Opinion ID: 801137
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hearing on Counsel Communications Issue

Text: In his appeal, Mr. Porras-Rubi first claims the district court erred when it denied his pro se motion without ordering a hearing on, or conducting a further inquiry into, his claim of a complete breakdown in communication with his counsel. In support, Mr. Porras-Rubi argues he made sufficient allegations in his motion to warrant such a hearing, and the district court’s failure to conduct a hearing or inquire into the matter left it with “no way for it to gauge the seriousness of the problem.” By alleging a complete failure of communication with his counsel we -6- assume, as do counsel on appeal, that Mr. Porras-Rubi’s pro se motion implicated a desire to substitute counsel. We review the district court’s denial of a motion to substitute counsel for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Porter, 405 F.3d 1136, 1140 (10th Cir. 2005). In order to prevail on a motion for substitution of counsel, “the defendant must show good cause, such as a conflict of interest, a complete breakdown of communication or an irreconcilable conflict which leads to an apparently unjust verdict.” Id. (emphasis added). “To prove a total breakdown in communication, a defendant must put forth evidence of a severe and pervasive conflict with his attorney or evidence that he had such minimal contact with the attorney that meaningful communication was not possible.” Id. In making this assessment, we: look at whether (1) the defendant’s request was timely; (2) the trial court adequately inquired into [the] defendant’s reasons for making the request; (3) the defendant-attorney conflict was so great that it led to a total lack of communications precluding an adequate defense; and (4) the defendant substantially and unreasonably contributed to the communication breakdown. Id. If a defendant makes sufficiently specific, factually-based allegations in support of his request for new counsel, the district court must conduct a hearing into his complaint. See United States v. Lott, 310 F.3d 1231, 1249 (10th Cir. 2002). In this case, even assuming Mr. Porras-Rubi’s pro se motion contained -7- sufficiently specific, factually-based allegations for substitution of counsel, our review of the record establishes the district court did not abuse its discretion in failing to conduct a separate hearing on the matter. This is because, after it issued an order striking the pro se motion on other grounds, the district court made sufficient inquiries into the communication issue at Mr. Porras-Rubi’s sentencing hearing held only six days later. At that time, Mr. Porras-Rubi verified he read the presentence report, his counsel answered all of his questions, and he understood its contents. He and his counsel then both stated they had no objections to the presentence report, including the facts contained therein and the Guidelines calculations. Although Mr. Porras-Rubi was given opportunities to address the court, he did not suggest any communication problems still existed between him and his counsel. These circumstances do not evidence the requisite lack of meaningful communication between Mr. Porras-Rubi and his counsel warranting either a separate hearing or substitution of counsel. Instead, a careful reading of the sentencing hearing transcript reveals the district court made the necessary inquiries into communications between Mr. Porras-Rubi and his counsel and that no conflict existed between them which would lead to either the requisite “total lack of communications precluding an adequate defense” or “complete breakdown” in client-attorney communications. See Porter, 405 F.3d at 1140. -8- Indeed, contrary to Mr. Porras-Rubi’s contentions, the district court’s inquiries at the sentencing hearing were more than sufficient for the purpose of gauging the seriousness of any alleged communication problem, and it clearly found none. Nor does Mr. Porras-Rubi adequately explain on appeal how the district court’s failure to conduct an additional hearing, beyond the inquiries it made at the sentencing hearing, affected the calculation of his sentence. For these reasons, we conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion in failing to conduct a separate hearing or make further inquiries into Mr. Porras-Rubi’s and his counsel’s client-attorney communications.