatory. See Gore, 846 So.2d at 466-67 (holding that the defendant insufficiently pled the Brady claim because he failed to assert how the evidence was material or how he was prejudiced by the State's nondisclosure). The fact that alleged missing pages were from a police report is not sufficient in itself to require relief. See Carroll, 815 So.2d at 620.