Opinion ID: 2975648
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Government’s rebuttal closing argument

Text: Roach and Sheldon objected at trial to portions of the government’s closing argument. Specifically, they objected to the following allegedly improper statements: [I]t’s not disputed that when Agent King talked to Mr. Gomez and Mr. Mijia [sic], he didn’t think to ask them about a cell phone, they didn’t think to tell him; but what is telling is Mr. Gomez’s testimony. Who was the first person to ask you about the cell phone and ask you, didn’t you have a cell phone? It was Mr. Hackett, the investigator for Sergeant Roach; and that’s important for one reason, ladies and gentlemen, there were four people on that Saturday afternoon that knew there was a cell phone in that van, Wilder Gomez, Marcos Mijia [sic], Jimmy Roach and Pat Sheldon. That’s how they knew to ask. Mr. King didn’t ask because he wasn’t there at that van that afternoon, but the defense knew to ask about the cell phone because they knew that cell phone was in the van. ... Ms. Pierce [counsel for Roach] asked, Well, you don’t even know who Mr. Mijia [sic] and Mr. Gomez are; and that’s what they want to make the case about. I think back to the Commandment, thou shalt not steal. It does not say, thou shalt not steal from people you know, thou shalt not steal from citizens, thou shalt not steal from white people.
In response to the objection of Roach and Sheldon to the government’s cell-phone comments, the court cautioned the jury as follows: “[Y]ou’ve heard the proof. It’s for you to decide the facts. If the lawyers misstate the facts, that’s up to you to decide.” The defendants assert on appeal that the government’s comments about the cell phone in Gomez’s car improperly argued facts not in the record. But the primary focus of their argument is that the government’s comments necessarily suggested to the jury that the only way that the defense investigator would have known to question Gomez about the borrowed cell phone was if Roach and Sheldon were the officers who made the stop and told the investigator about having seen the cell phone. Furthermore, Roach and Sheldon contend that these comments were “tantamount to a false claim that the defense team was accessories [sic] after the fact to the crime allegedly committed.” They claim that the government’s argument, when considered in the context of both trials, constitutes reversible error. The government, on the other hand, contends that its reference to the cell phone was made in response to Roach’s own closing argument, in which Roach’s counsel stated as follows: When did they start talking about cell phones? What did they tell you? Only after two months ago, after they testified, did it come up about cell phones. That’s important. What they are wanting to do is fix the Gomez/Vasques [sic] problems, and that is that they don’t even know when an alleged stop happened. Sheldon’s counsel likewise referred to the cell phone in his closing argument, stating that “Agent King had never heard of the cell phone being thrown or anything until recently.” A review of the evidence offered at the second trial undercuts the defendants’ position. Gomez testified that just prior to the traffic stop by Roach and Sheldon, he had received a phone call on the borrowed cell phone. He also testified that a call came in as Roach and Sheldon approached Nos. 06-6266/6298/6564 United States v. Roach et al. Page 7 his van during the stop. Although the cell phone was not in Gomez’s name, his coworker, Sandra Boles, testified that she had loaned him an extra phone on her cell-phone account and that he paid her for the calls that he made when she received her phone bill. Through the testimony of Boles and of an employee for Boles’s cell-phone service provider, the government introduced phone records for the cell phone to corroborate that it was in fact in use at times that were consistent with the government’s time line of events for the traffic stop. The district court considered Roach’s and Sheldon’s claims that the cell-phone comments constituted reversible error in its denial of their motion for a new trial. Concluding that “[t]he statements by the government attorney during the closing argument were not a misstatement of facts in the record,” the court found that “[t]he evidence in the record was simply that the first disclosure of the cell phone came because of a question asked by Hackett.” The court determined that the government’s argument “was not a misstatement and was certainly a reasonable inference based on the evidence in the record.” Moreover, the court found that the defendants had invited the government’s argument by making “Gomez’[s] credibility concerning the cell phone an issue in the case in the first place.” The court concluded that the comments, even if improper, were not “so pronounced and persistent that [they] permeate[d] the entire atmosphere of the trial,” (quoting United States v. Mahar, 801 F.2d 1477, 1503 (6th Cir. 1986)), but rather were confined to “a few short sentences in a lengthy closing made after four days of trial.” Viewed in context, the government’s comments about the cell phone constituted approximately five sentences in its rebuttal closing argument. The defendants argue that the statements nonetheless infected the jury’s deliberations and thus prevented Roach and Sheldon from receiving a fair trial. To be sure, the government may not rely on prejudicial facts not in evidence when making its closing arguments. United States v. Wiedyk, 71 F.3d 602, 610 (6th Cir. 1995). But the evidence tends to support the government’s argument in the present case. Gomez testified that the first person to ask him about a cell phone was “a man with a beard,” whom he later identified as Brian Hackett, an investigator for the defense. As the district court noted, the record demonstrates that the defendants “vigorously and continually attacked the credibility of the victims” over the course of the entire trial. The government’s comments regarding the cell phone and the credibility of Gomez and Mejia, even if not invited, drew a reasonable inference based on the evidence given at the second trial. See United States v. Hickey, 917 F.2d 901, 904 (6th Cir. 1990) (concluding that the prosecutor’s statement during summation that the defendant was actively involved in drug-dealing was “a permissible argument based on the evidence”). As Roach and Sheldon acknowledge, their defense theory was that they were not the ones who made the traffic stop, if such a stop indeed occurred at all. The government’s comments responded to that defense by suggesting that Roach and Sheldon must have made the stop in order for Hackett, their defense investigator, to know to ask Gomez about whether he had a cell phone. On appeal, the defendants contend that the district court’s conclusion that they had invited the government’s comments essentially punished them for “[t]he presentation of a defense [that] was nothing more than zealous representation of their clients.” This conclusory argument ignores the district court’s reasoned response to the defendants’ motion for a new trial and its analysis of their prosecutorial-misconduct claim. Roach and Sheldon also raise on appeal what the district court characterized as “the somewhat puzzling argument, without elaboration, that ‘[t]he government’s closing argument is a step beyond making improper comments on a defendant’s decision to remain silent, conduct which is prohibited by the Fifth Amendment.’” As the district court properly noted, “[t]he prosecution’s statement[s] in this case cannot reasonably be interpreted to have even been an indirect reference to the decision of these defendants to invoke their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and refuse to testify at trial.” We agree with the reasoning of the district court and accordingly adopt its analysis of the defendants’ perfunctory Fifth Amendment argument. Nos. 06-6266/6298/6564 United States v. Roach et al. Page 8
Roach and Sheldon further objected to the government’s comments during its rebuttal closing argument that the Ten Commandments do not say “thou shalt not steal from white people.” This statement, although textually accurate, served, according to the defendants, to incite religious and ethnic bias and thereby deprived them of a fair trial. Roach and Sheldon are both white, whereas Gomez and Mejia are both Hispanic. A review of the defendants’ closing arguments suggests, however, that the government was responding to improper comments made by counsel for Roach. His counsel had argued that [t]his is one mark in ten years that they’re saying on a sergeant; and the whole tale doesn’t make any sense. We can’t furnish all the answers. We don’t know why the Hispanics—they know how to work the system. They had things to hide. We don’t know why this is set up like it is. It’s one of the great mysteries; but we know that the government’s facts don’t work, you can tell from their evidence and their witnesses. Roach’s co-counsel then argued: What did we learn about the individuals Marcos Mijia [sic] Vasques, Wilder Gomez Roblero? Who are these individuals? That’s one question, one of many questions . . . . Who are you? That was a question that was asked by Mr. Smith. Did you hear Mr. Gomez? At first he — there was a big long pause, and he did not want to say who he was. He was also asked his date of birth, and he kept asking, well, which one. He was asked where did he live in New Jersey. I don’t remember. For an individual who has come to this country to make a better life, he cannot remember the first place he came to live, this great wonderful country that we live in. Why did he not want to the government to know, us to know, you to know where he lived in New Jersey? Is there more bad things [sic] that he’s done out there? We conclude that the government’s statements did not amount to misconduct. The statements were made in response to Roach’s closing arguments, which contained inflammatory remarks about Hispanics. Indeed, the district court said in a footnote that defense counsel’s statements about Hispanics knowing how to work the system constituted “race-baiting” and were part of a pattern of tactics and statements that the defense had used even more aggressively in the first trial. To be sure, “[c]ourts universally condemn” the injection of religion into legal proceedings and we do not vary from that condemnation here. Hicks v. Collins, 384 F.3d 204, 223 (6th Cir. 2004). But the government’s comment was isolated and there is no indication that it misled the jury. The government did not suggest that the jury should decide the case based on theological principles nor make any other reference to religion. Rather, after the defense’s objection to the reference to the Ten Commandments, the government continued its closing argument by stating that “[t]he law does not make differences based on who the victim is. Our constitutional rights do not depend on who the victim is. Those rights apply to everyone in the United States.” As the defense points out, there was no contemporaneous cautionary instruction to the jury by the district court. But the defense did not request one either. After the court overruled the defense’s objection, there were no further Biblical references during the trial. In sum, the government’s comment, although improper, was not flagrant. Moreover, the comment did not appeal to religious or ethnic prejudice, but was made in response to the Nos. 06-6266/6298/6564 United States v. Roach et al. Page 9 inappropriate comments about Mejia and Gomez by the defense. We therefore find no reversible error regarding this issue.