Court Opinion

ID: 9747676
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:27:13.525112+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:25.551987
License: Public Domain

YEAGLEY, Associate Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the opinion of the court and add the following. The legal resolution of a case is controlled by the facts. My understanding of the facts in this case is that the victim, Bruzzo, and the former police officer, Huff, testified that Bruzzo identified the appellant at the showup, largely by the unusual shoes appellant was wearing which he said looked the same as those worn by the robber and also by items of clothing, his build and hair.
The only testimony as to the nature of the officer’s notes was the following:
Q. Did you write down what Mr. Bruz-zo said with respect to this individual?
A. Yes sir. I’m sure I did.
There was no inquiry made and no testimony whatever offered as to whether the notes met the test of “substantially verbatim” as required of Jencks Act statements. The court here did not make a finding that the notes were substantially verbatim but it treated them as a Jencks statement and struck the showup testimony. Later after the government moved to reconsider the Jencks Act ruling the court said that the missing notes, “appear to have been verbatim”.
Officer Kennedy, who was present and whose testimony on appellant’s motion out of the presence of the jury was supported by brief notes, testified that Mr. Bruzzo said, “Yes, that’s him”. In answer to the question of whether he took everything down that Mr. Bruzzo said at that time he replied, “No, I was not able to.” Later he said, “It’s just not possible to get every single word in there.”
In Moore v. United States, D.C.App., 353 A.2d 16 (1976), we said that: “The transcription must be a continuous, narrative recording rather than mere selective notations or excerpts from oral statements.” [Id. at 18; footnote omitted.] There can be no doubt that is a correct statement of the law. In this record I find no evidence whatever to support the court’s finding that the lost notes were “verbatim”.
*544We also said in Moore v. United States, supra at 19, regarding lost notes that:
Before deciding whether sanctions should have been imposed, however, it is necessary to know whether the notes were Jencks Act statements and whether the substance of the notes was incorporated in other documents.
It appears to me to be a mockery of justice to say that although a victim has definitely identified a perpetrator of a crime at a showup, according to three witnesses, that the jury shall be denied that testimony because one of the officers who had since left the force had taken some sort of notes at the time but could not locate them for trial. No bad faith was shown. There is no testimony as to the extent or detail of the notes. There is substantial evidence that the identification in fact occurred and this is corroborated by Officer Kennedy’s notes.
The thrust of our dissenting colleague’s postion as to what she understands the law to be is found in a rather broad statement in the first paragraph of the dissent wherein it is stated without citation of supporting authority: “Upon such a finding the trial court was required to strike at least all of that portion of the witness’ testimony relating, for impeachment and cross-examination purposes, to the subject matter of the missing statement — here, the identification testimony.” [Footnote omitted ; emphasis added.]
It is difficult to understand the argument that not only should Mr. Bruzzo be barred from testifying that he had made a showup identification of the defendant, at which the missing notes were taken but also that he should be barred from testifying that on a later occasion he had picked the appellant out at a lineup.
The Jencks Act requirement as to striking testimony only relates to the testimony as to what was said on the occasion when the notes were taken; in this case the showup. The question of permitting testimony concerning the subsequent lineup is one of identification, that is whether the victim could identify the suspect at the lineup as a result of his having observed him at the time of the robbery. This the trial court clearly found that he could do. Although the court is quoted accurately in footnote 3 of the dissent to the effect that it would have to rule out the testimony regarding the lineup, the court clearly reversed this ruling almost immediately. In response to the counter argument of the prosecutor it stated: “Yes, I will reverse myself. You are right. I have to agree with you.” The prosecutor then inquired if the court was making a finding of an independent source “for an in-court identification” and the court replied: “Yes. I am making a finding that there is an independent source based on the characteristics which Mr. Bruzzo saw during the robbery.” Thus, there being an independent source, the court permitted not only an in-court identification but also allowed the witness to testify, without further objection, concerning his lineup identification. See note 4, supra, in the opinion of the court.
The showup was not illegal, did not infringe on defendant’s constitutional rights and there is ample evidence to support the court’s ruling that it did not taint the lineup or in-court identification.