Opinion ID: 556604
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Understanding of Charge

Text: 30 The inadequacy of the explanation given to Allard is matched by indications that there was no real determination that Allard understood Count One to include a scheme to defraud the Worcester Hospital. The most compelling of those indications is that the District Court itself, obviously, did not read Count One to charge such a scheme. After determining that McNally precluded any prosecution for defrauding the Commonwealth, the District Judge dismissed Count One saying: 31 The Government does argue that the information can be construed to allege a deprivation of Worcester City Hospital's right to the professional services and qualifications for which it bargained when it hired defendant as a medical intern. That, however, is not what the information charges. 32 Memorandum of Decision at 3, February 25, 1988 (emphasis added). 33 We cannot fault the District Court for that perception, especially since Counts Two and Three dealing with mailings to and from the hospital were dismissed at the government's request pursuant to the plea agreement. However, regardless of the reason, the District Judge's belief that Count One charged a scheme to defraud only the Commonwealth makes it difficult to accept the proposition that the Court determined that Allard understood it also to include a scheme to defraud the hospital. 34 As the government points out, the District Judge denied Allard's motion to withdraw his plea on the basis that he must have understood the charge in that way. However, that conclusion was apparently based on the view that because Allard I held that Count One described a scheme to defraud the hospital, Allard, as a well educated man with competent counsel, must have understood that. Thus, the District Court stated: 35 On a previous appeal, the First Circuit found that the information in this case fairly identified and described the offense and that it contained sufficient notice and description of Allard's fraudulent actions toward Worcester City Hospital. At the plea colloquy, I specifically determined that the defendant knew that he was pleading guilty to the first count of the information. 36 Memorandum of Decision at 4, November 9, 1989 (citation omitted). 37 We believe those two premises and the District Court's conclusion to be a flawed syllogism because it equates the Sixth Amendment standard for determining the sufficiency of an indictment or information with the requirement of both Rule 11 and the Due Process Clause that a defendant entering a guilty plea must possess an understanding of the charges. The fact that the two standards are not synonymous was alluded to in a footnote in Allard I which states: 38 In some cases, the generous construction afforded an information or indictment on collateral attack could differ materially from a defendant's understanding of the charges at the time he pled to the information. We do not suggest this was the case here, but because we are cognizant of the possibility, we merely point out that, even in such circumstances, a defendant is not remediless. He can move to withdraw his guilty plea and the district court, if it finds that the variation between a defendant's perceptions and the construction necessary to sustain the charging instrument resulted in manifest injustice, may grant relief. 39 Allard, 864 F.2d at 250 n. 3 (citation omitted). 40 As that footnote implies, the Sixth Amendment standard is a purely objective one. The yardstick for measuring compliance is whether the indictment or information fairly informs a reasonably intelligent defendant of the charge against him and enables him to plead an acquittal or conviction in bar of future prosecutions for the same offense. Allard, 864 F.2d at 250 (citing United States v. Serino, 835 F.2d 924, 929 (1st Cir.1987)). On the other hand, the Rule 11 standard takes into account the individual defendant's level of understanding. Consequently, a mere reading of the indictment or information does not always satisfy the requirement of Rule 11 particularly when the charges are complex and the defendant possesses appreciably less than average intelligence. 41 As previously noted, we do not think that Allard can be characterized as having less than average intelligence. Nevertheless, the sufficiency of the information for Sixth Amendment purposes cannot be equated with Allard's understanding of the charge for purposes of Rule 11.