Opinion ID: 693376
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ruotolo's Recusal Claim

Text: 18 For the first time on appeal, Ruotolo argues that Chief Judge Platt committed reversible error by failing to recuse himself from the case after we reversed his initial suppression ruling and remanded for further proceedings. Ruotolo bases this claim, in part, on the fact that the government advised Judge Platt that Ruotolo had allegedly threatened his life. The government also told Judge Platt, however, that it did not consider the death threats to be serious. Nevertheless, according to Ruotolo, the knowledge of these supposed death threats presumptively biased Judge Platt against him, infected the district court's subsequent rulings and thus deprived him of a fair trial. 19 This claim need not detain us long. When the government informed Judge Platt of Ruotolo's alleged threats, it also advised Ruotolo of its actions. Ruotolo failed to file a timely disqualification motion before Judge Platt at the earliest possible moment after obtaining knowledge of facts demonstrating the basis for such a claim, however, and we therefore conclude that he waived his right to do so. See Polizzi v. United States, 926 F.2d 1311, 1321 (2d Cir.1991) (citation omitted). Although we agree that a defendant's alleged death threats against a judge may, in some cases, sufficiently raise the specter of bias to warrant the judge's recusal even in the absence of a formal recusal motion, see, e.g., United States v. Greenspan, 26 F.3d 1001, 1005-07 (10th Cir.1994), this is not such a case. We note that the government had already advised Judge Platt of Ruotolo's alleged threat before the district court granted Ruotolo's motion to suppress evidence on sixth amendment grounds. Moreover, Judge Platt never made any statements or any other indications that would suggest that he considered the death threats to be serious. See Greenspan, 26 F.3d at 1006 (trial judge accelerated the date of defendant's sentencing hearing for the stated reason that the court wanted to get [him] into the penitentiary system as quickly as possible). Given that Judge Platt provided Ruotolo with the requested relief (suppression of incriminating evidence) despite his knowledge of Ruotolo's alleged threat, we would be hard pressed to say that there exists the kind of basis for Ruotolo's personal bias claim that might justify our requiring the judge's recusal even in the absence of a timely motion on Ruotolo's part. 20