Opinion ID: 439958
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admissability of the Wille agreement.

Text: 64 In order to be material, evidence suppressed must have been admissible at trial. Brady, 373 U.S. at 89-90, 83 S.Ct. at 1197-1198. The government contends that the Wille immunity agreement is immaterial because it could not have been used for impeachment purposes. The government's theory is that the agreement does not pertain to Wille's testimony about the diesel fuel excise tax fraud, but to testimony about a separate but simultaneous check-kiting scheme. 65 Pflaumer hired Wille in June of 1978 as a comptroller for WHP. At that time, WHP had recently merged with a second trucking firm, C & R Transport Co., to form a third corporation, KMA Leasing, Inc. These three companies and a fourth, Burgmeyer Bros., Inc., all operated out of the WHP office. Charles Gillan served as President of WHP and Burgmeyer. In 1978, Burgmeyer had accumulated substantial federal tax liabilities. In order to satisfy cash flow needs, Pflaumer, Gillan and Wille allegedly operated an elaborate check-kiting scheme between KMA Leasing and Burgmeyer. That scheme was investigated by the United States Attorney's Office. The government claims that the grant of immunity to Wille applied to that investigation alone, and was therefore irrelevant. Fed.R.Evid. 402. 66 We hold that the Wille agreement was admissible to impeach. The agreement is not specific on the subject matter of the government's investigation. It refers simply to the federal investigation into certain activities of Charles Gillan and others during the period between June 2, 1978 and December, 1979. The government concedes that Pflaumer is one of the others to which the agreement refers. Both schemes arose out of cash flow deficiencies encountered by Pflaumer's firms as a result of tax liabilities. Both were under investigation by the same persons at the same time. Wille was not privy to the government's investigative files, and need not have known that in the government's mind they were separate. Certainly the government's artful phrasing of the agreement suggests that if Wille refused to cooperate in either of the investigations, he would be in breach of his undertaking for the immunity grant. Indeed, when the government advanced this argument, the trial court expressed skepticism: 67 MR. COLE: I believe the immunity he refers to had to do with the check cashing scheme. 68 THE COURT: In his own mind, in cross examination, if you were defense counsel wouldn't you want to ask him the question: weren't you immunized on a previous occasion. And the answer had to be, yes. 69 App. at 1600-01. 70 We share the trial court's skepticism. Clearly defense counsel could have used the agreement in cross-examination of Wille. Any effort by the government to establish that the agreement meant less than it said would at best have gone to the weight that the jury might have given it for impeachment purposes. Thus we reject the government's contention that it withheld inadmissible evidence.