Opinion ID: 728795
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Access to Pretrial Services Records

Text: 22 Defendant claims that the district court erred by denying him access to pretrial services records that might have supported his theory of defense. 23 Defendant denied any involvement in the crimes involved in this case. His theory of defense was that someone else committed the crimes. He believed that it was just as likely that a codefendant from Gallagher I committed the crimes in the present case and that someone from the Government framed him by having him touch one of the forged checks. Defendant believed he would find support for his theory of defense in the files of pretrial services officers who supervised the other defendants in Gallagher I. In particular, defendant wanted to examine the files in order to determine the location of the other defendants in Gallagher I between May 16, 1995, and May 19, 1995. In order to access this information, defendant filed a motion to disclose confidential pretrial services officers' records. 1 24 The district court declined to order pretrial services to turn over its entire files. Instead, the district court ordered pretrial services to release its chronological logs for all the defendants in Gallagher I to both defendant and the Government. These chronological logs contained information on the location of each of the Gallagher I defendants when they traveled away from home, including the location of the Gallagher I defendants when the items used in the present case were stolen-the very information defendant was seeking. 25 The district court's ruling allowed defendant to access the information he was seeking while maintaining the confidentiality requirement of 18 U.S.C. § 3153(c)(1). The district court's ruling was reasonable and therefore not an abuse of discretion. 26