Opinion ID: 658199
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion relating to competency of government witness Hooper.

Text: 4 Before trial Gates filed a motion asking that government witness Gary Hooper be ordered to undergo psychiatric examination before trial. It set out Hooper's grand jury testimony describing how, at the request of co-defendant and James, he engaged in a staged theft of an automobile later used by James in the first (October 30) robbery, for which he was paid $1,000. James had earlier told Hooper that he had a partner named Charles that was going to help him. After being excused and offered an opportunity to correct his testimony, Hooper told the grand jury that Gates went with him and James to buy gloves and a ski mask, that they cased banks to rob, and that Gates and James selected a bank and robbed it with Hooper at the wheel of the getaway car. 5 The Gates motion alleged that in October 1989, approximately 10 days before the first bank robbery, Hooper had been hospitalized at a Georgia state mental health institution for two days. The records of the institution indicated that Hooper had been hospitalized for mental illness in 1980; that he was a daily user of crack cocaine; he was hallucinating, suicidal and homicidal; his wife described him as hallucinating and paranoid. The records referred to psychological testing as indicating a conscious deception by Hooper to look good; that he typically had severe underlying guilt that he projected unto others, and that he brooded about real or imaginary wrongs. This institutionalization was approximately ten days before the first bank robbery. 6 We cannot find a record entry stating that the motion was denied, but all agree that it was not granted. 7 There are inherent problems in allowing psychiatric examination of a witness, such as invasion of privacy, limiting availability of witnesses, chilling testimony, and battles of experts over competency. Rule 601 allows one not mentally competent to testify, and it assumes that jurors are capable of evaluating a witness's testimony in light of the fact that he is not mentally competent. Cf. Advisory Committee's note to Rule 601. Notwithstanding Rule 601, a court has the power to rule that a witness is incapable of testifying, and in an appropriate case it has the duty to hold a hearing to determine that issue. U.S. v. Gutman, 725 F.2d 417, 420 (7th Cir.) cert. denied, 469 U.S. 880, 105 S.Ct. 244, 83 L.Ed.2d 183 (1984). 8 In this case Hooper was cross-examined vigorously, searchingly, and over a wide range for almost 50 pages of transcript. He was examined about details of the first robbery that he described in his trial testimony but had not mentioned before the grand jury. The medical records of the institution in which he had been placed were put into evidence, and he was examined about their contents. The institutionalization in question had occurred more than two years before the trial. The trial judge had before him the grand jury testimony and the medical records. Considering all the circumstances we cannot say that the judge erred in not granting an examination and in not conducting a hearing on the issue of competency. 9 The failure to have an examination of Hooper did not violate the Confrontation Clause. Confrontation is primarily a trial right directed at cross-examination; it is not a constitutionally compelled rule of pre-trial discovery. See Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, 480 U.S. 39, 107 S.Ct. 989, 94 L.Ed.2d 40 (1987) (plurality opinion). As we have noted, the institutional records of Hooper were available to the defense and were admitted into evidence and his grand jury testimony was fully explored on cross-examination.