United States v. Govey

284 F. Supp. 3d 1054
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedMarch 1, 2018
DocketCase No.: SACR 17–00103–CJC
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 284 F. Supp. 3d 1054 (United States v. Govey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Govey, 284 F. Supp. 3d 1054 (C.D. Cal. 2018).

Opinion

CORMAC J. CARNEY, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

I. INTRODUCTION

Due process demands that the Government disclose to a defendant all material evidence in its possession that is favorable to the defense. This disclosure must occur at a time when the evidence can be of use and value to the defendant. Sadly, the Government in this case failed to disclose the material evidence to Defendant in a timely manner. Inexplicably, the Government waited just days before trial to disclose almost 100,000 material documents that Defendant needed to expose the trial witnesses' motive and bias against him and to attack their character for truthfulness. The Government's untimely disclosure occurred way too late for Defendant to review such an enormous amount of material documents and use them at trial. The Court now has no choice but to dismiss the charges against Defendant with prejudice.1

II. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. The Charges

The First Superseding Indictment charged Defendant with possession of 37.7 grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and for counterfeiting obligations of the United States. (Dkt. 28.) The charges arise out of a search of an Anaheim, California residence, including Defendant's bedroom, that Orange County Sheriff's Department ("OCSD") deputies conducted on June 6, 2017. (See Dkt. 34 at 3-4.) In Defendant's bedroom, deputies found 37.7 grams of actual methamphetamine, *1057pay-owe sheets, washed $1 bills, a counterfeit $100 bill, templates, a computer, and a printer. (Id. ) On August 16, 2017, a grand jury returned a one-count indictment charging Defendant with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. (Dkt. 1.) On December 13, 2017, a grand jury returned the First Superseding Indictment, adding a second count for counterfeiting obligations. (Dkt. 28.)

B. The Orange County Inmate Informant Scandal

Defendant's principal defense against the charges is that the critical trial witnesses, namely the OCSD deputies who conducted or were involved in the search, have a motive and bias to overstate the evidence against Defendant. Defendant claims that the details of his several-year history with the OCSD deputies, including the deputies' involvement in a department-wide scandal involving inmate informants, is necessary to show their motive and bias.

The adversarial history between Defendant and the OCSD deputies began long before the June 2017 search. (See Dkt. 36 at 2-5.) According to Defendant, it began sometime before 2011, when OCSD deputies started an unlawful informant program at the Orange County jail. (Id. ) Specifically, OCSD deputies were involved in a systematic practice of surreptitious monitoring and illegally using inmate informants to elicit incriminating statements from represented defendants, in clear violation of their Sixth Amendment rights. See People v. Dekraai , 5 Cal. App. 5th 1110, 1141, 210 Cal.Rptr.3d 523 (Ct. App. 2016), as modified (Dec. 14, 2016) ("[I]t is clear [OCSD] deputy sheriffs operated a well-established program whereby they placed [inmate informants] next to targeted defendants who they knew were represented by counsel to obtain statements.").

The OCSD's illegal inmate informant program came to light in recent years through evidence obtained by criminal defendants who were the targets of the program. See id. Not surprisingly, a very public scandal resulted when the program was exposed. Because of the constitutional violations that inured from the illegal use of inmate informants, the OCSD, the Orange County District Attorney's office, and individual deputies have all been criticized, and in some instances vilified, by the media, politicians, the legal community, and members of the public. In addition, numerous investigations and prosecutions, including several serious murder cases, have been compromised and the charges dismissed.

To highlight one example, the OCSD's improper practices led a California trial court to recuse the entire Orange County District Attorney's office in People v. Dekraai , a mass murder case involving eight victims, seven of whom died. After extensive evidentiary rulings, the trial court found that the deputies had violated the defendant's constitutional rights by planting an inmate informant to elicit a confession. Dekraai , 5 Cal. App. 5th at 1137. The trial court also found that the deputies then either intentionally lied or willfully withheld material evidence about the informant program from the trial court. Id. Further, the trial court found that the deputies' conduct created a conflict of interest for the District Attorney's office, which "failed its responsibility to resolve the conflict of interest by protecting the rule of law and instead ignored OCSD's attempt to compromise [the defendant's] constitutional and statutory rights." Id. at 1138.

The California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's recusal of the entire District Attorney's office in November 2016. Id. In its opinion, the Court of Appeal found that the District Attorney's office was not only aware of the OCSD's grave *1058misconduct, but also failed to produce information to defendants about the informant program. Id. at 1146. Because the District Attorney's office was complicit in the OCSD's wrongdoing, the Court of Appeal found that the District Attorney's office had violated the defendant's due process rights and could not fairly prosecute the case. Id.

Although the recusal of the District Attorney's office in a mass murder case was perhaps the most public and dramatic result of the inmate informant scandal, there have been many additional repercussions. For example, in June 2016, a defendant's conviction in a fatal shooting case, People v. Ortiz , Case No.

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Bluebook (online)
284 F. Supp. 3d 1054, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-govey-cacd-2018.