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Hey, guys, Anthony Bandiero Here, Senior Legal instructor at Blue two gold law enforcement training. I got another question. And I thought it was a great question. And it's not a search and seizure related question. It's an evidence related question. But it's something that drug investigators especially run into all the time, and it's wanting to use the use this as an opportunity to share some information. So the question is, is, if a narcotics investigator is has a parallel investigation, you know, and they ask another officer, usually a uniformed officer to develop independence, reasonable suspicion or probable cause to stop the defendant's car. And that turns into a search and, you know, in drug evidence is found, does the defendants have a right to, to gain information about the investigation that kind of prompted this pre tech stop? 

Right. And these are called Wall stops, because there's a wall between the the actual stop, which was, let's say, a speeding violation or whatnot, and an ongoing criminal investigation that may actually be based off of may have probable cause to, to also stop the defendants vehicle or not. But the point is, there's a wall between these two, and this, this, this parallel investigation is usually the reason why it's it's a pretext stop. So does defendant have a right to that information? The answer is no. And here's why. There are two principles at play here. First of all, it's in play here is the Brady rule. Right? You've if you were a cop in 2019, you've definitely heard of Brady violations. Right. Brady come from Brady V. Maryland. It's a US Supreme Court case that essentially says that the prosecutor has an obligation to hand over exculpatory evidence to the defendants, exculpatory evidence, right? Not inculpatory exculpatory that's fancy legal jargon for things that help defend and prove his innocence. Right? Or things that would help him get a reduced sentence. If you if you're sitting that kind of information, you got to hand it over because the defendant needs it for his defense. If not, it's a due process violation. So let's talk about why not handing over this parallel investigation. You know, the stuff behind the wall is not is not a Brady violation. Well, first of all, it's 99%, probably not going to be exculpatory. Everything that you know about this defendant tends to show, I believe, you know, if it's a drug investigation, and he is involved in narcotics sales, he has been trafficking. He has been undercover or hand-to-hand transactions or sold to an undercover officer. That's not going to help him he doesn't want that information in the court. So it's not exculpatory. Right? And so that's, that's the main reason. It has nothing to do with what the actual reason for the stop, which was, let's say, speeding and so forth, so it doesn't help them. So there's no due process violation. Now, just to be clear, it also, the evidence would also now have to be exculpatory, exculpatory, but also material, because we get a lot of info as police officers, we get a lot of information that may tend to prove or help the defendant. show his innocence. For example, if you're investigating an aggravated battery, and the defendant's neighbor says, you know, the defendant, he is such a nice person, I've never seen him hurt a fly, and he helps me take out my trash every Sunday. Do you need to give that information over to the defendant? Is that is that a material exculpatory information? No, absolutely not. It doesn't have nothing has nothing to do with the crime issue, which is aggravated battery. Now, if the defendant committed a murder at a bar, he shot somebody, right? And you talk to the neighbor, the neighbor says, well, he couldn't have shot that person. The defendant was at his home Saturday night, I saw him I spoke to him he was cooking on the barbecue. Now, are you gonna have to turn over that to the you know, let's
say that the neighbors wrong? Right. We still think the defendant did it. But he's wrong. He may be the defendant, the twin brother, but the point is, is are you going to have to turn that over to the defendant. Absolutely. Because that tends to show he did not commit the crime. He wasn't even there. Right. And so he needs that for his alibi, defense and so forth. So that is really the main reason the Brady issue is the main reason you do not have to write a supplemental report. handed over to the end, give it to the prosecutor so that they can give it to the defendant. Now, I'll end off with this, if you are in doubt, and you're just not sure, lean on the side of disclosure, right? Lean on a side disclosure because if you're wrong, and that information wasn't handed over, you can have a reversal of conviction, you can also have potentially some lawsuits. Egg on the face of the prosecutor. Now, what the prosecutor can do, if you do make the supplement pork is just not sure if it's exculpatory in its material. The prosecutor if he or she determines that it doesn't apply, Brady doesn't apply doesn't require disclosure? Well, guess what, they don't have to disclose it. It's not like once you write it, it automatically is handed over to the defendant. But if you're not sure, and you don't want to, you don't want the prosecutor to, to make a mistake and just hand it over without really looking at it, give them give the prosecutor a call, tell them the situation and see if they want you to write a report. Because again, if you have this long investigation going out going out. And and you have some Rico issues and you have multiple defendants, the worst thing that can happen is that a supplemental report that shouldn't have been handed over gets handed over to the defendant. And now he's calling his comrades and letting them know that that this the parallel investigation is going on that that he didn't that stop was not just for speeding, but it's also because of this pretext. I hope that helps. If you have questions that you want me to answer in this type of format, email me at info at Blue to gold calm. I also have a book for search and seizure. It's called the search and seizure Survival Guide. Please buy it. It's it's written for you. It's written for cops to be to, to share all of the legal doctrines that you need to know to be a police officer. And finally, if you want me to come out to your agency and train you and your fellow officers and not other officers from other agencies around the region, let me know we go out there for free. You give me the space to train, and I'll give you your agency free seats and exchange. Anyway, until next time, be safe