Opinion ID: 199073
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Richardson's Opportunity to Challenge the Government's Sentencing Evidence

Text: 13 Richardson was absent from the two sentencing hearings at which Craig, Dutton, and Dominguez testified because his attorney had just had a baby. The district court ordered that Richardson be provided with transcripts of the hearings and delayed the sentencing for over four months after the hearings. Richardson did not seek an additional evidentiary hearing on the identity of the substance or attempt to introduce any sentencing evidence of his own, and he joined in the sentencing memorandum filed by Taylor, Gaul, and Arruda. The situation at sentencing was just as we have described in a previous case: 14 The prosecutor pulled no rabbits out his hat. He merely presented the same information that the defense had previously received and reviewed. The defendant did not move for a further continuance. He did not request an evidentiary hearing. He did not subpoena any witnesses or offer any evidence. In short, the defendant did not seek in any way to secure a further right of rebuttal. 15 United States v. Tardiff, 969 F.2d 1283, 1286 (1st Cir. 1992). 16 Richardson now says that he was denied a meaningful opportunity in a new evidentiary hearing to challenge the government's evidence on the issue of whether the substance was crack cocaine. This argument is unavailing. Richardson waived his right to complain about the absence of such a hearing by failing to ask for one. See id. The district court was entitled to rely on evidence adduced at a proceeding from which Richardson was absent, as long as it gave him an opportunity to respond to that evidence before sentencing. See United States v. Berzon, 941 F.2d 8, 21 (1st Cir. 1991). The record makes it clear that Richardson had such an opportunity and never used it. 17