Opinion ID: 1425795
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Closed Relevancy Hearing

Text: Vázquez and Morell argue that the October 16, 2006 closed hearing violated their Sixth Amendment rights to a public trial and to present evidence in their own defense. See Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39, 47, 104 S.Ct. 2210, 81 L.Ed.2d 31 (1984); In re Oliver, 333 U.S. 257, 273, 68 S.Ct. 499, 92 L.Ed. 682 (1948). The defendants argue that these errors were structural and we must, therefore, vacate their convictions. See Owens v. United States, 483 F.3d 48, 64 (1st Cir.2007). We allowed two Puerto Rico newspapers and two radio stations to appear jointly as amici curiae. [5] In their brief and in oral arguments before us, the amici joined the defendants in objecting to the October 16 hearing, but on a new ground: that the hearing's closure and the sealing of related documentation violated the press and public's First Amendment right of access to criminal proceedings. See Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court for the County of Norfolk, 457 U.S. 596, 603, 102 S.Ct. 2613, 73 L.Ed.2d 248 (1982). The Government counters that, as explicitly noted by the district court, this particular hearing was merely an offer of proof to preserve the court's relevancy determination, and that neither the defendants' Sixth Amendment rights nor the press and public's First Amendment rights were implicated. [6] Under the circumstances, the Government is correct on the first point; we need not reach the merits of the second. Vázquez proffered the testimony of Witness A and Witness B and the subpoenaed Dick Corporation documents in an attempt to show that Witness B, Consultant C, and powerful persons for whom they worked were the ones who extorted money out of the subcontractors in exchange for the Superaqueduct contract, and that the defendants were framed in order to throw suspicion off of these and other implicated individuals. After considering the testimony of Witness A and Witness B from the October 16 hearing, the district court confirmed its earlier ruling that the evidence was mostly irrelevant to any matter at issue in the trial of Vázquez and Morell. The court focused primarily on the timeline of the contractual relationship between Witness B and Dick Corporation. Witness A and Witness B indicated that Witness B began working informally on behalf of Dick Corporation sometime in 1998, as a consultant and marketing agent for the company in several construction projects in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. This relationship was formalized in a written contract in the fall of 1999, and Consultant C was hired at around the same time. The witnesses also testified that Witness B and Consultant C had nothing to do with the 1995-96 discussions surrounding the Superaqueduct bid. The district court also examined documents submitted by Dick Corporation, which confirmed that the contractual relationship between Witness B and Dick Corporation began well after the bid was awarded, and opined that Vázquez's subpoena to Dick Corporation was a broad, sweeping fishing expedition. The court concluded that Vázquez's theory that Witness B was involved in the Superaqueduct extortion scheme was unfounded speculation and that any evidence Witness B could provide at trial would be irrelevant, and accordingly quashed Vázquez's subpoenas to Witness B and Dick Corporation. [7] The court ordered that the transcript of the October 16 hearing and the proffered exhibits remain sealed, and warned that their divulgence would be punished by contempt. We first address the defendants' contention that the district court's relevancy ruling deprived them of an opportunity to present exonerating evidence to the jury, and thus violated their Sixth Amendment right to defend themselves. We afford the district court considerable discretion in making relevancy determinations and in excluding evidence for lack of relevance, and our review of such determinations is for abuse of discretion. Richards v. Relentless, Inc., 341 F.3d 35, 49 (1st Cir.2003). After examining the October 16 hearing transcript, the documents provided by Dick Corporation, and the submissions of the parties, we agree with the district court that the proposed evidence was irrelevant to any issue in the prosecution of Vázquez and Morell; we also agree that to place such evidence in front of the jury would have resulted in a confusing and distracting sideshow. Nothing in the transcript, the Dick Corporation documents submitted at the hearing, or the sealed written submissions contains any suggestion that Witness B or Consultant C was connected in any way to the Superaqueduct project until at least 1998, and then only tangentially with respect to the intercity connectors, which involved a completely separate contract. Moreover, nothing in the record reveals that either individual was involved in any scheme to extort money from the subcontractors. The conduct the jury found to be extortionate began in June 1995, when Vázquez told Cobián that he, Morell, and Granados would use their influence to help Thames-Dick win the contract in exchange for money. While the effects of this conduct  including the subcontractors' monthly payments to the defendants and Granados  continued for several years and partially overlapped in time with Witness B's and Consultant C's employment at Dick Corporation, the main criminal act was accomplished long before these two persons appeared on the scene. Indeed, Witness B testified that he had no contact at all with the individual subcontractors with the exception of Carrero, with whom he had a social relationship and worked on matters unrelated to the Superaqueduct. Witness B's testimony also indicates that his contacts with persons in the Rosselló government were minimal and his influence over them virtually nil. The district court did not, therefore, abuse its discretion in deeming the proposed evidence irrelevant and excluding it from the trial. See Achille Bayart & Cie v. Crowe, 238 F.3d 44, 49 (1st Cir. 2001); cf. United States v. Nivica, 887 F.2d 1110, 1118 (1st Cir.1989) (affirming district court's denial of subpoenas for three proposed defense witnesses where the anticipated testimony would have been irrelevant, in part because the witnesses' involvement with the defendant occurred subsequent to his criminal conduct). This conclusion disposes of the defendants' claim that the district court violated their Sixth Amendment right to present a defense, as no such right exists where the evidence proffered has been properly ruled irrelevant. See United States v. Maxwell, 254 F.3d 21, 26 (1st Cir.2001) (defendant's wide-ranging right to present a defense still does not give him a right to present irrelevant evidence) (citing In re Oliver, 333 U.S. at 273-74 & n. 31, 68 S.Ct. 499); United States v. Reeder, 170 F.3d 93, 108 (1st Cir.1999) (no `unfettered' Sixth Amendment right `to offer [evidence] that is incompetent, privileged, or otherwise inadmissible under standard rules of evidence' (quoting Montana v. Egelhoff, 518 U.S. 37, 42, 116 S.Ct. 2013, 135 L.Ed.2d 361 (1996))). We therefore turn to the defendants' remaining argument concerning the October 16 hearing: that the closure of the hearing and sealing of related documentation violated their Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. Our review of this (preserved) claim is plenary. See United States v. DeLuca, 137 F.3d 24, 33 (1st Cir.1998). Despite the defendants' sweeping assertions regarding the scope of the public-trial right, the question before us is quite narrow. We think it clear that, as characterized by the district court, the October 16 hearing was not a trial session, but rather a question-and-answer offer of proof, [8] the purpose of which was to create a record so that we could determine the propriety of the court's relevancy ruling. [9] See 21 Wright & Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure § 5040.3, at 908 (2d ed.2005) (in question-and-answer offer of proof, proponent elicits proposed testimony by questioning witness outside jury's presence); accord United States v. Adams, 271 F.3d 1236, 1241 (10th Cir.2001) (discussing the several types of offer of proof, and expressing a preference for the question-and-answer type). The defendants point to no precedent in the Supreme Court, this circuit, or else-where extending the Sixth Amendment public-trial right to an outside-of-trial, question-and-answer offer of proof  or indeed, any type of offer of proof. Furthermore, the October 16 hearing differed in at least two fundamental respects from the categories of non-trial hearings to which the Sixth Amendment public-trial right has been held to apply in the past, such as hearings on motions to suppress, see, e.g., Waller, 467 U.S. at 47, 104 S.Ct. 2210, and jury-selection proceedings, see, e.g., Owens, 483 F.3d at 62. First, the evidence elicited at the hearing had already (correctly) been ruled irrelevant. Cf. Brown v. Kuhlmann, 142 F.3d 529, 541 (2d Cir.1998) (courtroom closure during trial did not infringe Sixth Amendment rights where it involved cumulative testimony related to matter collateral to charged offense). Second, the district court was under no obligation to hold the hearing in the first place, but chose to do so for our and the defendants' benefit when confronted with Vázquez's eleventh-hour request. These differences render the Sixth Amendment precedent invoked by the defendants inapposite in the circumstances. While we leave open the possibility that the public-trial right may apply to some offer-of-proof hearings, we decline to recognize such a right on facts as uncompelling as these. [10] We accordingly reject this ground of appeal. [11] The amici argue that the closure of the October 16 hearing violated the press and public's First Amendment right of access to criminal proceedings. As a remedy, the amici ask us to lift the district court's seal on the hearing transcript along with the gag order on those who know its contents, so that the press may examine and report on what transpired there. Crucially, however, the defendants did not raise this argument. As we have often acknowledged, we ordinarily will not consider novel arguments advanced by an amicus on appeal, but not also raised by a party or another entity which has formally intervened. See United States v. Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc., 84 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir. 1996); Rhode Island v. Narragansett Indian Tribe, 19 F.3d 685, 705 n. 22 (1st Cir.1994) (declining to address constitutional claims advanced by amici but not raised by parties); accord Knetsch v. United States, 364 U.S. 361, 370, 81 S.Ct. 132, 5 L.Ed.2d 128 (1960). The facts present us with no reason to depart from the general rule. Cf., e.g., United States v. Spock, 416 F.2d 165, 169 (1st Cir.1969) (opting to consider amicus's arguments as to unconstitutionally broad applicability of statute criminalizing aiding and abetting Vietnam War draft dodging). The amici are, of course, free to return to the district court in an attempt to argue that changed circumstances have rendered the seal on the hearing transcript and related documentation no longer necessary, but that is an issue for the district court  not us  to decide. Having disposed of the challenges to the closed relevancy hearing, we turn to the defendants' next assignment of error.