Opinion ID: 1188826
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Second Ground for Relief

Text: Habeas relief is also not warranted on the merits of Pudelski's second ground for relief. Pudelski makes two arguments. First, he argues that the trial court violated Ohio Rule of Evidence 703 in admitting the coroner's expert testimony when the police report supporting that testimony was not in evidence. Second, he argues that his lack of access to the police report denied him due process and violated Brady v. Maryland because the police report was favorable to the defense. As for Pudelski's first argument, this again is an issue of state law that is not subject to habeas review. Only if Pudelski can show that this evidentiary ruling was so prejudicial that it violated his right to a fundamentally fair trial can he prevail. See Fleming, 556 F.3d at 535. A review of the record, however, reveals that the trial court's ruling did not prejudice Pudelski. When forming her expert opinion as to the cause of the infant's death, the coroner testified that she relied on the police report only to eliminate accident as the cause of death. The fact that the police report eliminated accident as the cause of death, however, had already been revealed at trial. The detective who investigated the infant's death testified that the investigation revealed no accident that could have caused the infant's death, and that this information was in the police report. The sources that the police investigation relied on to arrive at this conclusion included interviews of Pudelski and Pudelski's wife, information from the deputy coroner, and information from the paramedics who arrived at Pudelski's home in response to the Pudelskis' emergency call. These individuals all testified at trial. Thus, given that the detective testified as to the contents of the police report and that the sources of information that supported the police report were all available for examination at trial, even if the trial court violated Ohio Rule of Evidence 703 (an issue as to which we express no opinion), we cannot conclude that the trial court's decision to deny Pudelski access to the police report itself prejudiced him in any way, much less was so prejudicial that it denied Pudelski a fundamentally fair trial. Pudelski's second argument is that the trial court's ruling denying him access to the police report violated Brady v. Maryland . Brady stands for the proposition that suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution. 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). A Brady claim has three elements: The evidence at issue must be favorable to the accused either because it is exculpatory, or because it is impeaching; that evidence must have been suppressed by the State, either willfully or inadvertently; and prejudice must have ensued. Banks v. Dretke, 540 U.S. 668, 691, 124 S.Ct. 1256, 157 L.Ed.2d 1166 (2004). Pudelski's argument, however, is without merit. First, according to the testimony of the witnesses at the trial, the police report was not favorable to Pudelski, because it eliminated an innocent explanation for the infant's death by finding that her death was not caused by an accident. This evidence helped to incriminate, not exculpate, Pudelski, as he was the last person to interact with the child before her death. The report also stated that Pudelski physically assaulted the infant, which again is not exculpatory. J.A. 1206-7. There is no indication that the police report itself contained any exculpatory information (and the dissent admits as much, see dissenting op. at 619). Pudelski argues that having access to the police report would have allowed him to impeach the coroner at trial, and the Supreme Court has indeed recognized that impeachment evidence can fall within Brady 's rule. See United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 676, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). Even if it is assumed that the police report contained potential impeachment evidence satisfying the first element of a Brady claim, however, Pudelski cannot establish that the suppression of that evidence resulted in prejudice. Prejudice to the petitioner, the third element of a Brady claim, is established only if the suppressed evidence is material; evidence is material under Brady only if it presents a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different if the evidence had been disclosed. Id. at 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375. Viewing the evidence presented at the trial in its entirety, there is no reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different if the actual police report itself had been presented and used for impeachment purposes. During oral argument much was made of the fact that the police report is not in the record, and that neither party has actually reviewed the police report's contents. Pudelski argues that the court below could not have held that the police report did not contain exculpatory evidence without knowing what was actually in the police report. Pudelski, however, bore the burden of establishing his Brady claim, including the burden of establishing that the police report contained material evidence. See Carter v. Bell, 218 F.3d 581, 601 (6th Cir.2000). Pudelski has not presented any evidence tending to show that the police report contained material evidence; rather, all of the evidence in the record tends to show that multiple witnesses testified as to the contents of the police report, and that the police report simply eliminated accident as the cause of the infant's death. If Pudelski's attorney was denied an opportunity to view the police report, a denial he now claims was error, he should have had the police report made part of the record at trial so that its contents would be available to any reviewing court. Pudelski's attorney, however, did not do this, and we cannot change or remake the record that is presented to us on appeal. [3] The dissent admits that the police report was likely not exculpatory  but argues that its impeachment value alone could render it material. Dissenting op. at 618 (emphasis in original). It is undisputed, however, that neither the prosecuting attorney nor the defense attorney knows what is in the police report; nor does the district judge, and nor do we appellate judges. According to the oral arguments in this court, it is not even known whether the report exists any longer, or, if it does, who has possession of it. While the dissent indulges in speculation as to how the report might possibly have been favorable to the defense in the cross-examination of the county coroner, it is certainly more probable that the content of the report supports the coroner's testimony and was favorable to the prosecution. In fact, the dissent acknowledges that Balraj's own statements make clear that the contested report implicated Pudelski as the perpetrator of a physical assault. Dissenting op. at 618. As the dissent concedes, [t]he most difficult question underlying Pudelski's Brady claim is whether the report was material, i.e. whether there is a reasonable probability that the result of the trial would have been different if the report itself had been physically produced, United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985), or that the defendant was denied a fair trial, Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 434, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995). Dissenting op. at 617. The dissent suggests various possibilities as to how the defense attorneywho cross-examined Balraj twice concerning the reportpossibly could have used the physical report for additional impeachment of Dr. Balraj's testimony. [4] It is simply not reasonable to conclude that these hypothetical uses of the report, based on absolute speculation as to the contents of a report we have not seen, could even come close to meeting the burden that the law places on the petitioner to show that the police report contained material evidence. Finally, the dissent refers to an alleged practice of this court to routinely remand when it determines that consideration of additional evidence would help it render a proper decision. Dissenting op. at 619. It is hardly a routine practice, however, for an appellate court to remand a case in order to require that a search be made for a missing report, which was ordered excluded by the trial judge and not made a part of the record, for the purpose of finding the report and then including it in a reopened record and directing the district judge, after briefing and argument from the parties, to determine whether the state trial judge, following an extensive voir dire hearing, made a mistake in excluding the report. Pudelski's second ground for relief does not merit habeas relief.