United States v. Giovanelli

747 F. Supp. 915, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8734, 1989 WL 225007
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in United States v. Giovanelli. Read the opinion of the Court — 747 F. Supp. 875
District Court, S.D. New York·Decided July 30, 1989·No. No. S 88 Cr. 954 (CBM)·Published

Opinion

OPINION

MOTLEY, District Judge.

On July 11, 1989, New York City Police Detective Gaetano Bruno was called as a defense witness in this case by all three defendants. While on the witness stand, Bruno was asked about a description that was given to the police by Frank Simone, an eyewitness to the murder of deceased Detective Anthony Venditti and the attempted murder of Detective Kathleen Burke. Bruno was questioned by defense counsel for defendant Maltese about a short or a waist length green bomber jacket allegedly worn by male shooter number two, alleged to be Maltese. Although Frank Simone had not yet testified and although Bruno testified that when he focused on defendants Maltese and Gualtieri as suspects in the shootings, he did not have the written police report (DD5 No. 15, which did not even exist on the night of January 21, 1986) containing Frank Simone’s descriptions of the shooters, all defense counsel made a relentless effort to elicit from Bruno the descriptions contained in that particular police report. This effort was made notwithstanding repeated objec[916]*916tions by the Government and notwithstanding repeated rulings by the court that neither the DD5 nor its contents was admissible in evidence, since it was a police report containing hearsay specifically barred by Rule 803(8) of the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Defense counsels’ persistence resulted from the fact that they were reluctant to put Frank Simone on the witness stand as their witness since he was an admitted drug and alcohol abuser and had recanted, under suspicious circumstances, his testimony on a prior state court trial as to the presence of Gualtieri at the scene of the crime and the fact that the Government had declined to call Simone as their witness. Simone, however, was subsequently called to testify as a defense witness in the case, whereupon descriptions given by him and contained in the DD5 at issue, which defense counsel had feverishly tried to elicit through Detective Bruno, were in fact elicited through Simone. Thus, through Simone’s testimony concerning the descriptions he gave the police on the night of January 21, 1986, defense counsel were fully able to espouse their position that the police and Detective Bruno had “unreasonably deviated from [their] own standard,” July 12 Transcript, p. 7611, in focusing on defendants Maltese and Gualtiere, since the DD5 descriptions, according to the defense, did not match those of the two defendants.

On July 11, 1989, while on the stand, Detective Bruno was given a large booklet containing numerous police reports, which included Simone’s descriptions, by Mr. Cooper, defense counsel for defendant Maltese, so that his recollection could be refreshed as to how he came to focus on Maltese as a suspect, July 11, 1989 Transcript, p. 7554, [hereinafter referred to as July 11 Transcript]. The court informed the witness Bruno that he was not to testify about the contents of the document (the DD5) but only about his refreshed recollection as to what basis he had for narrowing the number of suspects down to five. Id.

Rule 803(8) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, excepts from the the hearsay rule, the following:

Records, reports, statements, or data compilations, in any form, of public offices or agencies, setting forth (A) the activities of the office or agency, or (b) matters observed pursuant to duty imposed by law as to which matters there was a duty to report, excluding, however, in criminal cases matters observed by police officers and other law enforcement personnel....

The document contained in the booklet shown to the witness Bruno, DD5 No. 15, was a report containing matters observed by law enforcement personnel and, therefore, is excluded, as inadmissible hearsay, from the scope of Rule 803(8).

In addition, Rule 612 of the Federal Rules of Evidence also excludes such document from evidence. According to Rule 612, “[ejxcept as otherwise provided in criminal proceedings by section 3500 of title 18, United States Code, if a witness uses a writing to refresh memory for the purpose of testifying ... an adverse party is entitled to have the writing ... introduce[d] in evidence....” The document at issue, DD5 No. 15, is a document in the same category as 3500 materials, and therefore is also excluded from the scope of Rule 612 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Because this document is a police report containing statements of prospective witnesses, the Government has treated DD5 No. 15, as well as other police and FBI reports in the case, as 3500 materials which were turned over to defense counsel when the witness whose statement is contained in the report testified at trial.

The court, therefore, excluded descriptions contained in the document and instructed the lawyers not to elicit such descriptions from the witness Bruno who was being shown the document only to refresh his recollection. After going through the transcript of the testimony of Detective Bruno in order to clarify the record at the suggestion of defense counsel Roland Thau who represents defendant Gualtiere, the court concludes that defense counsel, in contravention of the court’s instructions, repeatedly tried to get the witness to testify about the description contained in the [917]*917DD5 and to pin the witness to such description in testifying as to his refreshed recollection in order to get before the jury Simone’s descriptions of the alleged shooters without having to put Simone on the witness stand. Since the conduct of defense counsel with respect to the use of police reports during the examination of Detective Bruno was characteristic of their conduct throughout the trial with respect to the use of such reports, this opinion will lay out the court’s observations of incidents related to the examination of Detective Bruno, in which defense counsel, under the guise of refreshing the detective’s recollection, refused to accept the detective’s testimony about his refreshed recollection and, instead, attempted to elicit from him hearsay information contained in the DD5 description. As the following page-by-page examination of the record shows, this course of conduct was consistently followed by defense counsel, even after the Government repeatedly objected and even after the court repeatedly sustained the Government’s objections. This strategy on the part of defense counsel resulted in confusion on the part of the witness and an inability on the part of the court reports to accurately transcribe the testimony of Detective Bruno.

Mr. Cooper’s Examination of Detective Bruno

Mr. Cooper asked the following question of the witness: “Can the witness tell us, now that his recollection was refreshed, what the description was as it pertained to Mr. Maltese?” July 11 Transcript, p. 7556 (emphasis added). Even though the Government objected, Mr.

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United States v. Giovanelli, 747 F. Supp. 915, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8734, 1989 WL 225007 (S.D.N.Y. 1989).

747 F. Supp. 915 (United States v. Giovanelli) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

§ 3500
18 U.S.C. § 3500