Wire
$33,000 in FEMA aid keeps Houston fraud case alive
The Fifth Circuit said two late disclosures did not support tossing the indictment in a disaster-relief fraud trial. The decision leaves the government free to try the case again.
A Houston disaster-aid fraud case is alive again after the Fifth Circuit reversed a trial judge’s dismissal and ordered the indictment reinstated. The federal panel said the late disclosure problem in Sade Kuyoro’s case did not warrant ending the prosecution altogether.
Kuyoro had been charged in the Southern District of Texas with disaster relief fraud and wire fraud tied to about $33,000 in FEMA, or Federal Emergency Management Agency, aid after Hurricane Harvey. The appeal turned on a late Brady v. Maryland disclosure dispute, a fight over evidence prosecutors must turn over to the defense.
The missing papers
During trial, prosecutors realized they had not disclosed two items: civil recoupment letters mailed in 2020 and an email to a third-party contractor who supposedly inspected the damaged property before FEMA awarded the aid. Kuyoro asked the court to dismiss the indictment, and the district court did so without prejudice.
That left the case paused, but not over. The Fifth Circuit said the dismissal was too much for the disclosure issue at that stage, and it sent the case back with instructions that the indictment be restored.
What the reversal changes
The practical effect is simple. The prosecution continues, and the government gets another chance to prove its fraud case in district court rather than losing the indictment because of the late evidence problem.
The ruling does not resolve whether Kuyoro is guilty. It does show how hard it can be to turn a Brady violation into a case-ending sanction in a criminal fraud prosecution, even when the dispute involves disaster aid that was supposed to help after a storm.