Opinion ID: 686095
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jencks/Brady Material.

Text: 10 Defendant Walden challenges the district court's denial of his Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500(b), and Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), requests for the written reports of four county officers that testified at trial. The government denied his requests since it was not in possession of, and did not use, the reports. While the district court refused to compel the government's production of the reports, it allowed Walden the opportunity to subpoena the reports, which he declined to do. 11 We will uphold a district court's denial of a Jencks Act or Brady demand unless clearly erroneous. United States v. Nathan, 816 F.2d 230, 237 (6th Cir.1987). The Jencks Act requires the government to produce any government witness's statement in the government's possession which relates to the subject matter at trial. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500(b). United States v. Clark, 928 F.2d 733, 738 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 112 S.Ct. 144 (1991). A statement is considered to be in the government's possession when it is in the possession of a federal prosecutorial agency. United States v. Cagnina, 697 F.2d 915, 922 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 856 (1983); United States v. Trevino, 556 F.2d 1265, 1271 (5th Cir.1977). 12 Upon reviewing the record, we find that the district court's denial of the Jencks Act request was not clearly erroneous. The government consistently denied having possession of the reports. The reports were in the possession of the Davidson County Sheriff's Department, which is not a federal prosecutorial agency. Moreover, assuming that the government had possession of the reports, any resulting error is harmless, United States v. Taylor, 13 F.3d 986, 990 (6th Cir.1994), as Walden failed to subpoena these documents. 13 Likewise, Brady does not compel the production of these reports as Brady obligates the government to turn over only those documents in the government's possession that are favorable to the defendant and material to guilt or punishment. United States v. Bencs, 28 F.3d 555, 560 (6th Cir.1994). To be material, the documents must create a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed, the result of the trial would have been different. Id. Hence, the documents must affect more than a defendant's ability to prepare for trial. Id. 14 Once again, Walden offers no proof that the government had possession of the requested reports. Moreover, Walden failed to establish with reasonable probability that he would have been acquitted of the charges had he been given the reports. United States v. Grunewald, 987 F.2d 531, 535 (8th Cir.1993). Instead, Walden indicated that he would have used these reports for impeachment purposes only. For these reasons, we reject Walden's claim of error. 15