Court Opinion

ID: 9458536
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:54:37.71269+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:48.041093
License: Public Domain

FAHY, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring in affirmance and in the majority opinion with the following qualifications :
As to the position of appellant that due to the loss of his notes the testimony of Officer Tropf should have been stricken, I do not read the opinion to hold that a claim of good faith loss of notes is in and of itself the answer. If the issue here turned on good faith I think a more searching inquiry as to the circumstances of the loss would be required. See United States v. Augenblick, 393 U.S. 348, 89 S.Ct. 528, 21 L. Ed.2d 537 (1969); United States v. Bryant, 142 U.S.App.D.C. 132, 439 F.2d 642 (1971). The availability of contemporaneous notes of a witness is of great importance to the fairness of a trial, due to the importance of cross-examination. The courts must insist upon the careful preservation of such notes. I agree, however, that the testimony of Officer Tropf was not required to be stricken. The objection to Officer Tropf’s testimony raised below and in this court is based solely on the allegation that the notes are statements required to be produced in accordance with the provisions of the Jencks Act. The record is too sketchy as to the nature of the notes to conclude they came within the Jencks Act; and no further inquiry with respect to them was sought at trial, or is sought on the appeal.