DISCOVERY

(a) Voluntary Disclosure by the Government. The government may voluntarily disclose, within thirty (30) days after the arraignment, all material discoverable pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 16. (b) Requests for Discovery. (1) (2) (3) (4) Parties’ Duty to Confer.

Except in an emergency, before filing any discovery motion, the moving party shall confer with opposing counsel to attempt to eliminate or narrow the areas of disagreement. In the motion, the moving party shall certify that a good faith attempt was made to eliminate or narrow the issues raised in the motion through a conference with opposing counsel or that a good faith attempt to comply with this requirement was precluded by the opposing party’s unwillingness to confer. Motion. Any discovery motion shall be filed within fourteen (14) days of receipt of the opposing party’s reply to a discovery request.

In the event a party files a motion requesting discovery and inspection, it shall include a statement setting forth in detail the statements, reports, tangibleobjects, or other matters or documents, which are being requested and those which the other party has voluntarily disclosed, and shall include a copy of the discovery request letter and any response. Except in an emergency, no discovery motion, or request for a bill of particulars, shall be filed until the opposing party has failed to provide the requested discovery as agreed, or has failed to respond in writing to a written request. Response to Motion. The opposing party must file its response to all discovery motions within fourteen (14) days of receipt, stating, as to each request, its basis for opposing that request, including citations to authority.

Agreement. If a party agrees in writing to provide the requested discovery, the agreement shall be enforceable to the same extent as a court order requiring the agreed-upon disclosure. If a party does not agree to provide the requested information, that party must provide the basis for its position in writing. (5) Multi-defendant Cases.

In multi-defendant cases involving more than five (5) defendants, no discovery motions shall be filed unless there -112- is demonstrable urgent need for a particular discovery motion, or otherwise ordered by the court. If a discovery motion is to be filed, the defendant parties must endeavor to the maximum extent possible to file a single consolidated motion. Each defendant need not join in every written request submitted to the government or filed in a consolidated motion, but all defense requests and motions, whether or not joined by each defendant, must, to the maximum extent possible, be contained within a single document or filing. (6) Continuing Duty.

Each party is under a duty, when it learns that a prior disclosure was in some respect inaccurate or incomplete, to supplement promptly any disclosure required by court order, these rules, or the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. -113- RULE 116A SPECIAL PROCEDURES FOR RECORDINGS (a) Availability of Recordings. (1) (2) Unless otherwise ordered by the court, the government must provide a least one (1) copy of all recordings in its possession that are discoverable for examination and review by the defendant parties. If in a multi-defendant case any defendant is in custody, the government must ensure that an extra copy of all recordings is available for review by the defendant(s) in custody. (b) Composite Recordings, Preliminary Transcripts, and Final Transcripts.

The parties must make arrangements promptly to provide or make available for inspection and copying by opposing counsel all: (1) (2) Composite electronic surveillance or consensual interception recordings to be used in that party’s case-in-chief, once prepared; Preliminary transcripts, once prepared. A preliminary transcript may not be used at trial or in any hearing on a pretrial motion without the prior approval of the court based on a finding that the preliminary transcript is accurate in material respects and it is in the interest of the administration of justice to use it. (3) Final transcripts, once prepared. (c) Nothing in this Local Rule shall be construed to require a party to prepare composite tapes, or preliminary or final transcripts, of any recording. -114- RULE 116B NOTIFICATION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES AND PRESERVATION OF ROUGH NOTES The attorney for the government shall inform all enforcement agencies, federal and local, formally participating in the criminal investigation that resulted in the case of the discovery obligation set forth in these Local Rules and obtain any information subject to disclosure from each such agency.

All contemporaneous notes, memoranda, statements, reports, surveillance logs, tape recordings, and other documents memorializing matters relevant to the charges contained in the indictment made by, or in the custody of, any law enforcement officer whose agency at the time was formally participating in the investigation intended, in whole or in part, to result in a federal indictment shall be obtained by the attorney for the government no later than thirty (30) days after the filing of the indictment, and preserved until the entry of judgment, unless otherwise ordered by the court. -115- RULE 116C CONFIDENTIAL MATERIALS; IMPOUNDING (a) In General. The general aim of the Jencks Act is to restrict the use of statements to the impeachment of a government witness by bringing to the attention of the jury during cross- examination of the witness any variance between his testimony and his pretrial statements. Palermo v. United States, 360 U.S. 343, 352 (1959). The court is specifically concerned with grand jury material which, if disclosed, may cause serious prejudice to parties unrelated to criminal prosecutions or ongoing criminal investigations in the District of Puerto Rico.

Because the useful purpose of the statements does not surpass the limits of cross-examination, its availability and use may, at the parties’ request, be limited. The parties may achieve that purpose by filing a motion for impoundment. (b) Impounded and Confidential Materials. (1) Motions for impoundment must be filed and ruled upon prior to submission of the actual material sought to be impounded, unless the court orders otherwise.

(2) The court will not enter blanket orders that counsel for a party may at any time file material marked confidential with the clerk with instructions that the material be withheld from public inspection. A motion for impoundment must be presented each time a document or group of documents is to be filed. (3) Whenever a party files a motion to impound, the motion shall contain a statement of the earliest date on which the impounding order may be lifted, or a statement, supported by good cause, that the material should be impounded until further order of the court. The motion shall contain suggested custody arrangements for the post-impoundment period.

(4) The clerk shall attach a copy of the order to the envelope or other container holding the impounded material. (5) Any material impounded will not be made public without a court order. -116-