United States v. Allen Well

In this case the government challenges sanctions imposed under the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500 .

In January of 1977 Allen Well was tried on charges of aiding and abetting mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341 . Three of the principals involved in the mail fraud scheme testified against Well. Two of these witnesses had entered into plea bargains with the government before trial. The third had been convicted but had not been sentenced before the defendant’s trial.

During the government’s rebuttal case against the defendant, the court discovered that all of the government’s key witnesses had been interviewed before the trial by a postal agent who had tape-recorded those interviews. Although the defendant had requested Jencks Act materials, the existence of the tape recordings was apparently unknown to the prosecutor. No tapes were turned over to the defense after the witnesses testified, as required by the Jencks Act. The court declared a mistrial on its own motion pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3500 (d).

The postal agent revealed that he had recorded six or seven conversations with the three principal government witnesses between June and September of 1976 and that all of the…