Matter of Larsen

Ten days before trial in a felony robbery case turning on eyewitness testimony, prosecutor Larsen showed two eyewitnesses a photograph of the accused without telling the defense, information the defense could have used to challenge the reliability of the witnesses' later in-court identifications; when one witness denied at trial having previously seen a photo of the defendant, Larsen said nothing, but when the second witness testified she had been shown a photo, Larsen then acknowledged it. A disciplinary committee charged Larsen with violating Utah's ethical rule 3.8, and Larsen argued his in-trial acknowledgment satisfied his Brady disclosure obligation and was therefore timely under the ethical rules as well.