Court Opinion

ID: 9457972
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:39:43.460592+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:35.871829
License: Public Domain

TIMBERS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I respectfully dissent.
Few aspects of the trial of a criminal case present more administrative difficulties than those arising under the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500 (1970). The objective of the statute and the de-cisional law construing it is to maintain insofar as possible that delicately calibrated balance between the rights of the accused and the rights of the government. With the guidelines as imprecise as they necessarily are, our best hope of achieving that objective, it seems to me, is to encourage the wise and comprehending trial judge who, on the firing line, displays good judgment in handling a tough dilemma in such a way as to maintain that balance. I think this case *870is a prime example of good judgment on the part of the trial judge.
The government admits its error in initially producing only the one report by Agent Villano, without informing defense counsel or the court that a second report existed. But failure to comply with the Jencks Act is reversible error only if the defense has been prejudiced. Rosenberg v. United States, 360 U.S. 367, 371 (1959); United States v. Hestie, 439 F.2d 131, 132 (2 Cir. 1971) ; United States v. Gardin, 382 F.2d 601, 606 (2 Cir. 1967). Here the trial record, in my view, shows that the error in question was harmless.
Appellant essentially contends that delayed production of the agent’s second report1 led his counsel into an improvident line of cross-examination which resulted in the jury’s knowing that the agent had given a prior consistent statement, a fact which otherwise would have been inadmissible. The court, however, removed any possible prejudice by an instruction which in effect told the jury that no prior consistent statement existed — an instruction, if anything, more favorable than appellant deserved.
Assuming arguendo that the court’s instruction neutralized the corroborative impact of the agent’s reply, the majority nevertheless concludes that the combination of the government’s failure to comply with the Jencks Act and the court’s instruction to the jury precluded the defense from impeaching the agent’s testimony on the ground that he had made two materially different reports about the content of a single conversation he had had with the accused. With deference, however, I do not believe that this conclusion is supported by the record. The majority tends to gloss over the fact that the second report was made available in time to afford the defense ample opportunity to use it to impeach the agent. Furthermore, prior to the court’s suggestion that it give the instruction which appellant now challenges on appeal for the first time, defense counsel had time to review the second report and to ascertain whether it could be used to impeach the agent. If defense counsel had believed that the report would be valuable in cross-examining the agent, he would have objected to the proffered instruction or suggested an alternative way of handling the problem. Indeed, the trial judge, in addressing defense counsel, offered to do “[ajnything you want me to do.” Defense counsel’s failure to object to the instruction and to pursue a line of cross-examination based on the material differences between the two reports reflected a deliberate tactical decision on his part that greater advantage lay in foregoing further cross-examination and relying upon the court’s instruction. Thus, defense counsel’s failure to cross-examine the agent with respect to the second report resulted not from the combination of the government’s error and the court’s instruction, but from defense counsel’s belief that such cross-examination would be of no avail to appellant.
While I would not hesitate to reverse in an appropriate case of failure to observe the procedures relative to turning over Jencks Act material, United States v. Hestie, supra, 439 F.2d at 132; United States v. Gardin, supra, 382 F.2d at 604-06, and where prejudice to the defense has been demonstrated, this is not such a case. Here an unintentional, understandable and brief delay in producing a second report of the agent still on the stand resulted in a curative instruction by a conscientious trial judge who further offered to do anything else defense counsel wanted him to do. Experienced defense counsel (same as on appeal) chose not to avail himself of the *871trial judge’s extraordinarily fair offer, nor to object to the instruction as given. I am left with the firm conviction that no prejudicial error was committed.
Absent prejudicial error in the only point raised on appeal and in view of the overwhelming evidence of guilt so clearly set forth in Judge Waterman’s complete and fair statement of the facts in the majority opinion, I would affirm the judgment of conviction.

. As so often happens where the accused is the subject of more than one investigation, the second report here in question was in another case file. The Assistant United States Attorney so informed the court: “May the record further show, your Honor, that it came from page 16 in a 73 page report in an entirely different investigation? ”