Opinion ID: 2321221
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: appellant's efforts to produce a substitute statement of proceedings and evidence to supplement an incomplete record on appeal

Text: All too often, cases come to this court with significant portions of the trial record missing, notwithstanding Super. Ct.Crim. R. 36-I(a) (the trial court is required to keep a simultaneous, verbatim record of its proceedings). The absence of a complete transcript of the trial does not automatically mandate reversal, however, even if it makes appellate review more difficult. See, e.g., David v. United States, 957 A.2d 4, 6 (D.C.2008); Lucas v. United States, 476 A.2d 1140, 1142 (D.C.1984). Instead, our cases make clear that the question in each case is whether the particular omission from the transcript prejudices the defendant's right to appeal. Lucas, 476 A.2d at 1142. Prejudice may be shown in one of two ways: (1) first, by raising a specific claim of error and showing that it is impossible for this court to determine from the available record whether or not prejudicial error occurred; or (2) second, by showing that, even if no specific error is claimed, the omission in the transcript prevents new appellate counsel from reviewing a substantial or crucial portion of the trial proceedings to determine whether error occurred. Id.; see also Romero v. United States, 956 A.2d 664, 668 (D.C.2008). In either event, the burden remains on appellant to make reasonable efforts to prepare a substitute statement for approval by the trial court. David, 957 A.2d at 6-7. Here, Egbuka, through his first appellate counsel, made Herculean efforts but was thwarted at virtually every turn. According to status reports filed with this court over a period of many years, when counsel was first appointed to represent Egbuka on appeal, he ascertained that trial counsel had properly ordered the entire trial transcript contemporaneously with the filing of the notice of appeal. After approximately six months had passed, appellate counsel began calling the Court Reporting Division of the Superior Court to inquire about the availability of the transcript. He was told, on numerous occasions, that the press of other business was causing delay but that the transcript of Egbuka's trial would be available in due course. After several such calls, appellate counsel started calling the supervisor and director of the division. In one of those calls, nearly a year after his first call to the Court Reporting Division, counsel was told, for the first time, that there was trouble with the transcript tapes and that reconstruction of inaudible portions would be attempted by sending the tapes to a facility in Phoenix, Arizona, for that purpose. Counsel accepted that report as accurate, although he later was told that tapes have not been sent to Phoenix since 1998 (prior to Egbuka's trial), when reconstruction technology was set up on-site at the Superior Court. In any event, the results of the reconstruction efforts were not particularly successful. Appellate counsel obtained the transcripts that were available on or about August 1, 2001, not quite two years after Egbuka's trial and conviction. Upon review of the available transcripts, appellate counsel learned that the portion of trial days for which there is either no transcript or only a partial transcript represented more than 40 per cent of Egbuka's trial. Missing portions of the transcript include but are not limited to: (1) the entire direct examination of the government's eyewitness, Jemma Raymond; (2) a significant portion of the cross-examination of Raymond; (3) the first day of the direct examination of the complaining witness, Beepath-Hardy (who was Egbuka's spouse by the time of trial); and (4) discussion between the trial judge and counsel of use immunity for the complaining witness and the availability of the spousal privilege to permit Beepath-Hardy to decline to testify against Egbuka. Upon realizing how much of the transcript was unavailable and recognizing that his attempts to represent Egbuka on appeal would be severely hampered, appellate counsel contacted appellate counsel for the government seeking his assistance in efforts to prepare a substitute statement under Rule 10(d). Counsel also attempted to contact trial counsel for Egbuka. After several false starts, some caused by the listing of the wrong attorney's name in the transcript (such as it was), Egbuka's appellate counsel reached Egbuka's trial counsel, whose recollection of the details of the trial was sparse. Egbuka's appellate counsel also contacted Judge Walton's chambers and learned that Judge Walton had about ten pages of notes he had taken during the trial. Counsel asked that those notes be provided to him, and Judge Walton did so. Judge Walton's notes, although reasonably thorough, did not contain any reference to the issues of spousal privilege or use immunity for Beepath-Hardy. In February 2002, appellate counsel filed a motion to set aside the judgment of conviction because of the infeasibility of reliable reconstruction of the trial proceedings or, alternatively, to remand to the trial court for a formal attempt to prepare a substitute statement of proceedings under Rule 10(d). On April 23, 2002, this court denied Egbuka's motion to set aside the judgment but granted his alternative motion to remand the case for reconstruction of the evidence and proceedings. There ensued a period of over four and one-half years, until October 30, 2006, before Judge Dixon filed an Order constituting a Substitute Statement of Proceedings and Evidence under D.C.App. R. 10. During that interval, appellant and the government exchanged versions of a proposed substitute statement but were unable to agree on a joint submission. Judge Dixon ultimately drafted the SPE drawing upon all available materials. Thereafter, the record on appeal was completed and this court established a briefing schedule for Egbuka's appeal from his 1999 judgment of conviction. We have recounted the tortuous path of Egbuka's case from the filing of the notice of appeal to this court's consideration of his claims of error in some detail because it is clear that this case is at the opposite end of the spectrum from one in which the appellant refuses to make reasonable efforts to prepare a [substitute] statement. Cole v. United States, 478 A.2d 277, 284 (D.C.1984). Egbuka, through counsel, did everything reasonably possible to produce a complete record for this court's review on appeal but was thwarted by factors beyond his control.