Opinion ID: 793858
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Admission of Ryan's Hearsay Identifications of Williams

Text: 82 Although the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment does not apply to supervised-release revocation hearings, see United States v. Aspinall, 389 F.3d 332, 342-43 (2d Cir.2004) ( Aspinall ) (discussing Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004)), the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provide that in such a hearing the judge must give the defendant an opportunity... to question any adverse witness, unless the judge determines that the interest of justice does not require the witness to appear. Fed.R.Crim.P. 32.1(b)(2)(c) (2002). This requirement reflects the principle stated in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972), that the minimum requirements of due process in a parole revocation hearing include the right of the defendant to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses (unless the hearing officer specifically finds good cause for not allowing confrontation), id. at 489, 92 S.Ct. 2593; see also Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656 (1973) (extending Morrissey to probation revocation hearings). 83 In such a hearing, neither the Due Process Clause nor Rule 32.1 obliges the district court to perform a good-cause analysis with respect to a proffered out-of-court statement [that] is admissible under an established exception to the hearsay rule. Aspinall, 389 F.3d at 344; see United States v. Jones, 299 F.3d 103, 113 (2d Cir.2002) (firmly rooted hearsay exception); see also Gagnon, 411 U.S. at 782, 93 S.Ct. 1756 n. 5. On the other hand, if the statement does not fall under such an exception, Rule 32.1 requires the court to determine whether good cause exists to deny the defendant the opportunity to confront the adverse witness. In making that determination, the court must balance, on the one hand, the defendant's interest in confronting the declarant, against, on the other hand, the government's reasons for not producing the witness and the reliability of the proffered hearsay. See, e.g., United States v. Chin, 224 F.3d 121, 124 (2d Cir.2000); Aspinall, 389 F.3d at 343-45. 84 In the balancing process, the defendant's interest in confronting the declarant is entitled to little, if any, weight where the declarant's absence is the result of intimidation by the defendant: Where a defendant has procured the declarant's unavailability by chicanery, ... by threats, ... or by actual violence or murder, the defendant is deemed to have waived his sixth amendment rights and, a fortiori, his hearsay objection to the admission of the declarant's statements. United States v. Mastrangelo, 693 F.2d 269, 272-73 (2d Cir. 1982), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1204, 104 S.Ct. 2385, 81 L.Ed.2d 343 (1984); see also United States v. Miller, 116 F.3d 641, 667-68 (2d Cir.1997), cert. denied, 524 U.S. 905, 118 S.Ct. 2063, 141 L.Ed.2d 140 (1998); United States v. Thai, 29 F.3d 785, 814 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 977, 115 S.Ct. 456, 130 L.Ed.2d 364 (1994); United States v. Aguiar, 975 F.2d 45, 47 (2d Cir.1992); United States v. Potamitis, 739 F.2d 784, 788-89 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 918, 105 S.Ct. 297, 83 L.Ed.2d 232 (1984). The Mastrangelo principle allows the court—even at trial—to admit unsworn statements of a witness, whose planned testimony was withheld in response to the defendant's intimidation, in the form of hearsay evidence from a law enforcement officer as to the witness's prior statements. See, e.g., United States v. Aguiar, 975 F.2d at 47; see also Aspinall, 389 F.3d at 344 (in supervised-release revocation proceedings, the normal evidentiary constrictions applicable to trials are relaxed). 85 The Mastrangelo principle is essentially codified in Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(6), which provides that evidence of an out-of-court statement by an unavailable declarant is not excluded by the hearsay rule when offered against a party that has engaged or acquiesced in wrongdoing that was intended to, and did, procure the unavailability of the declarant as a witness. Fed. R.Evid. 804(b)(6). This exception to the hearsay rule was added to Rule 804(b) in 1997 86 to provide that a party forfeits the right to object on hearsay grounds to the admission of a declarant's prior statement when the party's deliberate wrongdoing or acquiescence therein procured the unavailability of the declarant as a witness. This recognizes the need for a prophylactic rule to deal with abhorrent behavior which strikes at the heart of the system of justice itself. United States v. Mastrangelo, 693 F.2d [at] 273.... The wrongdoing need not consist of a criminal act. 87 Fed.R.Evid. 804 Advisory Committee Note (1997). While we do not characterize this exception as a long established or firmly rooted exception that eliminates the requirement for a Rule 32.1 balancing analysis, its recognition that a defendant's wrongful conduct causing the witness's absence strikes at the heart of the system of justice at the very least illustrates that in the balancing process, such a defendant's interest in examining the declarant is eviscerated. 88 We review the court's balancing of the Rule 32.1 factors for abuse of discretion. See, e.g., United States v. Jones, 299 F.3d at 112. Abuse of discretion encompasses clearly erroneous findings of fact and misapplications of the law. 89 In the present case, we see no abuse of discretion in the court's balancing of the relevant factors. In evaluating the reliability of the government's evidence of Ryan's identifications of Williams, the court considered the full range of statements made by Ryan to the police officers and the probation officer, the circumstances under which the conflicting statements were made, and Ryan's explanations that he had declined to identify Williams at the scene of the shooting and while he was immobilized in the hospital because he feared reprisal. In assessing both the reasonableness of Ryan's explanations for his inconsistent statements and the reasonableness of the government's decision not to insist that Ryan testify, the court considered Ryan's statements that he had received numerous threats from Williams's associates, had felt compelled to change his residence and work schedule several times in an effort to avoid receiving further threats, and feared for his own safety and that of his family. The court found these statements and Ryan's explanations credible in light of, inter alia, the facts that Ryan made a formal complaint to the police that he had been threatened by Williams's girlfriend not to testify against Williams, and that Ryan had apparently been willing to testify against Williams in the State proceeding until he received that threat. The court found that Ryan's fears—and the government's decision not to seek to compel his testimony—were reasonable in light of Williams's well-documented history of violence. 90 The court permissibly found that Ryan's well-founded fear of retribution from Williams and his associates explained why on two occasions Ryan had refused to accuse Williams to the authorities, and found that the statements that instead identified Williams as Ryan's assailant were reliable. The court found confirmation for Ryan's identification of Williams in, inter alia, Williams's conduct in absconding and using an alias after the shooting, and in the fact that Williams pleaded guilty in State court to recklessly inflicting substantial serious physical injury to another person (State Plea Tr. at 5) in satisfaction of the indictment that charged him with many offenses expressly related to the shooting and robbing of Ryan on September 17, 2002. 91 After requiring the government to make an additional effort to get Ryan to testify at Williams's hearing, and after hearing all of the evidence and the government's report as to Ryan's receipt of threats by associates of Williams, the court gave little weight to the defendant's interest in examining Ryan, finding that Ryan's adamant refusal to testify was the product of Williams's intimidation. The evidence discussed above supports the court's factual finding. 92 In sum, we see no abuse of discretion in the district court's balancing of the Rule 32.1 factors and in its consequent admission of the hearsay testimony as to Ryan's identification of Williams as his assailant. The record thus amply supports the judgment revoking Williams's supervised release on the grounds that Williams committed assault and robbery in violation of State law and possessed a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). 93