United States v. William Joseph Pandozzi

878 F.2d 1526, 28 Fed. R. Serv. 477, 30 ERC (BNA) 1181, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 9368, 1989 WL 70060
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJune 29, 1989
Docket88-2114, 88-2160
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 878 F.2d 1526 (United States v. William Joseph Pandozzi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. William Joseph Pandozzi, 878 F.2d 1526, 28 Fed. R. Serv. 477, 30 ERC (BNA) 1181, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 9368, 1989 WL 70060 (1st Cir. 1989).

Opinion

BREYER, Circuit Judge.

William Pandozzi appeals from his conviction for perjury before a grand jury. 18 U.S.C. § 1623(a). Pandozzi worked as a foreman and truck driver for a waste management company, MacDonald & Watson, at Narragansett Improvement, a storage facility and asphalt plant that MacDonald & Watson used. Narragansett, among other things, collected used or spilled industrial oil, coolants, and other gasoline/oil/water mixtures and transported them to its plant, stored these liquids in tanks, and eventually used them in making asphalt. In 1987 Pandozzi, when appearing before a federal grand jury investigating environmental crimes, testified as follows:

Q: Did you ever have occasion to dump any of these coolants down the drains at Narragansett Improvement?
A: No.
* * * * * *
Q: Did you ever have occasion, sir, to hook up the hoses to such a truck and dump the material down a storm drain at Narragansett Improvement?
A: Never had an occasion.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to observe someone else do that, sir?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to be asked to do that sir?
A: No, sir.
* * * * * *
Q: Did you ever have occasion, sir, to empty the contents of any of these large storage tanks into the storm sewer system during the course of these late hours?
A: No, sir. I don’t see how that could be done.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to unload any trucks, during these late hours, into the storm drains at Narragansett Improvement?
A: No, sir.
* * * * * *
Q: Did you, in fact, [ever] ... dump or dispose of any of this material or any other liquids down the storm drains at Narragansett Improvement during the months of December, January, February, or March of the last four years?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to observe anyone else doing that, sir?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to be asked to do that, sir?
A: No, sir.
* * * * * *
Q: Did you ever take responsibility for those trucks and proceed to drive them to Narragansett Improvement, sir, and dispose of the contents down the storm drains?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to assist anyone else to do that, sir?
A: No, sir.
* * * * * *
Q: During the course of your employment with MacDonald & Watson, sir, have you ever had occasion to dispose of *1528 any liquid material down any drain at Narragansett Improvement Company?
A: I have never done so.

The government, believing these answers false, later offered Pandozzi an opportunity to recant his testimony. See 18 U.S.C. § 1623(d). He refused the opportunity. The grand jury then indicted him for perjury.

The government presented its case at trial mainly through the testimony of two other Narragansett truck drivers, William Major and Bruce Vincent. Both said they had seen Pandozzi dump mixtures of oil, gas, and water from trucks or storage tanks into storm drains at Narragansett. Pandozzi’s defense basically consisted of an effort to impeach these witnesses; of evidence that the storage tanks had adequate room to store the liquids, so he had no motive for illegal dumping; and of his own denials of illegal dumping.

The jury convicted Pandozzi. Subsequently, the government gave Pandozzi 52 documents, which it said it had inadvertently failed to turn over before trial. Pandoz-zi then asked for a new trial on the ground that the documents contained significant material “favorable to the accused.” United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 675, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 3380, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985); see United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 104, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 2397, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976); Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 1196, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). The district court denied the motion. Pan-dozzi now appeals this denial, and his conviction. After reviewing the record, we conclude that the district court’s determinations were lawful.

I.

The Undisclosed Documents

The Supreme Court set forth the legal standard relevant to appellant’s major claim in Bagley, It wrote that the government must

disclose evidence favorable to the accused that, if suppressed, would deprive the defendant of a fair trial.

Id., 473 U.S. at 675, 105 S.Ct. at 3380. It added that undisclosed

evidence is material only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A “reasonable probability” is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.

Id. at 682, 105 S.Ct. at 3383. We have reviewed the documents the government provided to the defense after trial, in light of the full record of the trial itself. Mindful of the fact that the district court, closer to the trial than we are, found that the government’s nondisclosure did not entitle Pandozzi to a new trial, we have reached the same conclusion. United States v. Petrillo, 821 F.2d 85, 88 (2d Cir.1987) (“the trial court’s rulings are given great deference on [Brady ] issues because it presided over the trial and is better able to determine the effect the new materials would have had”). Giving proper weight to the trial court’s determination, we cannot say that the added advantages that the undisclosed documents might have offered the defense are sufficient to “undermine” our “confidence in the outcome” of the trial. Bagley, 473 U.S. at 682, 105 S.Ct. at 3383. We shall briefly explain why.

1. Major’s prior statement. Pandozzi’s coworker William Major testified about two critical incidents.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

NERVAL v. WORCESTER
D. Maine, 2020
United States v. Pereira
848 F.3d 17 (First Circuit, 2017)
Preston v. State
118 A.3d 902 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2015)
United States v. De La Cruz-Feliciano
786 F.3d 78 (First Circuit, 2015)
People v. Murray CA2/7
California Court of Appeal, 2014
P. v. Travis CA6
California Court of Appeal, 2013
United States v. Guzman-Correa
754 F. Supp. 2d 342 (D. Puerto Rico, 2011)
State v. McManus
941 A.2d 222 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 2008)
United States v. Vega-Santiago
519 F.3d 14 (First Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Rodriguez-Pomales
500 F. Supp. 2d 51 (D. Puerto Rico, 2007)
UNITED STATES v. RAFAEL PAGÁN-SANTINI
451 F.3d 258 (First Circuit, 2006)
People v. Salazar
112 P.3d 14 (California Supreme Court, 2005)
State v. Pinder
2005 UT 15 (Utah Supreme Court, 2005)
State v. Bisner
2001 UT 99 (Utah Supreme Court, 2001)
Reid v. Simmons
163 F. Supp. 2d 81 (D. New Hampshire, 2001)
Reid v. Simmons, et al.
2001 DNH 065 (D. New Hampshire, 2001)
United States v. Santana
First Circuit, 1999
United States v. Julio C. Santana
175 F.3d 57 (First Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.
24 F. Supp. 2d 155 (D. Puerto Rico, 1997)
Love v. Morton
944 F. Supp. 379 (D. New Jersey, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
878 F.2d 1526, 28 Fed. R. Serv. 477, 30 ERC (BNA) 1181, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 9368, 1989 WL 70060, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-william-joseph-pandozzi-ca1-1989.