Opinion ID: 751126
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Court's Fact-finding Function

Text: 19 Mr. Jaques next argues that the district court delegated its adjudicative duties to the U.S. Marshals and the FPS. Mr. Jaques specifically is referring to the statements of the lower court, made on May 8, 1996, the morning after the incident occurred. During the proceedings on May 8th, the following transpired: 20 Mr. Jaques: If it please the Court, I do say that I agree with the Court; no question, an episode occurred. Let me tell you what it was. 21 The Court: I don't want to hear what it was, frankly. I think I'll leave that up to the Federal Protective Service and the U.S. Marshal to determine the facts of what happened and then send it over to the U.S. Attorney's office. If a crime occurred in this courtroom, I intend to leave that up to the executive branch of government. That's up to them to determine what happened and what didn't happen, but I do know something happened that shouldn't have happened. 22 (J.A. at 103-104.) 23 Mr. Jaques properly indicates that it is indeed improper for a district court to delegate its fact-finding function to other entities. See Banks v. United States, 614 F.2d 95, 97 (6th Cir.1980) (holding that fact-finding is within the exclusive function of a district judge); United States v. Lowrimore, 923 F.2d 590, 594 (8th Cir.1991) (concluding that fact-finding is a judicial function, not to be delegated to staff people); United States v. Weichert, 836 F.2d 769, 772 (2nd Cir.1988) (finding that adjudication is solely a judicial function). However, such a delegation of responsibility did not occur in the case at hand. 24 The lower court addressed this very issue in its June 13th Order, stating that it based its factual determination on an independent assessment of the Incident Report prepared by the FPS, witnesses' statements and Mr. Jaques' response to the court's show cause order. The lower court also noted that the Incident Report did not make any determination as to whom was at fault, but only laid out Mr. Emery's and Mr. Jaques' versions of the story; leaving it to the lower court to actually resolve the factual dispute. 25 Although some of the statements made by the lower court may have been unnecessary, there is no indication that the lower court delegated its adjudicative responsibility. It is clear that the FPS's Incident Report did nothing more than provide the lower court with additional statements by witnesses; it made no determination as to whom was responsible for the incident--that determination ultimately came from the lower court based on a reasoned analysis of the evidence. Therefore, we find that the lower court did not delegate its fact-finding function to the FPS.