Boyd v. Criminal Div. Of U.S. Dept. of Justice

• Decision Date: 06 February 2007
• Docket Number: No. 04-5369.,No. 05-5142.,05-5142.,04-5369.
• Citation: 475 F.3d 381
• Parties: Willie E. Boyd, Appellant v. United States Marshals Service, et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

475 F.3d 381

Willie E. Boyd, Appellant v. United States Marshals Service, et al., Appellees.

No. 05-5142.

No. 04-5369.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued November 17, 2006.

Decided February 6, 2007.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 04cv01100) (No. 99cv02712).

Steven H. Goldblatt, appointed by the court, argued the cause and filed the briefs as amicus curiae for appellant Willie E. Boyd.

Willie E. Boyd, pro se, filed briefs.

Jane M. Lyons, Assistant U.S. Attorney, argued the cause for appellees Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, et al. and United States Marshals Service, et al. With her on the brief were Kenneth L. Wainstein, U.S. Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and R. Craig Lawrence, Assistant U.S. Attorney. Julia K. Douds and Michael J. Ryan, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, entered appearances.

Before: GINSBURG, Chief Judge, and RANDOLPH and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge ROGERS.

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.

Following his conviction of drugs and weapons charges, Willie Boyd filed a series of requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 U.S.C. § 552, in an attempt to uncover alleged violations of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 86, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), during his trial. Although various documents were disclosed, the government agencies withheld others pursuant to FOIA exemptions. On appeal, Boyd challenges the grants of summary judgment to the agencies, contending through court-appointed amicus curiae that the district court erred in ruling that the FOIA exemptions were properly invoked, in failing to grant other remedies and to award costs. We affirm.

I.

Boyd was arrested on a parole violation warrant at his girlfriend's house on February 1, 1997. Based on a gun and a black bag containing cocaine that were found in the master bedroom closet, Boyd was indicted and convicted of drugs and weapons charges, including being a felon in possession of a firearm and of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. His conviction was affirmed on appeal. United States v. Boyd, 180 F.3d 967 (8th Cir.1999). Following his trial, Boyd learned that his girlfriend's brother, Bryant Troupe, had been a government informant for several years and had sold drugs in the past. This information was contained in the prosecutor's Brady disclosure letter in a case in which Troupe had testified at trial as a government informant. See Miller v. United States, 135 F.3d 1254, 1255-56 (8th Cir.1998). Amicus contends that this information, which he believes could have been used to support Boyd's defense that the gun and drugs found in the closet belonged to Troupe and to suggest that the government may have failed to investigate that possibility because it had an interest in not jeopardizing convictions that Troupe, acting as an informant, had helped to obtain, was withheld from Boyd during his criminal trial in violation of Brady, 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194.

In 1998 Boyd filed the first of several FOIA requests seeking information about himself and Troupe from several federal agencies involved in Boyd's prosecution, including the Executive Office for United States Attorneys ("Attorneys' Office"), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives ("BATF"), and the Bureau of Prisons ("BOP"). The agencies released some documents and withheld others pursuant to FOIA Exemptions 7(A), 7(C), and 7(D).¹ In 1999, Boyd filed a complaint, and later an amended complaint, challenging the agencies' invocations of FOIA exemptions and the adequacy of their searches. The district court granted summary judgment to the Attorneys' Office and BOP, but denied judgment to BATF based, in part, on its failure to demonstrate the adequacy of its search.

Upon a further search, BATF located a work file that had been kept by the BATF agent in charge of the investigation in Boyd's criminal case. Because the work file contained documents that were not part of the official case file, BATF processed it for release in accordance with Boyd's FOIA request. The district court, after appointing counsel for Boyd and ordering discovery, granted summary judgment to BATF. The district court denied Boyd's request for costs on the ground that he had not substantially prevailed.

Following new FOIA requests in 2003 and 2004 to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department ("Criminal Division") and the United States Marshals Service ("Marshals Service") for information about himself and Troupe, Boyd filed another complaint. The district court granted summary judgment to the agencies, finding that they had demonstrated the adequacy of their searches and ruling that they had properly invoked exemptions to withhold information. By order of December 27, 2005, this court consolidated Boyd's appeals.

II.

Congress established FOIA to allow private persons to access government records and thereby be informed about "what their government is up to." U.S. Dep't of Justice v. Reporters Comm. for Freedom of the Press, 489 U.S. 749, 773, 109 S.Ct. 1468, 103 L.Ed.2d 774 (1989) (internal quotation marks omitted). Congress also recognized, however, that the disclosure of certain information "may harm legitimate governmental or private interests" and accordingly enacted several exemptions to FOIA disclosure requirements. Summers v. Dep't of Justice, 140 F.3d 1077, 1080 (D.C.Cir.1998); see also Stern v. Fed. Bureau of Investigation, 737 F.2d 84, 88 (D.C.Cir.1984). Upon de novo review of the grants of summary judgment, see Iturralde v. Comptroller of the Currency, 315 F.3d 311, 313 (D.C.Cir. 2003), this court must determine whether the agencies sustained their burden of demonstrating that the withheld documents are exempt from disclosure under FOIA, see Johnson v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, 310 F.3d 771, 774 (D.C.Cir. 2002); Summers, 140 F.3d at 1080.

A.

Exemption 7(A) authorizes the withholding of "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information . . . could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings." 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A). The government meets its burden by demonstrating that release of the requested information would reveal "the size, scope and direction of [the] investigation" and thereby "allow for the destruction or alteration of relevant evidence, and the fabrication of fraudulent alibis." Alyeska Pipeline Serv. Co. v. U.S. Envtl. Prot. Agency, 856 F.2d 309, 312 (D.C.Cir.1988) (internal quotation marks omitted).

In Boyd's case, the government explained that disclosure would "promote the criminal activity of" the targets of the investigation, "allow [the targets] to avoid arrest and prosecution," and "provide them information that would allow them to change their operations to avoid detection." Because the individuals under investigation are all "related [to], controlled [by], or influenced by" Boyd, disclosure of the information could reasonably be expected to reveal to the targets "the size, scope, and direction of [the] investigation," Alyeska, 856 F.2d at 312, and allow them to destroy or alter evidence, fabricate fraudulent alibis, and take other actions to frustrate the government's case.

The government's explanation also adequately meets Amicus's contentions that the government has not identified "a concrete prospective law enforcement proceeding," see Bevis v. Dep't of State, 801 F.2d 1386, 1389 (D.C.Cir.1986) (quoting Carson v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 631 F.2d 1008, 1018 (D.C.Cir.1980)) (internal quotation marks omitted), or specified that the enforcement proceeding is pending or reasonably anticipated, see Mapother v. Dep't of Justice, 3 F.3d 1533, 1540 (D.C.Cir. 1993). In Bevis, this court held that investigations related to potential prosecutions for the murders of several Americans in El Salvador constituted concrete law enforcement proceedings. Bevis, 801 F.2d at 1387-89. Amicus maintains that here the government has asserted only that its investigation concerned "illegal activities" and "criminal activities" without specifying the type of criminal activity under investigation. Unlike in Bevis, however, sufficient specificity regarding the government's investigation is provided by its identification of the targets of the investigation: "individuals . . . to some degree, related [to], controlled [by], or influenced by" Boyd.

Although Amicus implied during oral argument that no investigations involving Boyd were still active, the government's affidavit states that the investigation at issue involves the "ongoing collection of data" and that the withheld records relate to "potential criminal proceedings against individuals." See Mapother, 3 F.3d at 1540; Coastal States Gas Corp. v. Dep't of Energy, 617 F.2d 854, 870 (D.C.Cir.1980). The duration of the investigation was brief; the documents at issue are dated 1997, Boyd was convicted in April 1998, and the government invoked Exemption 7(A) in early 1999. Therefore, Amicus fails to show that Exemption 7(A) was improperly invoked.

B.

Exemption 7(C) authorizes the government to withhold "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information . . . could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(C). The government may nonetheless be required to disclose the documents if the individual seeking the information demonstrates a public interest in the information that is sufficient to overcome the privacy interest at issue. See Reporters Comm., 489 U.S. at 762, 776, 109 S.Ct. 1468. In order to trigger the balancing of public interests against private interests, a FOIA requester must (1) "show that the public interest sought to be advanced...