Opinion ID: 147061
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failing to call two witnesses

Text: Defense counsel did not call two individuals whom Bierenbaum contends witnessed Katz leaving the apartment and the building in accordance with his narrative of events on July 7, 1985. June Sherman lived directly below the Bierenbaum apartment. According to her affidavit, she was acutely aware of Katz, who frequently screamed at her husband and walked around noisily in high-heeled shoes. She states that on the morning Katz disappeared, Katz was screaming at someone. Sherman heard the noise of the high-heeled shoes, then she heard the door slam, and both the shouting and the sound of high heels on the floor stopped. She heard nothing more. Sherman believed that Katz left the apartment when the door slammed. During the trial defense counsel unsuccessfully attempted to serve Sherman, who had moved to Arizona. Bierenbaum faults the district court for concluding that counsel's efforts to secure her testimony were diligent, and concluding that failure to present her testimony did not prejudice the defense. Regardless of whether counsel's performance was deficient in failing to secure Sherman's testimony, Bierenbaum cannot show prejudice. Sherman's testimony would not have undermined confidence in the jury's guilty verdict. Sherman would have testified that she believed Katz left the apartment after the door slammed. She would have had to admit that she did not see Katz leave, nor could she be sure that the door was the exterior door, rather than an interior door. The prosecution would have argued that even if the jury believed Sherman was testifying truthfully about what she heard, her testimony was consistent with the prosecution's theory that Bierenbaum killed his wife in the course of an explosive argument. Pablo Alvarez was employed at the apartment building in 1985. One of his duties was to relieve the doorman at lunchtime. According to his affidavit, on the Sunday before Katz's parents and the police inquired about her, he relieved the doorman, Edgar Rivera, at approximately 11:30 a.m. At that time he saw Katz leave the front entrance of the building wearing shorts and a t-shirt. He did not see her return. Defense counsel decided not to call Alvarez. The decision not to do so was a defensible trial strategy. Bierenbaum does not dispute that Alvarez told the authorities in July 1985 that he did not recall seeing Katz on July 7, and that he did not remember how she was dressed the last time he did see her. Bierenbaum contends that even if Alvarez's recollection was shaky, his testimony was essential to counter the prosecution's argument that Bierenbaum lied when he told Detective O'Malley that a doorman named Edgar had seen Katz leave the building. Detective O'Malley testified that in their first conversation Bierenbaum told him that a doorman named Edgar had seen Katz leave the building on July 7. When O'Malley followed this up in a second conversation, Bierenbaum said that Edgar was now not sure whether he'd seen her on that or another day. Edgar Rivera told the police that he did not remember seeing Katz on July 7. When Rivera testified at trial, he stated that he could not remember anything about July 7, 1985. Had the defense called Alvarez, and had he testified in accordance with his affidavit, the jury would have been presented with the testimony of the relief doorman, who remembered not only the departure of a particular tenant, but what she was wearing on an unremarkable Sunday fifteen years before the trial. They would have to have ignored the fact that when asked about that Sunday fifteen years ago, Alvarez, like Rivera, did not recall seeing Katz leave the building. Under the circumstances, it was reasonable for defense counsel not to call Alvarez. Rivera's testimony was not particularly damaging to Bierenbaum's case. Detective O'Malley testified that Bierenbaum told him he'd made a mistake, and that Rivera wasn't sure when he'd seen Katz. The prosecution did argue in summation that Bierenbaum lied about the doorman, but the thrust of the argument was that Bierenbaum never spoke with Rivera at all in the days after Katz's disappearance. [3] The Alvarez testimony, if believed, would not have countered this argument, as Alvarez did not claim that he'd mentioned his sighting of Katz to Bierenbaum, or anyone else, during this period. `The decision not to call a particular witness is typically a question of trial strategy.' Greiner v. Wells, 417 F.3d 305, 323 (2d Cir.2005) (quoting United States v. Luciano, 158 F.3d 655, 660 (2d Cir.1998) (per curiam)). The decision not to call Alvarez was within the range of acceptable strategic and tactical alternatives. Luciano, 158 F.3d at 660.