In the Courts

On April 10, 2012, the Eleventh Circuit denied a petition for rehearing of a motion for Hyde Amendment fees in United States v. Shaygan, —F.3d—, 2012 WL 1192781 (11th Cir. 2012) (Shaygan II).

On Feb. 8, 2008, Dr. Ali Shaygan was charged with 23 counts of distributing and dispensing a controlled substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. ' 841(a)(1). Id. at *2. A 2007 fatal overdose by a patient to whom Dr. Shaygan had prescribed methadone lead to an undercover investigation into the doctor's practices with respect to prescription of controlled substances. During trial preparation, prosecutors began to suspect Dr. Shaygan's defense team of witness tampering. A collateral investigation was conducted into these suspicions, but the Shaygan prosecutors were walled off from this investigation, and agents were instructed not to disclose any information relating to this investigation to the prosecutors handling the Shaygan matter. Id. As part of the collateral witness tampering investigation, two witnesses agreed to record their conversations with the defense. Id. When the district court later ordered the prosecutors to turn over reports of this nature to the court for Brady review, the agents involved did not give the prosecutors the reports related to witnesses in the collateral investigation. Thus, these reports were not ultimately submitted to the district court or defense counsel as potential Brady evidence. This information came to light during the trial, after which Dr. Shaygan was acquitted by the jury.