Opinion ID: 180076
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to disclose Storch's experience as an informant

Text: Maxwell further argues that the prosecution violated his due process rights when it failed to disclose Storch's prior informant activities. This evidence, Maxwell argues, would have impeached Storch's credibility and shown him to be a sophisticated informer. The Superior Court did not dispute that Storch was an undisclosed police informant, but the court characterized him as unsophisticated because there was no record of him receiving any benefit in exchange for his informant activities prior to Maxwell's case. Here, as in Benn, Storch denied that he had previously worked as an informant. Benn, 283 F.3d at 1058; see also United States v. Shaffer, 789 F.2d 682, 688-89 (9th Cir.1986). Specifically, Storch stated that he had never testified for the district attorney and represented himself as someone new to the informant world. For its part, the prosecution did not reveal that, although Storch may technically not have testified for the state, he had on several occasions aided in investigations and acted as an informant on numerous previous occasions. At the evidentiary hearing, Maxwell learned for the first time that Storch had assisted the LAPD's forgery division in the investigation of multiple forgery cases prior to Maxwell's trial. As this court explained in Benn, [t]he state argues that this undisclosed evidence about [the informant's] history was not material; however. . . undisclosed evidence that an informant had previously participated in a . . . investigation was important impeachment evidence that could have been used to discredit the informant's trial testimony that he had not previously participated in that type of investigation. Benn, 283 F.3d at 1058; see also Shaffer, 789 F.2d at 688-89 (holding that defendant's undisclosed prior involvement in a state investigation contradicts his prior testimony and was material). In light of the import of Storch's testimony, evidence of Storch's prior dealings with the forgery unit could have been used to discredit Storch had it been revealed at the time of trial. Furthermore, it would have provided additional evidence that Storch was a sophisticated informant with developed connections and relationships within the LAPD. Such information may have led Maxwell to investigate Storch more thoroughly and led to the discovery of the information that only came to light at the evidentiary hearingnamely, that Storch was an experienced informant with a history of lying. Storch's involvement in prior forgery investigations contradicts his representations at trial that he had never worked as an informant for the District Attorney's office. It also provides additional grounds for a jury to question Storch's credibility, grounds which relate to the prosecution's failure to disclose the fact that Storch's plea deal was a subsequent one that he negotiated.