United States v. Starusko, John

OPINION OF THE COURT

ALDISERT, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal by the government, brought pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731, we are asked to decide whether the district court abused its discretion in precluding a key government witness from testifying at trial in a criminal case as a sanction for the government’s failure to turn over to the defendant certain exculpatory evidence pri- or to trial. We hold that although the government withheld materially exculpatory evidence, in direct violation of a valid district court order, it was an abuse of discretion for the district court to issue a preclusion…