Opinion ID: 769403
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Howard's second trial

Text: 23 After Howard was indicted for the second time in April of 1998, he had to wait six months before his trial commenced in October of that year. The passage of four of those months resulted from a continuance requested by the government on the ground that Porter had been hospitalized after going into premature labor and was therefore unavailable to testify. Attached to the government's motion was an affidavit in which the government's counsel stated that he had received a message taken by his secretary from Porter on May 22, 1998 to the effect that Porter was in the hospital due to premature labor and had been told by her doctor to avoid stress. The affidavit further related the government attorney's May 26, 1998 conversation with Porter, in which Porter again called from the hospital and said that her doctor wanted to forestall delivery of her baby for at least another eight weeks. In its motion, the government argued that the continuance due to Porter's medical condition should be excluded from the court's Speedy Trial Act calculations under 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(3)(A), which provides that [a]ny period of delay resulting fromthe absence or unavailability of . . . an essential witness is excludable. 24 The district court granted the government's motion, holding that the continuance would serve the ends of justice by allowing an essential witness to be present at trial. Howard argues on appeal that the unverified affidavit submitted by the government did not provide adequate evidentiary support for the district court's findings. He further objects to the fact that the district court granted the government's motion for a continuance one day after receiving it, before Howard even had an opportunity to respond. 25 A district court's determination that a delay meets the ends of justice exception to the Speedy Trial Act will not be disturbed unless it constitutes an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Monger, 879 F.2d 218, 221-22 (6th Cir. 1989). Howard is unable to produce any case authority supporting the proposition that the affidavit of an attorney under facts similar to those before us is insufficient evidence upon which to base a continuance. Indeed, in the one case cited by Howard involving an allegedly unavailable witness, the appellate court expressly held that a district court properly relied upon an affidavit from the government's counsel to find that the witness was unavailable for trial. See United States v. Koller, 956 F.2d 1408, 1412 (7th Cir. 1992) (Where, as in this case, the affidavit set out facts describing the medical condition of the witness and there was no evidence to suggest that the government's affidavit was untruthful or its information unreliable, the showing was sufficient for the district judge to find the witness unavailable due to his medical condition pursuant to § 3161(h)(3) of the Speedy Trial Act.). 26 Moreover, the district court's grant of the government's motion without the benefit of input from Howard is not reversible error. See United States v. Goetz, 826 F.2d 1025, 1027 (11th Cir. 1987) (affirming the district court's grant of an extension that was based solely on the government's motion). Nothing prevented Howard from filing a motion for reconsideration after the district court issued its ruling. Cf. United States v. Bourne, 743 F.2d 1026, 1031 (4th Cir. 1984) (holding that a district court's grant of a continuance pursuant to an ex parte communication with the government's counsel was not reversible error where the defendant was free to, and indeed did, argue that the continuance was improper at a subsequent hearing). 27