United States v. Heine

314 F.R.D. 498, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56539, 2016 WL 1704321
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedApril 28, 2016
DocketCase No. 3:15-cr-00238-SI-2
StatusPublished

This text of 314 F.R.D. 498 (United States v. Heine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Heine, 314 F.R.D. 498, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56539, 2016 WL 1704321 (D. Or. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER ON DEFENDANT YATES’S MOTION FOR ADDITIONAL DISCOVERY

Michael H. Simon United States District Judge

Defendant Diana Yates (“Yates”) and her co-defendant Dan Heine (“Heine”) are charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and making false bank entries, reports, and transactions during the time that they were affiliated with The Bank of Oswego (the “Bank”). Before the Court is Yates’s Motion for Additional Discovery pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure (“Rule”) 16(a) and Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). For the reasons that follow, Yates’s Motion is granted in part and denied in part.

STANDARDS

A. Rule 16(a)

Rule 16(a) “grants criminal defendants a broad right to discovery.” United States v. Stever, 603 F.3d 747, 752 (9th Cir.2010). Rule 16(a)(1)(E) provides that a criminal defendant is entitled to discovery of docu[501]*501ments and tangible things that are within the government’s possession, custody, or control if the requested information is “material to preparing the defense.” Documents and tangible things are in the government’s possession if the prosecutor “has knowledge of and access to the documents sought by the defendant.” Stever, 603 F.3d at 752 (quoting United States v. Santiago, 46 F.3d 885, 893 (9th Cir.1995)). The requested information need not be admissible in evidence in order to be discoverable. See Robert M. Cary, Craig D. Singer & Simon A. Latcovieh, Federal Criminal Discovery 96 (ABA Criminal Justice Section 2011) (hereinafter Federal Criminal Discovery).

A defendant’s right of discovery under Rule 16, although broad, is not unlimited. Rule 16(a)(2) excludes some information from disclosure, including “reports, memoranda, or other internal government documents made by an attorney for the government or other government agent in connection with investigating or prosecuting the case.” The purpose of the work product exception is to “protect from disclosure the opinions and mental impressions of government counsel and government agents in conducting their investigation and prosecution of the case.” Federal Criminal Discovery 131; see also United States v. Fernandez, 231 F.3d 1240, 1247 (9th Cir.2000) (describing Rule 16(a)(2) as a recognition of “the work product privilege” in criminal cases).

Additionally, a defendant must make a prima facie showing of materiality before obtaining discovery under Rule 16(a)(1)(E). Stever, 603 F.3d at 752. “Neither a general description of the information sought nor conclusory allegations of materiality suffice; a defendant must present facts which would tend to show that the Government is in possession of information helpful to the defense.” United States v. Mandel, 914 F.2d 1215, 1219 (9th Cir.1990) (discussing former Rule 16(a)(1)(C)); see also United States v. Lloyd, 992 F.2d 348, 351 (D.C.Cir.1993) (stating that Rule 16’s materiality requirement “normally ‘is not a heavy burden,’ ... rather, evidence is material as long as there is a strong indication that it will ‘play an important role in uncovering admissible evidence, aiding witness preparation, corroborating testimony, or assisting impeachment or rebuttal’”) (quoting United States v. George, 786 F.Supp. 56, 58 (D.D.C.1992)). Rule 16 is broader than Brady because “[¡Information that is not exculpatory or impeaching may still be relevant to developing a possible defense.” United States v. Muniz-Jaquez, 718 F.3d 1180, 1183 (9th Cir.2013).

In United States v. Muniz-Jaquez, the Ninth Circuit held that a defendant satisfied Rule 16’s materiality requirement when he argued for the production of U.S. Border Patrol dispatch tapes mid-trial. Id. at 1183— 84. A U.S. Border Patrol agent testified that immediately after seeing the defendant and other individuals near the border, he called for backup over his service radio. Id. at 1182. The prosecutor learned during recess that the agent’s call for backup would have been recorded on dispatch tapes. Id. The defendant argued that the tapes are discoverable under Rule 16 and Brady because they are relevant to establishing whether law enforcement observed the defendant from the moment of his entry until arrest, and thus whether he could present an official restraint defense. Id. The defendant also argued that the tapes could impeach the agent. Id. at 1183. The district court characterized the defendant’s arguments as speculative and untimely, and refused to order production of the dispatch tapes. Id.

The Ninth Circuit disagreed and found that the defendant satisfied Rule 16’s materiality requirement, reasoning as follows:

Defense counsel here made clear that he sought the tapes to potentially further an official restraint defense, as well as for possible use in impeaching the agent. This was not a fishing expedition____ [T]he tapes could have been crucial to Muniz-Jaquez’s ability to assess the reliability of Agent Woodford’s testimony and to cross-examine him effectively, both important issues in his defense. Moreover, given Agent Woodford’s testimony that he immediately called for backup, the tapes were clearly relevant to the defendant’s location and the official restraint defense.

Id. at 1184. Thus, the Ninth Circuit concluded that “[t]he district court had no basis for [502]*502finding the defendant’s showing of materiality to be speculative.” Id.

Similarly, in United States v. Doe, 705 F.3d 1134 (9th Cir.2013), the Ninth Circuit found that the district court abused its discretion in denying Rule 16 discovery requests for “any records or reports containing information Doe [the defendant] relayed to the FBI regarding illegal activity and any FBI calendars or other documents showing planned meetings with Doe.” Id. at 1150-51. The Ninth Circuit reasoned that the documents would have been “helpful to his defense,” including his entrapment defense and his public authority defense. Id. The Ninth Circuit explained:

The documents, if they existed, could have been used by Doe to help establish his state of mind. They could have been used by the jury in their determination of whether the public authority defense was established, or whether Doe’s belief that he was working with the FBI was reasonable. They most certainly could have been used to impeach the FBI agent at trial. And, at the very least, they could have helped to establish Doe’s credibility. The list of potential uses of these documents goes on and on. For the district court to say that it could not determine whether the requests fell under Rule 16(a)(l)(E)(i) is to say that it is unclear if the documents were “material to preparing the defense.” This conclusion, however, is not correct, especially considering that “[ejvidence is relevant if it has any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.”

Id. at 1151 (emphasis in original) (quoting Stever, 603 F.3d at 753).

In contrast, in

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Bluebook (online)
314 F.R.D. 498, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56539, 2016 WL 1704321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-heine-ord-2016.