Opinion ID: 546890
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: reading of indictment

Text: 40 Benitez challenges on appeal the failure of the district court to read the indictment to the jury at the outset of trial. Apparently, the trial judge believed that the magistrate who presided over the jury selection had read the indictment to the jury. When Benitez's counsel informed the court during the third day of trial that the magistrate had not done so, the court immediately read and explained the charges to the jury. This corrective action, however, did not occur until after the jury had heard the testimony of the government's chief witness, Martinez. 41 Benitez contends that the court's delay in reading the indictment irreparably prejudiced his case because it resulted in the jury's having heard a substantial portion of the government's evidence before being informed that Benitez was only charged with one count in the three count indictment. As a result, Benitez argues, the jury must have been hopelessly confused in trying to differentiate among the defendants, the charges and the evidence, thus creating a strong possibility that Benitez may have been found guilty on the basis of evidence that had no relevance to the single charge against him, but rather pertained to the multiple charges against his co-defendants. 42 In considering this claim, we note that Benitez did not object at the outset of trial to either the magistrate's or the court's failure to read the indictment to the jury. Benitez raised the issue only after Martinez's testimony, at which time the court promptly corrected what appears to have been an oversight. Due to Benitez's failure to make a timely objection, the plain error standard governs our review of the issue. Under the plain error rule, an alleged error will warrant a new trial only if the error, when considered in the context of the entire trial, was such as to undermine the fundamental fairness of the trial and contribute to a miscarriage of justice. United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 16, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 1047, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985); United States v. Johnson, 893 F.2d 451, 454 (1st Cir.1990). Such errors are to be found only in exceptional cases, where the errors are so shocking that they seriously affect the fundamental fairness and basic integrity of the proceedings conducted below. United States v. Griffin, 818 F.2d 97, 100 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 844, 108 S.Ct. 137, 98 L.Ed.2d 94 (1987). 43 Applying this standard to the facts at issue, we find no plain error. Our review of the record reveals that the magistrate broadly summarized the indictment to the jury, describing it as charging the defendants with membership in a conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and to import quantities of controlled substances. Benitez is correct in pointing out that the magistrate's summary failed to indicate that Benitez and Casanova were only charged with one of three counts contained in the indictment. The district court, however, remedied any confusion that this omission may have caused when it read the full indictment to the jury immediately after Benitez's counsel raised the issue on the third day of trial. 6 Moreover, the court repeatedly cautioned the jury throughout the entire trial that Benitez and Casanova were only charged with one count, and that certain evidence could only be considered against Gomez, Torres and Delfin because it pertained to the other two counts. These warnings eliminated any confusion that might have remained on the part of the jury as to the nature of the charges and the evidence against each defendant. Considering the district court's conduct in the context of the trial as a whole, we find no miscarriage of justice and no plain error in the court's failure to read the indictment to the jury at the outset of trial. Cf. United States v. Mendoza, 574 F.2d 1373, 1381-82 (5th Cir.) (finding no error in the trial court's failure to read the indictment to the jury), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 988, 99 S.Ct. 584, 58 L.Ed.2d 661 (1978); Martin v. United States, 335 F.2d 945, 950 (9th Cir.1964) (same); Robles v. United States, 279 F.2d 401, 403-04 (9th Cir.1960) (same), cert. denied, 365 U.S. 836, 81 S.Ct. 750, 5 L.Ed.2d 745 (1961); Nick v. United States, 122 F.2d 660, 670 (8th Cir.) (same), cert. denied, 314 U.S. 687, 62 S.Ct. 302, 86 L.Ed. 550 (1941).