Opinion ID: 403646
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Confrontation Issues

Text: 16 Regner acknowledges that authenticated foreign public documents are admissible through a combination of Fed.Rules of Evid. 803(10) and 902(3), 2 yet he argues for the first time on this appeal that his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation of witnesses was violated by the admission of certain foreign public documents at his trial. 3 Usually, errors not raised below will not be considered on appeal unless the proper resolution is beyond any doubt or where injustice might otherwise result. Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 121, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 2877, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976), quoting Hormel v. Helvering, 312 U.S. 552, 557, 61 S.Ct. 719, 721, 85 L.Ed. 1037 (1941). See also, Jaffe v. Alexis, 659 F.2d 1018, 1022 (9th Cir. 1981), and Michael-Regan Co., Inc. v. Lindell, 527 F.2d 653 (9th Cir. 1975). While we recognize that this court may discretionarily review questions not raised in the district court, Singleton, supra, we decline to do so here because Regner fails to convince us that a clear violation of the Confrontation Clause existed and sufficient evidence is presented in the record to support Regner's conviction regardless of any assumed prejudicial admission of the foreign public documents. These observations require further elaboration. 17 Regner would have this court believe that even though the documents were prepared by the certified custodian of records of the agencies involved, that although the officials declared that they were authorized under the laws of Hungary to attest to the genuineness of records maintained by the particular agencies, and even though these documents were accompanied by a final certificate executed by an American Embassy official, that the substance of the documents should be suspect because of the possible motives of communist Hungarian officials to fabricate documents affecting the rights of an ex-Hungarian citizen. Regner's Brief at 25. The record, however, is devoid of any evidence that the particular Hungarian officials harbored any ill will against Regner or that they were biased or prejudiced against him or would be motivated to prepare false documents. Without such facts, we are in no position to conclude that every document executed by public officials of communist countries is a fabrication and presumptively unreliable. Regner has simply failed to prove to this court that the admission of the foreign public documents in this case was beyond doubt a violation of his Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. 18 Likewise, no clear prejudice or injustice resulted from the admission of the documents. Even if we were to concede that a Confrontation Clause violation was present, sufficient evidence was presented by the Government at trial, unrelated to the foreign public documents, that would support the jury's guilty verdict under 18 U.S.C. § 1341. Regner himself admitted in his testimony that he had not been hospitalized in the Gyor County Hospital, although the evidence showed that he had submitted a claim to CNA accompanied by documents purporting to be evidence of his hospitalization at the facility. The evidence also suggested that Regner submitted his stepson's Gyor County Hospital bill as his own. These facts provided probative evidence of Regner's fraudulent representation to CNA that he had been hospitalized in Romand, Hungary, from July 26, 1974, to August 10, 1974, as charged in paragraph 2 of the indictment. The Government, in closing arguments, adequately and properly informed the jury that a violation of the mail fraud statute could be demonstrated by this single false representation of hospitalization, 4 and the court properly instructed the jury that they could convict Regner on this evidence alone. 5 19 We, therefore, find no basis for reversal of Regner's conviction and, accordingly, 20 AFFIRM.