Woodcock v. Amaral

373 F. Supp. 644, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9197
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedApril 1, 1974
DocketMisc. Civ. No. 72-99-C
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 373 F. Supp. 644 (Woodcock v. Amaral) 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
Woodcock v. Amaral, 373 F. Supp. 644, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9197 (D. Mass. 1974).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM and ORDER

CAFFREY, Chief Judge.

This matter came before the Court on the basis of petitioner’s objections to a Memorandum, Findings and Recommendation filed by the United States Magistrate. The case stems from an amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by petitioner who was indicted, along with other employees of the so-called “Small Loan” companies, on May [646]*6468, 1964, in the Superior Court, Suffolk County, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Petitioner was named as a party-defendant in three indictments and after a five-month trial he was found guilty, on December 18, 1966, on all three counts. On November 4, 1971, petitioner’s conviction was affirmed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, whose opinion appears at Com. v. Beneficial Finance Co., Mass.Adv.Sh., 1971, p. 1367, 275 N.E.2d 33. On June 12, 1972, the United States Supreme Court denied petitioner’s application for a writ of certiorari, 407 U.S. 914, 92 S.Ct. 2433, 32 L.Ed.2d 689.

The amended petition was referred to a Magistrate who filed a 23-page document captioned “Memorandum, Findings and Recommendations on Respondent’s Motion to Dismiss.” The Magistrate made a recommendation to this Court that respondent’s motion to dismiss be allowed. Thereafter, this Court received memoranda of law from both parties with reference to the Magistrate’s recommendation, subsequent to which counsel orally argued the matter in this court.

At the oral argument, counsel for petitioner concentrated his argument on four of the seven constitutional issues which petitioner seeks to raise in the amended petition for writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner’s allegations will be discussed in the order listed by counsel for petitioner at oral argument.

1. Petitioner’s claim “as there was insufficient evidence presented to the grand jury, it was constitutionally impermissible for them to indict this petitioner.”

This contention was disposed of adversely to the petitioner at pp. 1396-1397 of the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Court [275 N.E.2d 33]. A number of Supreme Court decisions have established that it is not necessary for this court to consider the merits of this claim by petitioner because the claim is not one of constitutional proportion. See United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 94 S.Ct. 613, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974), in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule is not applicable to grand jury proceedings. The Supreme Court also observed (at p. 345, 94 S.Ct. at p. 618):

“Thus, an indictment valid on its face is not subject to challenge on the ground that the grand jury acted on the basis of inadequate or incompetent evidence, Costello v. United States, supra [350 U.S. 359, 76 S.Ct. 406, 100 L.Ed. 397]; Holt v. United States, 218 U.S. 245, 31 S.Ct. 2, 54 L.Ed. 1021 (1910), or even on the basis of information obtained in violation of a defendant’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, Lawn v. United States, 355 U.S. 339, 78 S.Ct. 311, 2L.Ed.2d 321 (1958).”

To the same effect see Costello v. United States, 350 U.S. 359, 76 S.Ct. 406, 100 L.Ed. 397 (1956); United States v. Blue, 384 U.S. 251, 255, n. 3, 86 S.Ct. 1416, 16 L.Ed.2d 510 (1966). Russell v. United States, 369 U.S. 749, 82 S.Ct. 1038, 8 L.Ed.2d 240 (1962) relied on by petitioner, is wide of the mark. That case involved an indictment which was not valid on its face and which did not identify the offense charged with adequate specificity. Likewise, Connor v. Picard, 434 F.2d 673 (1 Cir. 1970), also cited by petitioner, is even more remote, dealing as it does, with the lack of specificity in “John Doe” warrants. I rule there is no constitutional merit in petitioner’s contention relative to allegedly insufficient evidence being submitted to the Suffolk County grand jury in his case.

2u Petitioner claims “the prosecutor’s suppression of exculpatory material evidence worked a denial of due process of law.”

This contention concerns a claim that counsel for petitioner was given certain portions of the grand jury testimony of one Heath, the principal witness against petitioner, together with advice from the prosecutor that if Heath [647]*647were cross-examined as to certain apparently exculpatory portions of his grand jury testimony, such cross-examination would result in bringing out other evidence of criminality. Petitioner claims that this advice or warning from the prosecutor was, in fact, a misrepresentation which had the effect of a “suppression of the evidence.” This contention was dealt with by the Supreme Judicial Court adversely to petitioner on pp. 1480-1487 of its opinion [275 N.E.2d 33]. Petitioner concedes that to come within the ruling of the Supreme Court in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), the suppressed evidence must be both exculpatory and material. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in substance that the allegedly suppressed evidence was not material.

The record of this case shows that no evidence was, in fact, “suppressed.” The evidence was made available to petitioner’s counsel with the admonition that its use might develop other evidence adverse to the interests of petitioner. The record contains an adequate explanation by the prosecutor of just what he had in mind in advising petitioner’s counsel of the possible consequences of the use of this evidence. The fact that counsel for petitioner erroneously understood which criminal conduct was being adverted to by the District Attorney does not bring this ease within the rule of Brady v. Maryland. The District Attorney cannot be saddled with responsibility for misinterpretation of his warning by counsel for petitioner. To the' extent that there was ambiguity in the statement of the prosecutor it certainly could have been cleared up by additional questioning on the part of petitioner’s counsel.

Petitioner’s complaint relative to the non-production of certain vouchers appears to be a post-trial fishing expedition, which the Supreme Court specifically warned against in Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972). These vouchers were characterized by the trial judge as not being so material that they created a reasonable likelihood that their production would have changed the jury’s verdict. This ruling was approved, and properly so, by the Supreme Judicial Court at p. 1481 of its opinion [275 N. E.2d 33

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Related

Lyle S. Woodcock v. R. W. Amaral
511 F.2d 985 (First Circuit, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
373 F. Supp. 644, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodcock-v-amaral-mad-1974.