United States v. Mazzarella, No. 12-10171 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of twelve felony counts related to a complex mortgage fraud scheme. Defendant filed two motions for a new trial, arguing that the government violated Brady v. Maryland by withholding material exculpatory evidence and violated her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches. The district court denied the motions, concluding that Defendant’s rights under Brady and the Fourth Amendment had not been violated. A panel of the Ninth Circuit vacated the district court’s orders denying Defendant’s motions for a new trial and remanded, holding that the district court (1) abused its discretion in denying Defendant’s requests for an evidentiary hearing and for discovery; (2) should reconsider Defendant’s Brady claims on an open record, in conjunction with the additional disclosure with which Defendant sought to augment the record on appeal; and (3) erred in concluding that an employee’s copying of documents from Defendant’s real estate and investment offices was not a search implicating the Fourth Amendment.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel vacated the district court’s orders denying the defendant’s motions for a new trial, and remanded for further proceedings, in a case in which the defendant was convicted of twelve felony counts related to a complex mortgage fraud scheme. After her conviction, the defendant filed two motions for a new trial, contending that the government withheld material exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland and violated her right to be free from unreasonable searches under UNITED STATES V. MAZZARELLA 3 the Fourth Amendment. The defendant requested discovery and an evidentiary hearing on these issues. The panel held that based on the record before the district court, the court erred in concluding that the defendant’s rights under Brady and the Fourth Amendment had not been violated. The panel held that the defendant has not shown prejudice based solely on the Brady disclosures, first revealed after her trial and sentencing. But the panel remanded the Brady issues for the district court to reconsider them on an open record, in conjunction with the additional disclosure with which the defendant sought to augment the record on appeal, the Fourth Amendment issue, and any further impeachment or exculpatory evidence that comes to light from discovery. The panel held that the district court erred in concluding on the record before it that an employee’s copying of documents from the defendant’s real estate and investment offices was not a search implicating the Fourth Amendment. The panel wrote that more discovery is required to determine whether an unlawful search occurred and whether there were evidentiary fruits of an unlawful search. The panel wrote that after making these determinations on remand, the district court should consider again the cumulative effect of the impeachment evidence it considered before, and the additional impeachment evidence that the defendant sought to place before this court. The panel wrote that this material must be considered together with any evidence that should have been excluded from trial under the Fourth Amendment to determine whether any of the defendant’s convictions must be vacated and a new trial granted. 4 UNITED STATES V. MAZZARELLA The panel also held that the district court abused its discretion in denying the defendant’s requests for an evidentiary hearing and for discovery. The panel wrote that more findings, which will require reasonable discovery and an evidentiary hearing, are needed to resolve whether there was an immunity agreement in place for a prosecution witness, and whether there was an unlawful search that resulted in tainted evidence being used at trial. The panel wrote that the district court should also consider an additional disclosure with which the defendant sought to supplement the record before this court. The panel rejected the defendant’s argument that the district court should have imposed the very detailed discovery guidelines from a 2010 Department of Justice memorandum to federal prosecutors. The panel addressed other issues in a concurrently filed memorandum disposition.
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