Opinion ID: 2321221
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: inadequacy of the substitute statement of proceedings and evidence to permit meaningful review on appeal in this case

Text: Of course, it is not enough to show that appellant met his obligation to produce a substitute statement. He must also show that the substitute statement, though produced by the best available means, is inadequate to permit meaningful appellate review. Cole, 478 A.2d at 285. We are convinced that appellant has made that showing here. First, critical portions of the transcript were never able to be reconstructed. These include the trial court's ruling refusing to instruct Beepath-Hardy about her spousal privilege not to testify against Egbuka; the discussion between the court and counsel about the government's grant of use immunity to Beepath-Hardy prior to her testimony; the entire direct testimony of the eyewitness, Jemma Raymond; and significant portions of the cross-examination of Raymond. Other portions of the transcript were missing as well, but these portions alone are sufficient to convince us that appellant's counselnew to this case on appealcannot mount an effective case for his client. Second, the passage of time meant that the drafting of the substitute statement of proceedings fell to a judge who did not preside over the trial. Although Judge Walton's trial notes were made available to Judge Dixon, still there is no escaping the fact that Judge Dixon was not at the trial. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of Judge Walton's notes, but they reflect only that which he thought important to note for his own purposes at trial, and of course he had no reason to suppose that they would later be used by others in lieu of a complete transcript of the trial. Moreover, it is obvious that Judge Walton's notes could not have served as a memory-jogger for a judge who was not present at the trial. Several of our cases, in commenting on the sources available to a trial court tasked with constructing a substitute statement, note that the court may rely on its own recollection or notes from trial. Cole, 478 A.2d at 284-85 (emphasis added); see also Romero v. United States, 956 A.2d at 667, 668 (the trial judge had taken detailed notes on witness's testimony during trial and believed he had a good memory of the case, so he read his notes into the record during the record reconstruction process. The Romero court noted that because the trial court has the ultimate responsibility to ensure an adequate record for review, it may supplement the appellant's statement with its own recollection or trial notes, citing Cole, 478 A.2d at 284-85). Clearly, these cases do not contemplate that a trial judge other than the judge who presided over the trial will be tasked with preparing the substitute statement. Although that was the unavoidable result in the present case due to Judge Walton's appointment to the federal bench, we are left with a more problematic reconstruction of the trial than would be the case had he been able to perform the task himself. [2] Third, the passage of time also meant that only the notes of the Assistant United States Attorney who tried the case and a law student intern working in the U.S. Attorney's Office were available for use by Judge Dixon. Moreover, by the time of the reconstruction by Judge Dixon, even the Assistant United States Attorney acknowledged that he had only limited independent memories of the proceeding. Cf. United States v. Workcuff, 137 U.S.App. D.C. 263, 265, 422 F.2d 700, 702 (1970) (It is difficult enough in normal circumstances to appraise the propriety of the trial court's various actions on the basis of a cold printed record; when that record is replaced by the incomplete hearsay recollections of one of the parties, our review is turned into an exercise in creative imagination.). What is more, neither Egbuka nor his trial counsel nor counsel for Beepath-Hardy were able to recall the events of the trial in sufficient detail to assist in the preparation of the substitute statement. While we have never held that the reliability of a substitute statement must be measured by Sixth Amendment precepts of adversarial presentation at trial, we note the lopsidedness of the reconstruction here and contrast it with what the Supreme Court has observed in a related context. See United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 655, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984) (`Truth,' Lord Eldon said, `is best discovered by powerful statements on both sides of the question.') (quoting Kaufman, Does the Judge Have a Right to Qualified Counsel?, 61 A.B.A.J. 569, 569 (1975)). Fourth, Egbuka's appellate counsel was not his trial counsel. This factor is of critical importance. As we said in Cole, 478 A.2d at 287 (footnote omitted): The increased likelihood that prejudice will result when a newly-retained appellate counsel is forced to proceed with a less-than-complete transcript of the trial court proceedings is well-recognized. An appellate counsel who was not present at trial and does not have access to a transcript of the trial court proceedings will be forced to piece together the events of trial, relying solely on the recollections of others. This will leave counsel at a disadvantage both in uncovering trial court errors and in developing a substitute statement of evidence sufficient to demonstrate that such errors merit reversal. In Cole, in which the defendant also was represented by new counsel on appeal, we concluded that the SPE lacked both the completeness and the reliability necessary to protect appellant's right to pursue an appeal and this court's obligation to engage in meaningful review. 478 A.2d at 287. We reach the same conclusion here and, as in Cole, we reverse appellant's convictions. As in Cole, we find the deficiencies in the reconstructed record sufficient, in and of themselves, to require reversal. Although appellant has an obligation to try to reconstruct the record, and the trial judge has the ultimate responsibility to certify a substitute statement as adequate for appeal, where the trial judge is unable to settle and approve a substitute statement, it must set aside the judgment and permit a new trial. See Cross v. District of Columbia, 292 A.2d 794 (D.C.1972). In short, there are situations where even the best available means are simply not good enough to permit meaningful representation and review on appeal. Were there any doubt on that score, however, we are further persuaded that reversal is required by the one significant error that Egbuka's new counsel has been able to develop even though handicapped by the absence of the complete transcript.