Plaintiff Kuantay Reeder filed a civil rights lawsuit against Jason Williams, the Orleans Parish District Attorney, in his official capacity. Reeder had spent more than 26 years in prison following a wrongful conviction for murder. He claimed the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA) violated his right to due process by failing to disclose exculpatory evidence.
To support his damages claim, Reeder identified two expert witnesses: Elizabeth Martina, a vocational rehabilitation counselor, and Harold Asher, a certified public accountant. Martina was expected to testify about Reeder’s lost earning potential. She argued that, if not wrongfully imprisoned, Reeder could have become a highly paid electrician. Harold Asher, has used this premise to opine that Reeder should be entitled to $2,286,663 consisting of past and future lost wages and benefits. Williams argued for the exclusion of both experts’ lost wage and benefit evidence. His reasoning is that this evidence entirely overlooks two crucial aspects of Reeder’s past: his unremarkable employment history before his incarceration and his significant criminal record prior to that time.
Reeder hired Professor Dane Ciolino as an expert witness to testify on two key issues: first, whether the prosecution of Reeder violated the standard of care concerning a prosecutor’s obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence; and second, whether the policies of the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA) in place during Reeder’s prosecution failed to meet the standard of care for supervising prosecutors.
Williams sought to exclude Ciolino’s testimony. Williams contended that while Ciolino presents opinions on “standards of care,” no such relevant standard exists in this particular case. Furthermore, Williams asserted that other opinions in Ciolino’s report represent inadmissible legal conclusions.
Law And Legal Expert Witness
Dane S. Ciolino currently serves as the Alvin R. Christovich Distinguished Professor of Law at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. His teaching interests include Professional Responsibility, Evidence, Advocacy, and Criminal Law.
Professor Ciolino graduated cum laude from Rhodes College in 1985, and magna cum laude from Tulane Law School in 1988, where he was inducted into Order of the Coif and selected as Editor in Chief of the Tulane Law Review.
Vocational Rehabilitation Expert Witness
Elizabeth Martina is a licensed Rehabilitation Counselor in the State of Louisiana and has national certifications as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and as a Certified Life Care Planner. She has practiced in the field of vocational rehabilitation for over 17 years and is a board-approved supervisor for provisionally licensed Rehabilitation Counselors.
Accounting Expert Witness
Harold Asher is a managing director for Asher Meyers, a Metairie firm that provides forensic accounting services. He holds a B.S. and an M.B.A. from Tulane University, having earned the latter degree with a concentration in accounting and finance. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and has over 40 years of experience in providing expert forensic accounting services in conjunction with litigation.
Discussion by Court
Motion to Exclude the Opinions of Elizabeth Martina and Harold Asher
The central question before the Court, therefore, is whether Martina’s opinions, and consequently Asher’s, are so irrelevant and unreliable that they must be excluded under the Court’s gatekeeping responsibility as established in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S. Ct. 2786, 125 L. Ed. 2d 469 (1993), and its progeny.
Alternatively, as Reeder proposes, the jury should be permitted to assess Martina’s expert opinion—specifically, that Reeder’s life would not have been spent dealing drugs or in prison but would have instead evolved to resemble his current state, albeit sooner. In support of this, Reeder emphasizes that Williams retains the opportunity to thoroughly cross-examine Martina regarding her expert conclusions. Ultimately, the Court concurred with this view.
However, Williams further objected to the fact that Reeder’s calculations for lost wages/benefits are predicated on a 1991 injury date, despite the allegedly wrongful conviction not taking place until 1995. Consequently, the Court held that Reeder must revise Asher’s report to accurately reflect a 1995 injury onset date and also to appropriately reduce the lost wage/benefit figures to account for avoided expenses.
Motion to Exclude Dane Ciolino’s Testimony
Subsequently, Ciolino produced a report. In this report, he opined that the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA) failed to comply with the standards of care and conduct governing prosecutors, as well as their constitutional obligations to provide Brady material, during the 1994 and 1995 prosecutions of Kuantay Reeder.
Furthermore, he concluded that the OPDA Policy Manual in effect at the time of these prosecutions was inadequate to properly convey those obligations to its staff.
The Plaintiff seeking to recover for a Brady violation in a civil rightslawsuit must establish three elements: 1) that the State suppressed evidence by failing to disclose it to the Defendant; 2) that the undisclosed evidence was favorable to the Defendant by helping to show the Defendant’s innocence or by impeaching an unfavorable witness; and 3) that the nondisclosure prejudiced the Defendant because it was “material,” i.e., there is a “reasonable probability” that the trial outcome would have changed if the prosecution had turned over the evidence.
Analysis
In his opposition, Reeder clarified, however, that he would not seek to offer Ciolino’s opinions regarding whether a Brady violation had actually occurred in his case. Consequently, Williams’s concerns about Ciolino potentially attempting to testify about an “ultimate legal conclusion” were then moot.
The Court agreed with Williams that aside from whether a Brady violation occurred in Reeder’s criminal prosecution, there is simply nothing left for Ciolino to opine about.
Aside from the aspects of the report that discuss the law pertaining to Brady obligations and why Ciolino believes that a Brady violation did in fact occur (which Reeder now concedes he will not attempt to elicit at trial), Ciolino’s opinions are based on state law ethical standards. Reeder’s claim is governed by federal law not state law.
In his report, Ciolino, moreover, dedicates a specific section to opining on why the 1987 OPDA Policy Manual inadequately outlines a prosecutor’s Brady obligations, asserting that the Policy is vague and fundamentally insufficient. However, Williams contends that this particular opinion is irrelevant because Ciolino lacks knowledge regarding how the Policy Manual was actually implemented or what other measures were undertaken to train or supervise prosecutors. Indeed, the Court concurs with Williams’s assessment.
Held
The Court granted the motion to exclude the testimony of Dane Ciolino. As the Court has outlined, Reeder is required to revise his expert reports from both Martina and Asher in the manner previously detailed.
Key Takeaway:
The central issue of liability in this case hinges on whether a Brady violation took place. Consequently, the Court concurs with Williams’s argument that permitting Ciolino to testify about state law ethical standards, which are not determinative of liability here, would likely confuse the jury.
Furthermore, the Court finds it unclear how Ciolino could offer informed opinions on the Policy Manual’s adherence to a prosecutor’s Brady obligations under federal law if he is not allowed to testify about the relevant legal standards governing this case.
Case Details:
| Case Caption: | Reeder V. Williams |
| Docket Number: | 2:22cv4614 |
| Court Name: | United States District Court Eastern District of Louisiana |
| Order Date: | April 16, 2025 |
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