Court Opinion

ID: 9467785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:56:51.196895+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:31.838016
License: Public Domain

MERRILL, Circuit Judge:
Following jury trial, appellant was convicted of violating 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), distribution of a controlled substance, and 21 U.S.C. § 846, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. On appeal to this court the conviction was affirmed. United States v. Bryan, 567 F.2d 924 (9th Cir. 1978). The Supreme Court denied certiora-ri sab nom. United States v. Baker, 439 U.S. 818, 99 S.Ct. 80, 58 L.Ed.2d 109 (1978).
On December 10, 1979, appellant moved to vacate sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. He alleged that his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to effective assistance of counsel had been violated by the existence of a conflict of interest on the part of his counsel. The district court denied the motion without evidentiary hearing on the ground that the record failed to indicate an actual conflict of interest or any prejudice to appellant’s constitutional rights. This appeal followed.
Appellant’s trial had been preceded by a motion to suppress evidence on the ground that it was fruit of an unlawful search. The law firm that represented appellant *843had, on a previous occasion in an unrelated matter, represented one Romero, who appeared at the suppression hearing as witness for the government. Prior to the hearing, counsel for appellant conferred with Romero respecting his forthcoming testimony. When counsel, on cross-examination of Romero, attempted to reconstruct this conversation, Romero denied making the statements counsel attributed to him. Counsel pressed Romero, reminding him that he was under oath and subject to a perjury charge. Romero stood firm.
Counsel then took the stand and testified to the substance of the conversation. He sought by his testimony to challenge the government’s justification for a warrantless search of appellant’s car and to suppress the evidence found therein. The government had justified the search on the ground that exigent circumstances were created by the presence of an unidentified green van in the vicinity of appellant’s car which suggested that accomplices were nearby. Appellant’s counsel testified that Romero had told him that he had been in the police station when a report came in over the police radio to the effect that government agents in a green van had appellant’s car under surveillance.
Appellant contends that his counsel’s pri- or representation of Romero constituted a conflict of interest adversely affecting his ability to cross-examine Romero. Appellant suggests that counsel might have had privileged information regarding Romero and that this might have hampered his efforts. He suggests also that counsel might have been reluctant to antagonize Romero, since Romero still owed money for legal fees.
In Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 348, 100 S.Ct. 1708, 1718 (1980), the Supreme Court held that “[i]n order to establish a violation of the Sixth Amendment, a defendant who raised no objection at trial must demonstrate that an actual conflict of interest adversely affected his lawyer’s performance.” A potential conflict of interest does not suffice.
The court below, on this record, ruled that no‘ actual conflict existed. We agree.
Romero was not called as a witness at trial. The only claim that conflict of interest could have adversely affected the performance of ■ appellant’s counsel concerns what Romero had heard over the police radio about the green van. However, counsel’s vigorous examination of Romero on this issue, to the point of suggesting perjury, and then taking the extraordinary step of testifying himself in direct contradiction of Romero, in our view demonstrates as conclusively as anything can that there was nothing in the past representation of Romero that conflicted, or was felt by counsel to conflict, with his desire to get Romero’s statement into evidence.
The recent case of Wood v. Georgia,U.S. -, 101 S.Ct. 1097, 67 L.Ed.2d 220 (1981), does not require a contrary result. There, the record strongly suggested that actual conflict existed at the time of trial and that the trial judge should have inquired more forcefully. United States v. Hearst, 638 F.2d 1190 (9th Cir. 1980), is also distinguishable. In that case not only was a strong showing made of conflict of interest, but appellant charged that in three specific respects such conflict had an adverse effect on her counsel’s performance. Here, appellant makes no showing as to how his counsel’s examination of Romero might have been improved, or what further testimony might have been elicited.
We are satisfied that it was not error to deny appellant an evidentiary hearing on this issue. 28 U.S.C. § 2255 requires a hearing “[ujnless the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief.” The bases for conflict of interest that appellant does offer are conclusionary and wholly without merit. See United States v. Hearst, id. at 1194.
Judgment affirmed.