United States v. Moore ( 1997 )

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v. No. 96-4339
ZINA MOORE,
Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria.
James C. Cacheris, Chief District Judge.
(CR-95-465)
Submitted: March 13, 1997
Decided: March 24, 1997
Before HALL, ERVIN, and WILKINS, Circuit Judges.
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Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
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COUNSEL
Thomas K. Berger, Reston, Virginia, for Appellant. Helen F. Fahey,
United States Attorney, Gerald J. Smagala, Assistant United States
Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.
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Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).
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OPINION
PER CURIAM:
Zina Moore appeals her conviction by jury on the charge of assault
on a correctional officer. The charge arose out of an incident occur-
ring at the Occoquan Facility of Lorton Reformatory during which
Gloria Pringle, a correctional officer, was slapped by a person she
later identified as Moore. Moore alleges on appeal that the district
court abused its discretion in denying her motion for a mistrial. The
basis for her motion was the prosecution's disclosure at trial, for the
first time, of a report written by a Federal Bureau of Investigation
agent (the FBI-302 report) based on his interview of Pringle regarding
the incident. Moore claims that the FBI-302 report constituted mate-
rial which was not timely disclosed under the Jencks Act,1 United
States v. Agurs,2 Giglio v. United States,3 and Brady v. Maryland,4 and
that the Government's failure to timely disclose the report violated
her due process rights. She also claims error on the ground of pro-
secutorial misconduct based on the prosecutor's allegedly allowing
Pringle to present perjured testimony at trial. For the reasons stated
below, we find Moore's claims to be without merit.
This Court will reverse the denial of a motion for a mistrial only
upon a showing of clear abuse of discretion. United States v. Dorsey,
45 F.3d 809, 817 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 63 U.S.L.W. 3907 (U.S.
June 26, 1995) (No. 94-9433). A defendant must show prejudice in
order for the court's ruling to constitute an abuse of discretion. Id.;
United States v. West, 877 F.2d 281, 288 (4th Cir. 1989).
The prosecutor presented the FBI-302 report to the defense at trial
in an attempt to rehabilitate Pringle with prior consistent statements
after the defense brought out certain inconsistencies between
Pringle's trial testimony and an incident report she prepared regarding
the occurrence. After hearing the arguments of counsel, the district
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1 18 U.S.C. § 3500 (1994).
2 427 U.S. 97 (1976).
3 405 U.S. 150 (1972).
4 373 U.S. 83 (1963).
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judge denied Moore's mistrial motion, but refused to allow the Gov-
ernment to call the FBI agent to whom the FBI-302 report was made,
or otherwise to use the report. Moore's attorney did not request a con-
tinuance based on the information contained in the FBI-302 report,
nor did he otherwise use the FBI-302 report once it was in his posses-
sion.
We find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in deny-
ing Moore's motion for mistrial. First, the information contained in
the FBI-302 report was either cumulative of information already in
Moore's possession, or not material to Pringle's ultimate identifica-
tion of Moore as her assailant. In addition, once Moore had the FBI-
302 report, she could have, but did not, use it for impeachment pur-
poses. Finally, the district court's refusal to allow the Government to
call the FBI agent to testify, or otherwise to use the FBI-302 report
to rehabilitate Pringle, cured any defect caused by the failure to timely
provide the document to Moore.
Moore also claims that the prosecution improperly allowed Pringle
to perjure herself when she failed to disclose the fact that she had
made a third report about the incident to the FBI. It does not appear
on the record before this court that Moore lodged any objection or
otherwise raised this issue at the district court level, thereby requiring
this court to review the claim under the plain error standard. See e.g.,
United States v. Mitchell, 1 F.3d 235, 239 (4th Cir. 1993). We find
that while Pringle's testimony that she had made two reports was in
error, it did not constitute perjury. Moreover, even assuming that the
failure of the prosecutor to disclose the inaccuracy was improper,
such conduct did not violate Moore's right to a fair trial. See Greer
v. Miller, 483 U.S. 756, 765 (1987); United States v. Brockington, 849
F.2d 872, 875 (4th Cir. 1988).
Accordingly, we affirm both the district court's denial of Moore's
motion for mistrial and Moore's conviction. We dispense with oral
argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately pres-
ented in the materials before the Court and argument would not aid
the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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