Opinion ID: 475484
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Conditional Guilty Pleas

Text: 15 In addition to attacking the merits of the defendant's appeal, the government raises a procedural matter which it claims precludes Echegoyen from raising on this appeal any issues surrounding the search of the Nipomo Ranch. The government contends that the defendant, in entering his conditional guilty plea, reserved his right to appeal only those issues arising from the search of the residence in Idyllwild. The government notes that, under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure governing conditional pleas of guilty, the defendant must reserv[e] in writing the right, on appeal from the judgment, to review the adverse determination of any specified pretrial motion. Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2). The government points out that Echegoyen, in filing his Reservation of Issue on Appeal pursuant to Rule 11(a)(2), Fed.R.Crim.P. reserved his right to appeal only from the judgment and conviction on Count Six. The only adverse determination relating to Count Six involves the denial of the motion to suppress evidence seized from the Idyllwild residence. The government argues, therefore, that the defendant can only appeal this ruling and cannot appeal any issues relating to the search of the Nipomo Ranch which related only to Count Seven. 16 Echegoyen concedes that his written notice of appeal only reserves the right to appeal as to Count Six. However, he argues that an examination of the transcript of the hearing at which he entered his guilty plea reveals that the court, the government, and the defendant all understood that the guilty pleas entered as to Counts Three, Six, and Seven were conditional upon the defendant's right to appeal adverse rulings relating to all these counts. Echegoyen asserts that this understanding among all the parties satisfies when he asserts the policy behind Rule 11(a)(2) that the court and the government acquiesce in the entry of a conditional plea. 17 Recent precedent from this circuit dictates that Echegoyen's failure to reserve in writing his right to appeal any adverse rulings relating to Count Seven precludes him from challenging the legality of the entry and search of the Nipomo Ranch. 18 In United States v. Alexander, 761 F.2d 1294 (9th Cir.1985), the owner of the Nipomo Ranch, codefendant Raymond Alexander, also contested the validity of the Nipomo Ranch search. Alexander had also entered a conditional plea of guilty under Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2). Id. at 1303. Although the plea agreement did not reserve any issues in writing, the parties did enter into a stipulation as to the issues that would be appealed. Id. at 1303. The defendant, however, sought to raise three issues on appeal that were not reserved in the stipulated plea agreement. Id. In Alexander we held that the[se] three issues ... were not included in the plea bargain, and we decline to rule on them. Id. 19 A more detailed discussion of Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2)'s requirement that the conditional guilty plea agreement reserve appellate review only of specified pretrial motions is found in our recent case of United States v. Carrasco, 786 F.2d 1452 (9th Cir.1986). In Carrasco, the government offered a plea agreement wherein the defendant would enter a conditional plea to one count in exchange for the government moving to dismiss another count. Id. at 1453. The defendant accepted the plea agreement, but the government withdrew the offer before the pleas were entered. Id. at 1453. The court denied the suppression motion as to Count One. The defendant then pled guilty unconditionally to the first count and prepared for trial on the second count. Id. at 1453. The district court dismissed Count Two sua sponte. Id. The defendant appealed the district court's denial of her motion to suppress evidence pertaining to the first count. We held that, because a valid conditional guilty plea had not been entered, we had no jurisdiction to decide the appeal. Id. 20 In Carrasco, we elaborated on the purposes behind Rule 11(a)(2) by noting that: 21 Rule 11(a)(2) requires that a conditional plea include a writing and have the approval of the court and the consent of the government. Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2). The writing requirement serves several purposes: it ensures that the plea is entered with the considered acquiescence of the government; it prevents post-plea claims by the defendant that his plea should be deemed conditional merely because it occurred after denial of his pretrial motions; and it enables the court to verify that the issues reserved for appeal are material to the disposition of the case. 22 Id. at 1454 (citation and footnote omitted). 23 In applying this statement in Carrasco, we first stated that: 24 The writing that Carrasco offered, a simple notice that the plea was intended to be conditional, did not specify which pretrial issues would be reserved for appeal and thus lends little support to Carrasco's contention that there was considered acquiescence by the government and approval by the court. 25 Id. at 1454. We then concluded that: 26 In the absence of a special writing setting forth the issues to be reserved, and in the face of the government's denial of any assent to the plea being conditional and the ambiguity in each side's remarks, we cannot conclude that the government assented to a conditional plea. Accordingly, we hold that Carrasco has not entered a valid conditional plea and that we have no jurisdiction over her appeal of the denial of the motion to suppress evidence. 27 Id. (emphasis added). 28 Our holdings in Alexander and Carrasco required that Echegoyen state in writing any issues he wished to reserve for appeal. Because Echegoyen did not reserve in writing issues arising from the search of the Nipomo Ranch, only the issues surrounding the search of the Idyllwild residence are properly before us. Accord, United States v. McHugh, 583 F.Supp. 290, 293-94 (D.R.I.1984) (cited with approval in Carrasco, and holding that Rule 11(a)(2) required a document emanating from the defendant, reviewable by the court and the prosecutor....). 3