Opinion ID: 526038
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prescription Drugs.

Text: 36 When Rivera-Martinez pled guilty, the district court asked whether he had taken any medication that might impair his ability to understand the proceedings. Defendant replied in the negative. He did not tell the judge that while in prison awaiting trial he had been taking an extensive regimen of prescription drugs. According to defendant's physician, these were for the most part sedatives and anti-anxiety agents. Rivera-Martinez disclosed the truth at the plea-withdrawal hearing, asking to be relieved of his plea because of this circumstance. Finding no corroboration as to the claimed effect of the medication on the voluntariness of the plea, the district court rejected the request. Rivera-Martinez, 693 F.Supp. at 1364. There was no error. 37 The mere fact that Rivera-Martinez took potentially mood-altering medication is not sufficient to vitiate his plea. There must be some evidence that the medication affected his rationality. See Buckley, 847 F.2d at 999-1000; United States v. Benavides, 793 F.2d 612, 617 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 868, 107 S.Ct. 232, 93 L.Ed.2d 158 (1986); see also United States v. Press, 384 F.2d 955, 956 & n. 3 (3d Cir.1967) (per curiam) (denial of plea-retraction motion upheld because defendant produced no evidence confirming that he suffered claimed fit of depression). Here, the only medical evidence--the testimony of the treating physician, Dr. Prieto--conclusively refuted defendant's theorem, making manifest that the medications had no effect on Rivera-Martinez's alertness or powers of concentration. Considering that Dr. Prieto treated defendant frequently, saw him on the day of the guilty plea, and testified that he seemed competent and sure of what he was saying at the time, the court below was amply justified in determining that the medicine worked no impairment of defendant's cognitive processes. 5 38