Opinion ID: 699226
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Nexus or Connection

Text: 67 We turn to the relationship between the conviction from which the litigant has fled and the claim with respect to which disentitlement is considered. It does not matter that the court of conviction and the court from whose processes the fugitive is excluded are from different sovereigns. In many of the cases, including seminal Supreme Court cases that we have discussed, the litigant was a fugitive from a state conviction and his federal appeal was dismissed. Broadway specifically held that it was immaterial that the litigant had fled from the custody of another sovereign. 530 F.2d at 659. Moreover, it is inherent that the interests of two sovereigns are implicated in each of the many cases of disentitlement to access to federal courts for habeas review of state convictions. 11 68 The Supreme Court has expressed doubt about a rule that would require automatic dismissal of an appeal for conduct by a defendant having no connection with the appellate proceedings. Ortega-Rodriguez v. U.S., 507 U.S. ----, ----, 113 S.Ct. 1199, 1207, 122 L.Ed.2d 581 (1993). Other cases have commented on the existence of a nexus. Conforte, while pretermitting whether a nexus was mandated, found a nexus was present: i.e., the litigant's conviction for evasion of employment taxes and his tax court appeal are each related components of a general tax evasion scheme. 692 F.2d at 592. In this case our concern is not with a connection between this appellate court and the courts of Texas but with the connection between the Texas conviction and the claim before the district court, for we are reviewing the district court's denial of disentitlement. Assuming a nexus was required between the district court proceeding and the Texas conviction, it was present. Mr. Prevot's flight and his subsequent invocation of ICARA were, paraphrasing Conforte, related components of a general scheme. He fled to escape his criminal conviction and other responsibilities to court, probation officers, victim and government, and to assemble and hold his family in a refuge beyond the reach of American courts and American responsibilities. In Mr. Prevot's hands ICARA is a tool used to permit him to escape American justice and responsibilities while holding his children with him. Flight was but one step, and an ICARA claim the latest link, in a chain of proximately related events that began with the Texas conviction and ended in the district court proceedings in this case. It is obvious that if Mr. Prevot returned to the United States and was imprisoned he could not successfully maintain an ICARA claim. Either the habitual residence of the children would have changed, or they would no longer be in his custody, or the exceptions relating to risk of harm to the children would apply. 69 Our decision is consistent with concerns addressed by the Supreme Court in Ortega-Rodriguez. The Court recognized that our cases consistently and unequivocally approve dismissal [by an appellate court] as an appropriate sanction when a prisoner is a fugitive during 'the ongoing appellate process.'  507 U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1204. Its central concern was whether the same rationale mandated dismissal of the appeal of a defendant who fled the jurisdiction of a district court but was recaptured before he appealed. Mr. Prevot is within the pattern of cases consistently and unequivocally approv[ing] dismissal as an appropriate sanction. He was a fugitive during the ongoing process; the only difference is that the relevant process is that of the trial [federal district] court rather than the appellate court. He triggered the relevant process by filing this case while he was an unrecaptured fugitive, he remains in that status, and there is no indication that it will ever change. The Court in Ortega-Rodriguez noted that the defendant had been recaptured and was within the power of the district court, which was capable of defending its own jurisdiction by imposing appropriate punishment. Id. at ---, 113 S.Ct. at 1207. In the present case Mr. Prevot is at large and the Texas court has no way (short of the dubious, expensive, and tortious possibilities of extradition) to protect its interest, nor does the unreimbursed victim of Mr. Prevot's theft, or the IRS, or the Tennessee probation system have means to safeguard its respective interests. In a practical sense, the only agency with power to sanction Mr. Prevot is the district court whose power and authority he himself invoked. 70 Mr. Prevot has flouted the interests of the criminal courts in enforcing his criminal conviction. He has walked away from his agreement--made to the court to obtain probation--to make restitution to his victim. He has spurned his obligation to the United States government for taxes. He has misused the Tennessee probation processes. He has inhibited the processes of the United States District Court in this case by making unavailable to it the depth of expert testimony that the court indicated that it needed. He has abused the laudable purposes of ICARA by employing it to further his scheme. His fugitivity, and his actions, constitute abuses to which a court should not accede. 71 The decision of the district court in No. 94-5854 is REVERSED and the case is REMANDED with instructions to dismiss the case. 72 In case No. 94-6440, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 11,607(b), the district court assessed against Ms. Prevot attorney's fees and the expenses of transporting the children to France. The final order in that case is REVERSED.