Court Opinion

ID: 9462217
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:34:57.655792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:28.026089
License: Public Domain

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge
(concurring and dissenting):
Although it is always hard to object to a remand for further development of the facts, I see no occasion for a second remand with respect to the Government’s failure to disclose evidence in its possession in regard to its chief witness, Valdez. The undisputed facts compel a conclusion that the non-disclosure was culpable and not “merely negligent or inadvertent.” While Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972), should not be pressed to extremes, such as imputing to an Assistant United States Attorney in Brooklyn knowledge of papers in the files of another in San Francisco, see United States v. Sperling, 506 F.2d 1323, 1333 (2d Cir. 1974), cert. denied 420 U.S. 962, 95 S.Ct. 1351, 43 L.Ed.2d 439 (1975), Agent McElroy, who had possession of the confidential file on Valdez, was an important part of the prosecution team. He had supervised Valdez, obtained Government funds to pay him, knew all about the Florida sentencing (including the correct date and the judge’s statement to a special agent that the granting of probation was conditioned on Valdez’ continued cooperation), and sat at the trial table for all or most of the trial. Acknowledging all this, the majority agrees we would be obliged to reverse without further ado if McElroy knew of the defense’s requests for information about Valdez. The result should not be different if the prosecutor failed to inform him; this would be an altogether too easy method to evade Giglio. Furthermore, the majority does not mention the prosecutor’s arbitrary refusal prior to the retrial to telephone the United States Attorney in Florida, as defense counsel requested, in order to get information about what had occurred there. The *558opinion likewise does not mention the Government’s silence when Valdez was explaining a payment of $1,500, see fn. 4, whereas the file in Agent McElroy’s possession at the counsel table showed that during the period beginning in April 1972, one month before Valdez first made contact with Morell and Bruzon, until July 1973, two days after the Government secured an early termination of Valdez’ probation, he was paid some $4,600 in ten separate payments, all concluding before the first trial commenced.
Apart from fairness to defendants, we are having to devote far too much in scarce judicial resources to determining the consequences of failures to furnish Brady material. See United States v. Sperling, supra, 506 F.2d at 1333; United States v. Rosner, 516 F.2d 269, 273—74 (2 Cir. 1975); United States v. Seijo, 514 F.2d 1357 (2 Cir. 1975), and the many recent cases cited at 1364 n.9. It is high time that United States Attorneys in this circuit took effective means to heed the Chief Justice’s admonition in Giglio, supra, 405 U.S. at 154, 92 S.Ct. at 766, that, to the extent that requiring the right hand to know what the left hand is doing “places a burden on the large prosecution offices, procedures and regulations can be established to carry that burden and to insure communication of all relevant information on each case to every lawyer who deals with it.” This should be particularly easy when, as in this case and many others, the material concerns the prosecution’s chief witness. An appellate court is naturally reluctant to reverse on Brady grounds after long trials where guilt seems clear and the value of the withheld material is dubious. But we should never forget Judge Frank’s famous remarks about the salutary effect inherent in a reversal and a direction of a new trial, as distinguished from repeated admonitions. United States v. Antonelli Fireworks Co., 155 F.2d 631, 661 (2 Cir.) (dissenting opinion), cert. denied, 329 U.S. 742, 67 S.Ct. 49, 91 L.Ed. 640 (1946). While the Government may have some difficulty in getting Valdez to return for a third trial, with consequent risk of failing to obtain a conviction, that would reinforce the lesson we need to teach. The republic will not perish if these defendants, who took the step, unusual in a narcotics case, of testifying in their own defense, should go free.
We should also make it clear that there is no merit in so much of the Government’s argument concerning 18 U.S.C. § 3109 as turns on Valdez’ presence inside the store. United States v. Bradley, 455 F.2d 1181 (1 Cir. 1972), aff’d on other grounds, 410 U.S. 605, 93 S.Ct. 1151, 35 L.Ed.2d 528 (1973), and United States v. Hutchinson, 488 F.2d 484 (8 Cir. 1973), cert. denied, United States v. Ennis, 417 U.S. 915, 94 S.Ct. 2616, 41 L.Ed.2d 219 (1974), are inapposite. In those cases the person who had lawfully entered was a government agent empowered by Federal law to make an arrest, so that the subsequent questionable entry was deemed inconsequential; Valdez, an undercover operator, had no such authority.
I would reverse for a new trial, to be preceded by a suppression hearing on the issue of compliance with 18 U.S.C. § 3109. I concur in other portions of the court’s opinion.