Opinion ID: 196165
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the coveted continuance

Text: 42 Appellant contends that the district court arbitrarily refused him a lengthy continuance prior to the start of the second trial, 10 leaving him with insufficient preparation time. Our analysis of the record indicates that the court acted within its discretion in scotching appellant's request. 43
44 At arraignment, two attorneys, Jack Hill and Brian Adae, entered appearances as appellant's counsel. Soon thereafter, Austrian authorities arrested Hill for money laundering. Hill languished in prison from August through November of 1992. During that interval, he could not communicate with, or effectively assist, Saccoccia. Adae, who had originally been enlisted as local counsel, stepped into the breach and acted as lead counsel. Shortly after the first trial began, Adae became ill. The court granted appellant's motion for a mistrial and ordered a severance. The case proceeded to verdict vis-a-vis the other defendants. See supra note 3. 45 Naturally, the severance required a separate trial for appellant. The district court proposed to start in early February of 1993. Within a matter of days after the court announced the schedule, Hill, recently released from an Austrian prison, and Kenneth O'Donnell, a prominent Rhode Island defense lawyer, entered appearances as appellant's counsel. On December 10, 1992, appellant signed an extensive waiver of the potential conflict of interest posed by Hill's representation of him at a time when Hill himself faced charges of money laundering arising out of activities undertaken in conjunction with appellant. 46 On the same day, the court held a hearing anent the waiver. Among other things, appellant requested that his trial be rescheduled to April of 1993 so that his defense team could have more time to prepare. He claimed this extra time was necessary to review financial documents, study surveillance tapes, glean exculpatory evidence, and analyze inconsistencies in the statements of government witnesses. The court granted only a two-week extension, from February 3 to February 17, noting that the original indictment had been returned in 1991 and that counsel already had enjoyed a considerable period for preparation. Subsequent requests for continuances were also denied. 47
48 Trial management is peculiarly within the ken of the district court. 11 That court has great latitude in managing its docket, including broad discretion to grant or withhold continuances. Only an unreasoning and arbitrary insistence upon expeditiousness in the face of a justifiable request for delay constitutes an abuse of that discretion. Morris v. Slappy, 461 U.S. 1, 11-12, 103 S.Ct. 1610, 1616-17, 75 L.Ed.2d 610 (1983) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Devin, 918 F.2d 280, 291 (1st Cir.1990) (explaining that an appellate court must show great deference to district court decisions of this nature, and should overturn such decisions only for a manifest abuse of discretion). For present purposes, this means that the decision below must endure unless the party who moved for the continuance can demonstrate that, in withholding relief, the trial court indulged a serious error of law or suffered a meaningful lapse of judgment, resulting in substantial prejudice to the movant. 12 See, e.g., United States v. Saget, 991 F.2d 702, 708 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 396, 126 L.Ed.2d 344 (1993); United States v. Dennis, 843 F.2d 652, 653 n. 1 (2d Cir.1988). 49 For the purpose of determining whether a denial of a continuance constitutes an abuse of discretion, each case is sui generis. See United States v. Torres, 793 F.2d 436, 440 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 889, 107 S.Ct. 287, 93 L.Ed.2d 262 (1986). A reviewing court must look first at the reasons contemporaneously presented in support of the request for the continuance. See United States v. Lussier, 929 F.2d 25, 28 (1st Cir.1991). Other relevant factors may include such things as the amount of time needed for effective preparation, the amount of time actually available for preparation, the amount of time previously available for preparation and how assiduously the movant used that time, the extent to which the movant has contributed to his perceived predicament, the complexity of the case, the availability of assistance from other sources, the probable utility of a continuance, the extent of inconvenience to others (such as the court, the witnesses, and the opposing party) should a continuance ensue, and the likelihood of injustice or unfair prejudice attributable to the denial of a continuance. See United States v. Soldevila-Lopez, 17 F.3d 480, 488 (1st Cir.1994); Lussier, 929 F.2d at 28; United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 13-14 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1082, 110 S.Ct. 1814, 108 L.Ed.2d 944 (1990). 50
51 Here, balancing the relevant considerations leaves us confident that the circumstances justified the refusal to grant a continuance. And, moreover, the record belies appellant's contention that the court's obduracy unfairly prejudiced his rights by leaving him insufficient time to prepare for trial. Appellant's most loudly bruited point is that the government produced 1600 hours of wiretap audio tapes, and that he had only 67 days, which he translates as equalling 1608 hours, to listen to them. Although this lament has some superficial plausibility, we agree with the district court that, notwithstanding the number of tapes, it was reasonable to expect defense counsel to be ready for trial in February. We explain briefly. 52 The grand jury indicted appellant in November of 1991. Thus, appellant's counsel, collectively, had far more than 67 days in which to work on the case. Moreover, the lawyers had the not inconsiderable benefit of a dress rehearsal, including unlimited access to the full record of the first trial (in which virtually the entire case against appellant was aired). O'Donnell, one of appellant's new attorneys, was especially familiar with the situation because he had represented a codefendant who had been acquitted in a separate trial. Furthermore, Hill and O'Donnell could--and no doubt did--confer with counsel for the codefendants and with Attorney Adae. In short, the means for efficacious preparation were tidily at hand. 53 Appellant's other assertions of supposed prejudice also lack force. For example, his suggestion that a continuance might have enabled him to receive a complete transcript of Agent Shedd's conversation with Duenas overlooks the fact that the government provided him with the entire transcript. See infra Part IV(E). His claim that more time was needed to obtain a copy of a DEA report that he asserts would have bolstered the testimony of an expert witness overlooks the fact that the expert knew of the report and described its conclusions. See infra note 18. His claim that a continuance would have enabled him to obtain enhanced versions of two of the surveillance tapes before trial, see infra Part IV(F), is completely unpersuasive given his assertion that the enhanced tapes, when received, were unclear and unintelligible. Appellant's Brief at 36. And, finally, appellant's exhortation that a continuance would have allowed him to investigate whether the laundered cash represented gambling proceeds, as opposed to drug money, is unaccompanied by any colorable basis for assuming that his supposition was anything more than the most remote of possibilities. 54 In a nutshell, appellant has not made a sufficient showing of undue prejudice to warrant us in second-guessing either the district court's resolve to start the trial in mid-February of 1993 or its decision to grant appellant a far more modest delay than he requested. Since the record reflects no pressing need for an extended continuance, and likewise fails to demonstrate significant harm flowing from the lack of one, the denial of the motion for a continuance cannot be said to have substantially impaired appellant's defense. See, e.g., Dennis, 843 F.2d at 653 n. 1. Thus, no cognizable error inheres. 55
56 Relatedly, appellant claims that the denial of a continuance saddled him with conflict-ridden counsel. This construct does not withstand scrutiny. To show an actual conflict of interest, a criminal defendant must demonstrate that some plausible alternative defense strategy might have been pursued and that this alternative strategy was not pursued because of the attorney's other loyalties or interests. United States v. Garcia-Rosa, 876 F.2d 209, 231 (1st Cir.1989), cert. granted and judgment vacated on other grounds, 498 U.S. 954, 111 S.Ct. 377, 112 L.Ed.2d 391 (1990). Appellant cannot meet this standard. 57 Appellant sees the conflict of interest as centered in Hill's need to protect himself at his client's expense. Appellant supports this accusation by repeated reference to Hill's indictment in Austria on charges that he conspired with appellant to launder the fruits of unlawful activity--but appellant does not suggest any way in which this alleged conflict of interest adversely affected Hill's representation of him at trial. What is more, appellant's claim that he was faced with an intolerable dilemma--he could accept Hill as his counsel or proceed to trial with an attorney who was untutored in the case--is flatly contradicted by the record. 58 Appellant insisted, time and again, despite the district court's painstaking explanation of his right to conflict-free counsel, that Hill was the advocate of his choosing. Appellant told the court unequivocally that he understood the potential conflict, but desired Hill's services. And he adhered to his position notwithstanding the court's entreaty to reconsider and its advice that he would be better off with an attorney free of any ties to the situation. 59 Last--but surely not least--appellant executed a written waiver stating that, after [h]aving been fully advised of the possible adverse consequences arising from the actual or potential conflicts with which Hill is or may be encumbered, he knowingly, voluntarily, intelligently, and irrevocably [wishes] to waive any and all such actual or potential conflicts of interest for the purpose of retaining Hill as his counsel. When a defendant knowingly selects a course of action, fully cognizant of its perils, he cannot later repudiate it simply because his case curdles. In the circumstances at bar, it is neither unfair nor unjust to hold appellant to his words. Thus, the district court's determination that appellant had voluntarily and knowingly waived his right to conflict-free representation is unimpugnable. See Holloway v. Arkansas, 435 U.S. 475, 483 n. 5, 98 S.Ct. 1173, 1178 n. 5, 55 L.Ed.2d 426 (1978) (stating that a defendant may waive his right to the assistance of an attorney unhindered by a conflict of interests). 60 Appellant has another arrow in this quiver. He reasons that the court should have overlooked his waiver of conflict-free counsel because Hill's continued representation constituted an unwaivable constitutional transgression. To be sure, a few courts have found a per se Sixth Amendment violation where trial counsel was implicated in the crime for which his client was on trial. Soldevila-Lopez, 17 F.3d at 487 n. 4 (citing cases). But these cases tend to involve circumstances in which an attorney has reason to fear that a vigorous defense of the client might unearth proof of the attorney's criminality. See, e.g., United States v. Cancilla, 725 F.2d 867, 870 (2d Cir.1984). Although Hill informed the court, in the vaguest of generalities, that he feared being charged or called as a witness in appellant's case, he provided no substantiation of these assertions, nor was he able to explain how the hypothetical conflict would, at that time, affect his representation of the appellant. Therefore, the district court seems entirely justified in concluding that Hill's representation of appellant would not be hampered by a realistic foreboding that vigorous advocacy would uncover evidence of his own crimes. Cf. William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, sc. iii, ll. 133-34 (1605) (noting that present fears are less than horrible imaginings). 61 The sockdolager is that, wholly apart from Hill's status, appellant was also represented at trial by another lawyer, O'Donnell, who had no conflict of interest. 13 In an effort to scale this rampart, appellant suggests that O'Donnell, too, had an actual conflict of interest arising out of his previous representation of a codefendant, Raymond Marotto. By December of 1992, however, Marotto, a bank employee charged with failing to file CTRs, had been acquitted in a separate trial. Appellant's convoluted explanation of how O'Donnell's concluded representation of Marotto created a conflict of interest is difficult to follow. He seems to be saying, without any citation to the record, that Marotto (who was not called to testify at appellant's trial) could have been a material witness. We reject this unfounded speculation. 62 As O'Donnell himself pointed out, Marotto's case turned on whether he did--or did not--have a responsibility to file CTRs. There is nothing in the record that suggests that Marotto had any knowledge that might have been useful in appellant's defense. We have routinely dismissed analogous conflict of interest claims, see, e.g., Garcia-Rosa, 876 F.2d at 231 (so holding when defendant provide[d] no substantiation for his assertion that his counsel had a conflict of interest that manifested itself when he did not call as a witness a person whom he previously had represented), and we dismiss appellant's claim on the same basis. It is simply too flimsy. 63
64 At the close of the government's case, appellant submitted a proffer in support of a renewed motion for a continuance. The proffer suggested a global conspiracy between the Israeli intelligence services and the CIA, and asserted that he had witnesses who would testify about such matters as the Israeli defense industry and [t]he method by which the building of Israeli religious schools is financed by Hasidic Jews in the United States who engage in money laundering. Appellant claimed that his counsel needed time to investigate the matters described in the proffer. 65 The district court found the proffer to be too vague and unsubstantiated to constitute a basis for granting a continuance because its conclusory allegations offered no explanation as to its relevancy to the case. Moreover, the court found no evidence that diligent efforts had been made to assure availability of the testimony and documents in a proper time frame. Hence, the court determined that the proffer afforded an inadequate basis for the requested continuance. 66 We discern no abuse of discretion. While the proffer weaves a tale of intrigue worthy of an Oliver Stone screenplay, we are unable to distill sufficient relevance or likelihood of success from its sinister allegations to suggest that a continuance, if granted, would have proven useful.