Opinion ID: 556611
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Unfair Trial Claim.

Text: 7 Defendants-appellants Mickens, Kearney and Celifie claim that the district court's admonitions to counsel and questions of witnesses deprived them of a fair trial. Defendants-appellants claim that the court poisoned the courtroom atmosphere and prevented a fair trial. We disagree. 8 While many of the court's remarks were unfortunate, their cumulative effect was not a deprivation of the right to a fair trial. A trial judge  'need not sit like a bump on a log throughout the trial.'  United States v. Bejasa, 904 F.2d 137, 141 (2d Cir.) (quoting United States v. Pisani, 773 F.2d 397, 403 (2d Cir.1985)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 299, 112 L.Ed.2d 252 (1990). As this Court recently stated: 9 Judges, being human, are not immune to feelings of frustration at the occasional antics or inartfulness of attorneys or impatience at the evasiveness of witnesses. Such feelings may give vent to remarks which, judged in isolation from the totality of the record through the dispassionate looking glass of hindsight, would better have been left unsaid. Yet, analysis of such comments, taken out of context of the entire record, is not the proper basis for review. Rather, we must make an examination of the entire record, in order to determine whether the defendant received a fair trial. 10 Id. at 141 (quoting United States v. Robinson, 635 F.2d 981, 985 (2d Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 992, 101 S.Ct. 2333, 68 L.Ed.2d 852 (1981), and United States v. Mazzilli, 848 F.2d 384, 389 (2d Cir.1988)). Viewing the record in the present case in its entirety, it is clear that defendants-appellants received a fair trial. The district court's occasional intemperate remarks did not substantially taint defendants-appellants' trial. It must be noted that these remarks were provoked to some extent by one defense counsel's despicable verbal assault on the court. That attorney's conduct was so egregrious that, after verdict, the court advised counsel that it intended to file a complaint with the Grievance Committee of the Eastern District of New York. Moreover, any possible prejudice to defendants-appellants was cured by the court's cautionary instruction. 1 See United States v. Bejasa, 904 F.2d at 141; United States v. Gurary, 860 F.2d 521, 527 (2d Cir.1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1035, 109 S.Ct. 1931, 104 L.Ed.2d 403 (1989). 11