Opinion ID: 526038
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: rivera-martinez's reasons

Text: 30 Rivera-Martinez also advances a host of grounds for granting his plea-withdrawal motion. Mindful of the district court's detailed discussion of the matter, Rivera-Martinez, 693 F.Supp. at 1363-65, we can be correspondingly brief. We nevertheless consider each of the three main pillars upon which assigned error rests, as well as scrutinizing the district court's balancing of relevant factors. 31
32 Rivera-Martinez contends that his change of plea was the product of duress in that he was coerced by the stressful situation to plead guilty. Specifically, defendant claims to have tendered his plea while in an agitated emotional state brought on by telephone conversations with his hospitalized mother (who was also under indictment). Defendant says that he yielded to his mother's urging, and calls attention to his statement during the Rule 11 hearing that his family has suffered too much. 33 Rivera-Martinez misperceives the focus of the plea-retraction inquiry: while evidence of this stripe is probative of an accused's motivation for pleading guilty, it does not necessarily show coercion, duress, or involuntariness. Criminal prosecutions are stressful experiences for nearly all concerned--particularly defendants and their families. It is to be expected that feelings will run strong within a family unit and that loved ones will advise, counsel, implore, beseech, and exhort defendants to take--or abjure--myriad courses of action. The relevant question for plea withdrawal is not whether the accused was sensitive to external considerations--many defendants are--but instead whether the decision to plead was voluntary, i.e., a product of free will. See Ramos, 810 F.2d at 314; see also Buckley, 847 F.2d at 1000 n. 6 (threat that brother otherwise might be indicted did not make [defendant's] plea involuntary as a matter of law); Wojtowicz v. United States, 550 F.2d 786, 792 (2d Cir.) (rejecting intra-familial coercion as basis for plea retraction), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 972, 97 S.Ct. 2938, 53 L.Ed.2d 1071 (1977). 34 In this case, the district court found that defendant's plea was not the product of coercive or debilitating emotional strain. Rivera-Martinez, 693 F.Supp. at 1364. That finding derives abundant record support. The Rule 11 inquiry was searching, a circumstance of some importance. See Buckley, 847 F.2d at 999 (thorough dialogue with defendant at Rule 11 hearing bolsters district court's findings); Ramos, 810 F.2d at 312 (similar). The likelihood that the change of plea was studied, rather than the product of an emotional outburst, is strengthened by a medley of other circumstances: defendant has not claimed to be innocent of the charges to which he pled guilty; he waited a full seven weeks before moving to withdraw his guilty plea; he produced no evidence of distraction apart from his naked assertion; and his responses during the Rule 11 hearing, in the aggregate, demonstrate a grasp of the issues and a high probability that the plea was volitional and considered. See United States v. Crosby, 714 F.2d 185, 192 (1st Cir.1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1045, 104 S.Ct. 716, 79 L.Ed.2d 178 (1984). 35
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
39 Defendant argues vociferously that one of his attorneys, Carlos Noriega, was ineffectual. He claims, among other things, that Noriega led him down a primrose path, lulling him into a false sense of security while doing nothing to arm his defense. Rivera-Martinez also complains that Noriega failed to follow instructions. These accusations reduce to a swearing match: Noriega testified at the plea-withdrawal hearing, specifically addressing and firmly rebutting each charge. The district court, we think, was entitled to believe the lawyer rather than the client. 40 Noriega, a veteran practitioner and criminal-law professor, said that he spent more than 200 hours reviewing the evidence. His trial preparation, as he described it, touched all the customary bases. To be sure, Noriega's narrative leaves little question but that he had a difficult client. Rivera-Martinez frequently made requests that were extraordinary, irregular, or impossible to fulfill. But, a defendant is entitled to the lawyerly exercise of reasonable skill and diligence--not to a unquestioning slave in a three-piece suit who will do whatever the client bids, no matter how farfetched. Here, we see no indication that Noriega failed to take any action fairly necessitated by the demands of the case. We have searched the record as to each incident of which appellant complains. Most of the complaints are little more than carping born of the disappointment understandably attendant to a stiff, though lawful, sentence. We need not review specific remonstrances in any detail. 6 Suffice it to say that appellant has not established that these incidents, or any other action or inaction on Noriega's part, taken singly or collectively, materially prejudiced the defense. 41 Rivera-Martinez also assails Noriega's pretrial assurances that the defense would prevail. Noriega testified that he made no such representations, branding Rivera-Martinez's account absolutely false. Rivera-Martinez himself during the Rule 11 colloquy, assured the court that he was satisfied with Noriega's work on his behalf--an improbable response for someone who, as he would now have it, had been demoralized by counsel's egregious shortcomings. When an accused seeks to withdraw a guilty plea, the court is not obliged to treat self-serving accounts as gospel. In this instance, the judge was well within his rights in refusing to accept defendant's recollection of the assurances given to him. 42 To cap the bottle, Rivera-Martinez's contention that Noriega euchred him into entering the guilty plea is so insubstantial as to make quicksand seem like granite. Noriega testified that his client had sought a plea bargain from the very beginning of the case. No agreement could be reached. Trial began. Rivera-Martinez, on his own initiative, decided at that time to plead guilty, without informing his lawyer (who first found out about the impending change of plea from a prosecutor). Although Noriega cautioned defendant that, absent a plea agreement, he would be submitting [himself] to the mercy of the Court, Rivera-Martinez persisted in pleading guilty. The Rule 11 colloquy bears out Noriega's version. When asked by the district judge if counsel had advised him to plead guilty, Rivera-Martinez responded: I was the one who asked him to plead guilty. If counsel was ineffective in any sense, it was only because the client rendered him so, first by keeping Noriega in the dark, and then, by refusing to heed his advice. That is not the sort of ineffectiveness for which relief can be granted. 43 In fine, the record shows clearly that, facing a prosecution case so strong as to be overwhelming, and forced to cope with a cross-grained client, Noriega represented Rivera-Martinez as effectively as the circumstances would allow. Defendant's allegations to the contrary are altogether bootless. 44
45 Once Rivera-Martinez's flagship assertions are set to rest, there is scant question as to the supportability of the result reached below. Virtually all the variables in the plea-withdrawal calculus cut against the defendant. We have already alluded to many of the pertinent factors, e.g., lack of any plausible reason to justify retraction, absence of any assertion of innocence, delay in seeking relief. Nothing more need be added. The district court's discussion is comprehensive, see Rivera-Martinez, 693 F.Supp. at 1363-65, and its determination that appellant advanced no fair and just reason for disclaiming his guilty plea is beyond reproof.