Opinion ID: 198294
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Failure to Disclose and Newly-Discovered Evidence

Text: 91 Ortiz-Miranda argues that the government's failure to disclose during trial its knowledge of Rivera-Melendez's whereabouts, his possession of a green motorcycle, his involvement in certain criminal activity, and his association with the alias Cano Beeper in POPR records, constituted a due process violation warranting reversal pursuant to Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995). Ortiz-Miranda also argues that newly discovered evidence from a witness who began cooperating after conclusion of the trial independently and cumulatively mandates a new trial. Ortiz-Miranda's claims fail because, as the district court correctly concluded, there is no reasonable probability that disclosure of the Brady material during trial would have resulted in Ortiz-Miranda's acquittal. See Gilday v. Callahan, 59 F.3d 257, 267 (1st Cir.1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1175, 116 S.Ct. 1269, 134 L.Ed.2d 216 (1996). Nor, as the district court concluded, does the combination of the Brady material and newly-discovered evidence create such a reasonable probability. 92 Ortiz-Miranda's motion for a new trial does not specifically cite the failure to disclose Rivera-Melendez's location as grounds for relief. Rather, his counsel placed this information in an Affirmation appended to the motion. Thus, although the district court heard evidence on this issue at the hearing, it did not specifically consider it in the Brady analysis. The draft search warrant affidavit did not contain information about the sighting of Rivera-Melendez because that event did not occur until after the prosecutor had declined to authorize Rivera-Melendez's arrest. In its analysis of the draft affidavit, however, the district court assumed the availability of Rivera-Melendez and determined that such availability would not have created a reasonable probability of Ortiz-Miranda's acquittal. First, the court found it improbable that Rivera-Melendez would exculpate Ortiz-Miranda by implicating himself. See United States v. Ortiz-Miranda, 931 F.Supp. 85, 93 (D.P.R.1996). Furthermore, the court found it improbable that Garca-Otero would recant her identification of Ortiz-Miranda or her failure to identify Rivera-Melendez even if the defense produced Rivera-Melendez. See id. 93 Ortiz-Miranda does not elaborate on how Rivera-Melendez's very presence in court, Defendant's Br. at 35-36, would otherwise have created a reasonable probability of acquittal. Such a claim is especially questionable because the jury already had the benefit of comparing photographs of the two men when assessing the accuracy of Garca-Otero's identification of Ortiz-Miranda. The government, while conceding the possibility that Rivera-Melendez could also be involved with Israel Santiago-Lugo's organization, reasonably argued in closing arguments that the testimony of Garca-Otero and other evidence nonetheless established the guilt of Ortiz-Miranda. 94 With respect to the draft probable cause affidavit itself, the district court determined that it favor[ed] the misidentification claim insofar as it did not contradict the Department of Transportation information about the green motorcycle and suggested Rivera-Melendez's involvement in drug trafficking. It did not, however, exculpate Ortiz-Miranda. See Ortiz-Miranda, 931 F.Supp. at 92-93. Similarly, the district court correctly recognized that although the missing page of the criminal history report would have favored the defense by attributing the alias Cano Beeper solely to Rivera-Melendez, the government perhaps could have established that the POPR database was incomplete. See id. at 93. 95 As the district court recognized, it is the reasonable probability standard that distinguishes merely favorable evidence from material evidence, the intentional or unintentional withholding of which violates a defendant's due process rights. See Gilday, 59 F.3d at 267. On this record, we agree with the district court that the sum of evidence withheld is hardly of the variety that would undermine our confidence in the outcome of the trial. Ortiz-Miranda, 931 F.Supp. at 94. 96 Finally, Ortiz-Miranda summarily asserts prosecutorial misconduct as grounds for reversal. In view of the fact that he neither develops this argument nor cites any supporting authority, we reject this argument out of hand. See United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir.1990) ([A] litigant has an obligation to spell out its arguments squarely or distinctly, or else forever hold its peace.).