Opinion ID: 669661
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prosecutorial Conduct during the Evidentiary Hearing

Text: 20 On June 23, 1992, the government called Agent Berger to testify at an evidentiary hearing to determine the admissibility of pre-trial identification testimony. Hearing testimony for that day ended after cross-examination of Agent Berger by Minier-Contreras. Cross-examination by counsel for the remaining two defendants was adjourned until June 25, 1992. On June 25, 1992, following cross-examination by the remaining defendants, Agent Berger testified on re-direct that during the two-day recess the prosecutor asked him to speak to Johnson to determine what, if any, conversations took place between Johnson and the CI during the time between the raid and the pre-trial identification. In addition, Agent Berger testified that the prosecutor also asked him to check the tint of the windows of the car from which the CI made the pre-trial identifications. He also testified as to the substance of his conversation with the CI and the results of his re-investigation of the car. Agent Berger was then cross-examined by defense counsel. 21 Minier-Contreras contends that this contact between the prosecutor and the witness during adjournment deprived him of his rights of due process, effective assistance of counsel, and confrontation of witnesses against him. The government concedes that a prosecutor should not discuss a Government witness's testimony with that witness during a break in his cross-examination, even where a judge has not formally prohibited such communication. Government's Brief at 28. While the contact may well have been improper, it did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation or a violation that would in some way cause us to exercise our supervisory powers. 8 Here, the fact of the contact was elicited by the prosecutor on redirect. After his testimony on re-direct, Agent Berger was subjected to further cross-examination by defense counsel. See Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, 480 U.S. 39, 53, 107 S.Ct. 989, 999, 94 L.Ed.2d 40 (1987) (Normally the right to confront one's accusers is satisfied if defense counsel receives wide latitude at trial to question witnesses). This cross-examination elicited no evidence that the prosecutor improperly coached Agent Berger. Further, the defense could have requested that the district court instruct the witness to refrain from discussing the case with anyone during the recess. See Perry v. Leeke, 488 U.S. 272, 281-82, 109 S.Ct. 594, 600-01, 102 L.Ed.2d 624 (1989) (Such nondiscussion orders are a corollary of the broader rule that witnesses may be sequestered to lessen the danger that their testimony will be influenced by hearing what other witnesses have to say, and to increase the likelihood that they will confine themselves to truthful statements based on their own recollections); see also Fed.R.Evid. 615 (providing for the sequestration of witnesses but excepting parties who are natural persons, an officer or employee of a party not a natural person if he is designated as the party's representative, and persons whose presence is shown by a party to be essential). Given the relatively minor nature of the prosecutor's contact with the witness, the fact that the contact was elicited by the prosecutor on re-direct, the fact that the witness was subjected to cross-examination on the nature of the contact, and the failure of the defendant to request a nondiscussion order, we decline to find that the prosecutor's contact violated the Confrontation Clause, the Right to Counsel, or due process. See United States v. DeJongh, 937 F.2d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1991) (We are aware of no rule or ethical principle, in the absence of a court order, that a prosecutor should refrain from conferring with a government witness before the start of cross-examination) (emphasis added); see also United States v. Malik, 800 F.2d 143, 149 (7th Cir.1986) (recess conversation between prosecutor and government witness did not warrant reversal where that conversation was known to defense counsel, defense counsel had an opportunity to cross-examine the witness, and the prosecutor did no more than ask the witness if he wanted to correct anything in his testimony).