United States v. Charles R. Knowles

Appellant Charles R. Knowles was convicted by a jury of five counts of violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2314 , transportation in interstate commerce of securities knowing the same to have been stolen, taken, or converted by fraud. The first count charges that Knowles induced James Knight to assign the proceeds of three real estate contracts to him by showing Knight a counterfeit cashier’s check in the amount of $52,000. The remaining counts charge interstate transportation of the forged check and interstate transportation of the three assignments knowing the same to have been taken by fraud.

During the trial, appellant attempted to obtain grand jury transcripts of the government’s key witness pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3500 (Jencks Act). The transcripts did not arrive until after the verdict, but they disclosed that the witness had previously lied under oath to a grand jury, and several other impeachable inconsistencies with his testimony below. Knowles claims that failure to produce the transcript violated his Sixth Amendment right to compulsory process and his Fifth Amendment right to a fair trial. Knowles had been convicted several months previously of a similar crime in Colorado and now…