Court Opinion

ID: 9486058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:37:03.431569+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:30.785964
License: Public Domain

MINER, Circuit Judge,
(joined by GEORGE C. PRATT and ALTIMARI, Circuit Judges), dissenting:
I join in the dissenting opinion of Judge Pratt and add only some observations of my own in regard to the majority opinion.
The majority examines the record and finds it “beyond reasonable dispute” that the prosecution had no motive in proving at the grand jury proceedings that the two witnesses falsely denied that a bid-rigging “Club” existed. I examine the record and come to the opposite conclusion. Whatever the reason behind the strategy, the prosecution strove to establish the falsity of the testimony of Bruno and DeMatteis through the use of a number of impeaching questions that are set forth in detail in the panel opinion.
The grand jury, speaking through the prosecutor, expressed its doubts to Bruno about the truthfulness of his testimony. Specifically, after hearing the testimony and excusing him from the grand jury room, Bruno was called back to hear the prosecutor express the “strong concern” of the grand jury that his testimony had “not been truthful.” Bruno then was excused. The majority makes much of these events to arrive at the conclusion that the prosecutor had no interest in showing the falsity of testimony already rejected by the grand jury. I review these events and come to the opposite conclusion. It appears to me that the announcement to the witness that the grand jury was strongly concerned about (not that it rejected) the witness’ testimony was intended to invite the witness to continue to testify and, it seems obvious, to contradict his previous denial of the existence of a “Club.” Indeed, the prosecutor advised Bruno to have his attorney contact the government if he wished to change any of his testimony. The prosecutor, unsurprisingly, rejected the attorney’s offer to answer additional questions in writing, apparently preferring to have Bruno back under oath in order to pursue further the attack on his credibility with regard to the existence of a “Club.” To me, this is strong evidence of a motive to develop testimony in greater depth regarding the bid-rigging and kickback scheme, the details of which the prosecutor sought to establish at the trial.
Finally, I do not think that it is at all “fanciful” to believe that the prosecutor had “any substantial interest in showing the falsity of the witnesses’ denial of the Club’s existence just to persuade the grand jury to add one more project to the indictment.” Op. at 914. The government had an interest in plumbing the depths of the entire scheme to determine whether there might be additional projects or additional defendants within the purview of the existing indictment, as the majority all but concedes. The alternative, as Judge Pratt suggests, would be that the prosecutor was improperly using the grand jury for discovery purposes, a conclusion that I am not prepared to draw on the basis of the record before us.