Opinion ID: 371030
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Bland

Text: 29 Appellant Metz claims that the trial court erred in sustaining the assertion of fifth amendment privilege by John Bland, Metz's codefendant. Metz sought from Bland purportedly exculpatory testimony but was deterred by Bland's invocation of his right not to incriminate himself. Bland previously had pled guilty to the federal conspiracy charge and was serving his sentence. Consequently, he was not subject to further federal prosecution. Bland nevertheless refused to testify for Metz, unsure whether he would risk state prosecution and fearful that his testimony, exculpating Metz but inculpating other codefendants, would subject him to danger in prison. 30 To ascertain the validity of Bland's fifth amendment claim, the trial court properly appointed counsel and questioned Bland, scrutinizing his rationale for refusing to testify. Rogers v. United States, 340 U.S. 367, 71 S.Ct. 438, 95 L.Ed. 344 (1951); United States v. Wilcox, 450 F.2d 1131, 1136-37 (5th Cir. 1971), Cert. denied, 405 U.S. 917, 92 S.Ct. 944, 30 L.Ed.2d 787 (1972). That inquiry satisfied the trial court that by testifying Bland might subject himself to state prosecution. The substantial possibility of prosecution sufficed to excuse Bland. Hoffman v. United States, 341 U.S. 479, 486-87, 71 S.Ct. 814, 95 L.Ed. 1118 (1951); United States v. Melchor Moreno, 536 F.2d 1042, 1046-47 (5th Cir. 1976). Appellant Metz asserts that the state's failure to prosecute within the time limits of Florida's speedy trial provision, Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191(a)(1), relieved all risk of prosecution. Too many variables affect the time limits of that rule for the trial court to have been sure that Bland faced no risk of prosecution. See, e. g., Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191(d)(2). Absent any showing that the trial court abused its discretion in resolving the validity of Bland's claim, the decision must stand. United States v. Melchor Moreno, 536 F.2d at 1050 (5th Cir. 1976). 31 Appellant Metz further contends that, even if valid as to some matters, Bland's fifth amendment invocation embraced not only privileged testimony but also collateral matters posing no threat of prosecution. He argues that to elicit from Bland a statement negating any meeting with Metz on December 14, 1977, would not necessarily raise issues incriminating to Bland. We recognize the strictures against blanket invocation of the fifth amendment privilege. Id. at 1049. Nonetheless, we refuse to overturn a determination, made in the trial judge's informed discretion, that to compel any testimony from Bland would violate his constitutional privilege. See United States v. Lacouture, 495 F.2d 1237, 1239 (5th Cir.), Cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1053, 95 S.Ct. 631, 42 L.Ed.2d 648 (1974).
32 Metz next asserts that the trial court's refusal to compel Bland's testimony made Bland unavailable, under Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(2). Therefore, Metz argues, the trial court should have admitted Bland's prior sworn statement taken before trial by the attorney for appellant Schiller. In that statement Bland professed never to have known or seen appellant Metz during the course of the conspiracy to which he had pled guilty. The trial judge refused to admit the statement as an admission against penal interest, a hearsay exception under Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(3). The trial court found that Bland's statement, taken in a nonadversarial setting, lacked the clear corroboration required by Rule 804(b)(3) to guarantee its trustworthiness. See United States v. Alvarez, 584 F.2d 694, 701 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. Bagley, 537 F.2d 162, 168 (5th Cir. 1976), Cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1075, 97 S.Ct. 816, 50 L.Ed.2d 794 (1977). In his efforts to compel admission of Bland's statement, appellant Metz proffered as corroboration Bland's repeated reaffirmance of the statement. Metz also drew attention to the testimony of Metz's alibi witness, which placed Metz away from the townhouse on December 14. Additionally, appellant Metz stressed that the only agent claiming to have seen Metz at the townhouse changed a former representation that he had never seen him. Seeking to establish his absence from the townhouse, Metz argued that the agent's former testimony and the subsequent change corroborated Bland's statement implying Metz's absence. 33 Such proffers of corroboration do not convince us of clear error in the trial court's refusal to admit the statement under Rule 804(b)(3). See United States v. Bagley, 537 F.2d at 165. Moreover, having failed to meet the corroboration standards of one hearsay exception, the statement must also fail the equivalent trustworthiness standards of Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(5). We agree with the trial court that the same proffers could not establish such circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness as to mandate admission of Bland's statement under the residual hearsay exception. United States v. Alvarez, 584 F.2d at 702 n.10.