United States v. Jackson

155 F.R.D. 664, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7369, 1994 WL 241640
District Court, D. Kansas·Decided May 6, 1994·No. No. 94-40001-01/02-SAC·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

CROW, District Judge.

The case comes before the court on three matters. First, the government on April 18, 1994, submitted certain materials for the court’s in camera inspection. (Dk. 57). The court unsealed the documents in the government counsel’s presence and heard their arguments on April 25, 1994. Second, the defendants filed on April 13, 1994, a joint motion for issuance of subpoenas pursuant to Rule 17(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. (Dk. 55). Third, the defendants filed on April 25, 1994, a joint motion for production of portions of Louis Garcia’s pre-sentence report. (Dk. 62). The court heard oral argument on the defendants’ joint motions on April 28, 1994.

Background

The defendants are charged by a thirty-two count indictment for their association and conduct with Parkview Hospital (Park-view), a private, for profit psychiatric hospital in Topeka, Kansas. The defendant Mark Jackson was an administrator at Parkview, and the defendant Robert Martinez was a marketing representative with Parkview. The indictment alleges that the defendants bribed Louis Albert Garcia, an employee assistance counselor with the United States Postal Service, to refer patients to Parkview. Between approximately November of 1990 and January of 1992, the defendants paid Garcia $3,000 monthly and Garcia referred forty-three patients to Parkview.

[666]*666Count one charges both defendants with conspiring to defraud the United States of the faithful services of its employee Louis Garcia, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. For each monthly payment made to Garcia, both defendants are also charged with two counts. The even-numbered counts from two through thirty charge the defendants with bribery of Garcia in giving something of value in order to influence Garcia’s official acts, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 201(b)(1)(A). The odd-numbered counts from three through thirty-one charge the defendants with aiding and abetting Louis Garcia in the supplementation of his federal salary, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 209. Count thirty-two charges that the defendants endeavored to obstruct and impede the federal grand jury investigation by advising Garcia to testify falsely that the payments were made as lawful compensation for consulting services, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503.1

I. In Camera Review of Materials

On March 30, 1994, the court entered a memorandum and order deciding the defendants’ pending pretrial motions. (Dk. 52). Among the motions decided was the defendants’ joint motion for discovery of favorable and impeaching evidence. (Dk. 30). The court granted the defendants’ motion in part and ordered production of certain documents within the prosecution’s possession. On the defendants’ request for Louis Garcia’s personnel file at the United States Postal Service, the court ordered:

As for Garcia’s entire personnel file, the court directs the prosecutor to review it and produce all material impeachment and exculpatory evidence from it. If the prosecution is uncertain about the materiality of some information in the personnel file or is confronted with difficult privacy issues, then it should submit the information to the court for an in camera inspection and evaluation.

(Dk. 52 at 42). The court similarly required the prosecution to review for material impeachment evidence the files relating to the Postal Service’s internal investigation of Louis Garcia. (Dk. 52 at 45). On April 18, 1994, the prosecution submitted for the court’s in camera inspection five groups of documents either taken from Garcia’s personnel file or the Postal Service’s internal investigation files.

The court agrees with the prosecution that the first two groups of documents concern events too remote in time to constitute material impeachment evidence. Attached to the defendants’ reply brief (Dk. 64) filed on April 26, 1994, were most of the documents constituting the third category. The defendants represented in their brief that the prosecution provided these documents to them on April 18, 1994. Having already produced all or most of these documents, the prosecution has waived its objection. The court orders full disclosure of the third group of documents. The court does not compel disclosure of the fourth group for the reasons argued by the prosecution. As to the fifth group, the court orders the prosecution to disclose those documents beginning at page ten through the last page. The tenth page is the “Notice of Proposed Indefinite Suspension” from the United States Post Office to Louis Garcia dated October 12, 1993. The last page is the PS Form 2574, Resignation From Postal Service, apparently signed by Louis Garcia on November 13, 1993. As for all other documents in the fifth group, the court agrees with the government’s reasons for non-disclosure.

II. Rule 17(c) Motion

After the court’s March 30th order, the defendants filed a joint motion for issuance of subpoenas pursuant to Rule 17(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. (Dk. 55). The defendants seek information that breaks down into four different categories: (1) psychiatric and mental health records of Louis Garcia; (2) documentary evidence of other consulting agreements between Louis Garcia and Bowling Green Hospital, La Hacienda Hospital and Psychiatric Institute of Texas; (3) documentary evidence from Louis Garcia concerning his relationship and activities [667]*667with Parkview and other hospitals and his tax returns for 1988 and 1992; (4) documentary evidence from Louis Garcia’s attorney, Gene Garcia, concerning correspondence, proffers and agreements between Louis Garcia and the federal government. The defendants seek this information from seven different sources.

A. Governing Law

Rule 17(c) provides in pertinent part: The court may direct that books, papers, documents or objects designated in the subpoena be produced before the court at a time prior to the trial or prior to the time when they are to be offered in evidence and may upon their production permit the books, papers, documents or objects or portions thereof to be inspected by the parties and their attorneys.

A subpoena duces tecum under Rule 17(c) “was not intended to provide a means of discovery for criminal eases ... but to expedite the trial by providing a time and place before trial for the inspection of subpoenaed materials.” United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 698-99, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 3103, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974). In other words, Rule 17(c) is not a discovery tool but offers compulsory process for securing specific, identifiable evidence for trial.

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United States v. Jackson, 155 F.R.D. 664, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7369, 1994 WL 241640 (D. Kan. 1994).

155 F.R.D. 664 (United States v. Jackson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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