United States v. McGee

798 F. Supp. 53, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10525, 1992 WL 163560
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJune 26, 1992
DocketCrim. A. 90-10269-Y
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 798 F. Supp. 53 (United States v. McGee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. McGee, 798 F. Supp. 53, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10525, 1992 WL 163560 (D. Mass. 1992).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

YOUNG, District Judge.

I. Introduction

Matthew E. McGee (“McGee”) and Robert A. Alessandro (“Alessandro”) are two of twenty-six defendants charged in a forty-two count indictment. 1 McGee and Ales-sandro have been charged with substantive offenses involving the possession, importation and distribution of controlled substances and with obstruction of justice. 2

McGee and Alessandro move to dismiss the indictments, and McGee moves to suppress his grand jury testimony and to disqualify the prosecuting attorney. (Docket Nos. 266-67, filed March 29, 1991; Docket Nos. 330-34, filed May 15, 1991.) The government has filed a consolidated response opposing all the above motions. (Docket No. 379, filed June 5, 1991.) A hearing was held before this Court on October 23, 1991 at which McGee was present and with whose issues Alessandro joins.

II. Facts

On November 30, 1989, Alessandro appeared before a federal grand jury in Boston. At that time, Assistant United States Attorney Brien T. O’Connor (“O’Connor”) advised him that he could no longer assert his Fifth Amendment privilege not to give self-incriminating testimony because he had been granted use and derivative use immunity pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 6002 and 6003 (1988). O’Connor cautioned Ales-sandro that if he testified falsely in any way, he could be prosecuted for perjury. Alessandro proceeded to deliver sixty-five pages of testimony in response to questions by O’Connor concerning, inter alia, his arrest on May 17, 1986 and his association with others subsequently indicted for conduct which is also the subject of this indictment. According to the government, Ales-sandro’s immunized testimony was later presented to another grand jury which indicted him for the substantive offenses and the obstruction of justice offense.

Similarly, McGee appeared before a federal grand jury in Boston on December 6, 1989. Like Alessandro, McGee was given use and derivative use immunity pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 6002 and 6003. O’Connor cautioned McGee that any false testimony could result in his prosecution for perjury. *55 McGee then proceeded to deliver forty-three pages of testimony in response to questions by O’Connor concerning, inter alia, his arrest on May 17, 1986 and his association with others subsequently indicted for conduct which is also the subject of this indictment. McGee’s immunized testimony was later presented to another grand jury which indicted him for the substantive offenses and the obstruction of justice offense.

III. Motions to Dismiss

A. Substantive Counts

Alessandro and McGee argue that the indictments should be dismissed because they were obtained by the government’s presentation of immunized testimony to the grand jury that indicted them, in direct violation of the immunity statute, 18 U.S.C. § 6002, and their Fifth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. The government argues that it was not improper to present transcripts of McGee’s or Alessandro’s immunized testimony to the indicting grand jury and that even if it were, dismissal is an inappropriate remedy since the government can show a wholly independent source for the information.

Analysis must begin with 18 U.S.C. § 6002, the immunity statute. It provides in relevant part:

[N]o testimony or other information compelled under the order [granting immunity] (or any information directly or indirectly derived from such testimony or other information) may be used against the witness in any criminal case, except a prosecution for perjury, giving a false statement, or otherwise failing to comply with the order.

18 U.S.C. § 6002. In upholding the constitutionality of this statute, the Supreme Court stated that once a defendant shows that he has testified under a grant of immunity .to matters relating to the federal prosecution, the government has “the affirmative duty to prove that the evidence it proposes to use is derived from a legitimate source wholly independent of the compelled testimony.” Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 460, 92 S.Ct. 1653, 1665, 32 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972). The government’s burden of proof in this regard is a “heavy” one. 3 Id. at 461, 92 S.Ct. at 1665.

First Circuit cases addressing the government’s use of a witnesses’ immunized testimony involve claims of derivative or indirect use. See, e.g., United States v. Romano, 583 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.1978) (Romano testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate under an order of immunity and was later indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that were the subject of his testimony); United States v. Serrano, 870 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.1989) (Serrano testified before a subcommittee of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives under a grant of immunity and was later indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that were the subject of his testimony).

In each of these cases, the First Circuit upheld findings by the district courts that the prosecution had met its “heavy” burden of showing that the evidence used to obtain the indictments was derived from legitimate sources wholly independent of the compelled testimony. Romano, 583 F.2d at 7; Serrano, 870 F.2d at 15. The First Circuit instructed that “[t]he question of whether any use, derivative or otherwise, was made of the compelled testimony by the prosecution, is one of fact on which, as here, the district court ordinarily holds a separate hearing.” 4 Romano, 583 F.2d at 7.

*56 In the instant case, the government concedes that the indictments involve the same subject matter as the immunized testimony of McGee and Alessandro. Therefore, at a minimum it is appropriate for this Court to engage in a Kastigar inquiry to determine whether the evidence on which the government relied to obtain the indictment was derived from the immunized testimony.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
798 F. Supp. 53, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10525, 1992 WL 163560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mcgee-mad-1992.