Opinion ID: 179837
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Consideration of Dropped Charges

Text: Curtis's second objection to the admission of these statements is that they are evidence of crimes for which the state dropped all charges. He compares his situation to that of the petitioner in McBride v. Johnson, 118 F.3d 432 (5th Cir.1997). In that case, the Fifth Circuit held a petitioner's rights were violated when an alleged rape victim's hearsay statements were admitted at his parole revocation hearing without giving him the opportunity to cross examine the victim. [4] McBride differs from this case in at least three important ways. First, the petitioner in McBride went to trial on rape charges and was acquitted by a jury, whereas Curtis had the attempted rape charges dropped as part of a plea agreement. Second, the victim in McBride was located in a distant city but not called to testify, whereas the victim in this instance could not be found. Additionally, in McBride, the credibility of the alleged victim was highly contested at trial, whereas the credibility of Curtis's victim was not called into question by anyone other than Curtis, and the police officer documented injuries that corroborated the victim's version of events. Therefore, the use of evidence of dismissed charges did not violate Curtis's rights, especially since the board need only find a violation by a preponderance of the evidence. Finally, Curtis challenges the decision to give him a local hearing, which allows for the presence of adverse witnesses, rather than an institutional hearing, which does not. But this objection was not raised before the district court in Curtis's petition for habeas corpus. Absent extraordinary circumstances, we will not consider arguments raised for the first time on appeal. Turner v. Pub. Serv. Co. of Colo., 563 F.3d 1136, 1143 (10th Cir. 2009). So we need not address this contention.