Court Opinion

ID: 9648846
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:36:31.802854+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:00.068230
License: Public Domain

MACK, Associate Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. In Monroe v. United States, D.C.App., 389 A.2d 811, cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1006, 99 S.Ct. 621, 58 L.Ed.2d 683 (1978), this court held that where a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is raised in a pretrial context, the standard by which the competence of defense counsel is to be measured is that which is “ ‘within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases.’ ” Id. at 819, citing McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 771 & n. 14, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 1449, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970).1 In adopting this standard, we also held that since a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel raises a Sixth Amendment claim, the trial judge is under a constitutional duty to conduct a searching factual inquiry into the merits of defendant’s allegations. Monroe, supra at 819.2 This factual inquiry must be of record to permit appropriate appellate review. Id. at 821. We did not formulate with any degree of specificity and detail the questions that the trial court must ask in Monroe, but held that such an inquiry should be left to the sound discretion of the trial court. Id.
Upon reviewing the record in this case, I cannot agree that the conduct of appellant’s defense counsel constituted effective assistance of counsel under the standard we enunciated in Monroe, and I can conclude only that in denying appellant’s request for a new counsel, the trial court abused its discretion.' I refer to the time of pretrial hearing, a time when defense counsel, appointed to represent appellant on a charge of assaulting a police officer and a felony count of carrying a pistol without a license,3 announced to the judge who ultimately sat as the trier-of-fact:
This is an open and shut case, Your Honor, where I talked for approximately two hours with the defendant, filed an appropriate motion, and there are one or two witnesses that are police officers, for the government, and this defendant's word against theirs as to an incident on the street that took about ten minutes to occur. It is not a case where you put character in evidence, because the defendant is on parole for a crime of moral turpitude, and he doesn’t have an alibi because he was arrested on the scene and, to be frank, Your Honor, because I expect he wants to testify in this case, he is *868concerned that I do not want to put him on the stand, because he’s told me before that he had the pistol, and today for the first time he tells me that’s not true.
By expressing his personal views as to the merits of the facts and the legitimacy of available defenses before the judge who ultimately sat as the trier-of-fact, appellant’s counsel failed to adequately represent his client under the standard we set forth in Monroe. For the trial court to have disregarded the impact of counsel’s prejudicial conduct was error of constitutional dimension.
The trial court bears a significant responsibility in assessing and evaluating the merits of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. When an accused alleges inadequate representation, the trial court must not only undertake a thorough factual inquiry as to the substance of defendant’s complaint, but also must determine as a matter of law on the basis of those facts whether defense counsel’s conduct and performance comports with the mandate of the Sixth Amendment. In making that determination the trial judge must evaluate the facts carefully and be certain that his legal conclusion is fundamentally sound.4 When appellant’s defense counsel made highly prejudicial statements concerning his client and later without objection permitted his client to go to trial before the same judge, counsel did not exhibit that professional competence which is “ ‘within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases,’ ” Monroe, supra at 816 quoted in McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 771 & n.14, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 1449, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970), and the trial court should have granted appellant’s request for new counsel.
However, in the circumstances of this case, the issue is not so much whether the appellant has had effective assistance of counsel in the traditional sense, as whether he has had assistance of counsel at all in the constitutional sense at a critical point that shaped his fate in derogation of any meaningful right to trial. I cannot read the statement of counsel at pretrial hearing and conclude that this is the assistance of counsel contemplated by the Sixth Amendment. That amendment, the Supreme Court has said, was intended to do away with the common law limitation of assistance of counsel to matters of law and excluding matters of fact. See United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 224-25, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 1930-31, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967). And here, whatever the competence of counsel as a lawyer and his choice of legal strategy, the fact is that he was not representing his client as an advocate.5
The Supreme Court (in the context of an appellate case) has specifically noted that constitutional requirements of substantial equality and fair process mandate that appointed counsel act in the role of an active advocate in behalf of his client as opposed to that of amicus curiae. Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 744, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 1400, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967). In like vein, this jurisdiction has recognized that indigents are entitled to representation by counsel acting “pot as a passive friend of the court, but as a diligent, conscientious advocate in an adversary process.” Tate v. United States, 123 U.S.App.D.C. 261, 269, 359 F.2d 245, 253 (1966). See also United States v. Hammonds, 138 U.S.App.D.C. 166, 170, 425 F.2d 597, 601 (1970); Johnson v. United States, 124 U.S.App.D.C. 29, 360 F.2d 844 (1965).
*869But there is even more at issue here than effective assistance of counsel or a nonad-versary approach by counsel. In a single comment (with repetitions in a similar vein)6 counsel has revealed his client’s confidences and secrets by communicating to the court (and ultimately the trier-of-fact) his personal views as to the merits of the facts and any possible defense, placed the credibility of his client in question and indicated that his client might have the intent to commit perjury — all matters raising serious ethical considerations suggesting prima facie prejudice to his client as well as a violation of a lawyer’s responsibility to preserve the confidences of his client. See ABA Code of Professional Ethics No. 37 (1968).
The majority, in holding that there is no merit to appellant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim and thereby approving of counsel’s conduct in this case, advances Monroe, supra, as support for its position. However, there exists no language in Monroe which suggests or even implies that the trial court in evaluating a pretrial ineffective assistance of counsel claim is to inquire into counsel’s views as to the merits of the facts and any possible defense or is to inquire into any confidences between attorney and client. To the contrary, in Monroe, we stated that “[a] trial court’s primary duty under the Sixth Amendment when confronted with a pretrial claim of inadequate preparation and consultation is to decide whether counsel has consulted with the defendant and prepared his case in a proper manner.” Id. at 819. In the instant case the trial court appeared to initiate precisely such a factual inquiry as required by our decision in Monroe. However, appellant’s counsel in responding to the trial court’s inquiry volunteered information that was not only highly prejudicial, but irrelevant to the trial court’s determination of appellant’s ineffective assistance of counsel allegation. Counsel’s duties to the trial court would have been satisfied had he confined his statements to the steps he had taken in preparing appellant’s case and the extent to which he had consulted with appellant prior to the pretrial hearing. Appellant’s counsel (as is the majority) was apparently under the misconception that a pretrial factual inquiry into the merits of an ineffective assistance of counsel complaint is analogous to a post-conviction proceeding or disciplinary hearing where the Code of Professional Responsibility permits counsel to make certain disclosures.7 But this court has never held that a pretrial hearing into the merits of an ineffective assistance of counsel allegation is the type of proceeding where counsel may disregard his duty to guard his client’s confidences and secrets. And under the circumstances of this case where the accused raised a timely pretrial claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and was merely stating his reasons for desiring new counsel, defense counsel overreacted prematurely, going far beyond the extent necessary to respond to the defendant’s allegations.
By explicitly approving the conduct of appellant’s defense counsel, the majority not only distorts the meaning and purpose of Monroe, but in effect presents defendants with Hobson’s Choice. The logical implications of the majority’s reasoning is that if a defendant raises an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, he must run the risk that his attorney will reveal confidential information that may prejudice his case. Faced with such an untenable choice, many defendants with legitimate ineffective assistance of counsel claims will no doubt forego their constitutional right to assert such claims. I do not believe that the Sixth Amendment contemplates such a result.
*870Beyond the effect the majority’s ruling will have in deterring defendants from asserting their constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel, the majority’s ruling will have a dramatic effect on the ability of this court to review ineffective assistance of counsel claims. If defendants, fearing that counsel will volunteer confidential information in ineffective assistance of counsel proceedings, refrain from asserting such claims pretrial, such claims will continue to be raised collaterally, and on review this court will again have to evaluate the merits of such claims by hindsight. However, the responsibility of evaluating the merits of an ineffective assistance of counsel allegation belongs in the first instance to the trial court. As this court observed in Monroe:
A defendant’s assertion of a pretrial claim of ineffectiveness presents the trial judge with the opportunity to' take steps to eliminate any deficiencies in the representation of counsel before the resources of the judicial system have been invested in a full-blown trial. . . . The disposition of such claims, raised pretrial, may serve as an alternative to the traditional post-conviction focal point for control of the quality of defense advocacy, and may serve to minimize or expedite the disposition of the number of ineffective assistance claims. [Id. at 818-19.1
I am fully aware that in addition to post-conviction proceedings and disciplinary hearings another well-recognized exception to the obligation of confidentiality is that a lawyer may disclose — indeed may be obligated to disclose his client’s stated intention to commit a crime. Perjury of course is a crime and the principle of confidentiality would never require that a defense attorney acquiesce in the use of known perjured testimony. Specific disciplinary rules prohibit such conduct. I would point out, however, that a defense attorney who has reason to believe that a client intends to commit perjury in a pending case is in a different posture from one who has reason to believe, for example, that the client will commit a crime of larceny.
In the former circumstances, counsel is required to make a personal assessment as to truth or falsity, guilt or innocence in the case which counsel is pledged to defend. Extreme caution is required in this regard. The course of conduct which counsel pursues may have profound implications with respect to the possibility of a fair trial for the client. Counsel’s premature speculation at the pretrial stage as to a client’s intent to commit perjury is quite different from a defense counsel’s certainty at trial that the client does intend to commit perjury, for at trial the possibility of perjury is no longer mere speculation but quite imminent.8
*871However, in either case, defense counsel’s determination as to whether disclosure should be made requires caution and prudence since a revelation without resort to other alternatives may make the possibility of a fair trial well nigh impossible. In this regard, a privately retained lawyer is in a better position than appointed counsel to persuade or to withdraw. In the District of Columbia, where so many indigent defendants are represented by appointed counsel or the Public Defender Service, the ABA Standards for the Defense Function offer the needed guidance.
These standards draw a distinction between perjury and other crimes. Thus pursuant to ABA Standard 3.7, a lawyer may reveal the expressed intention of his client to commit a crime except as provided in Standard 7.7. Standard 7.7, which we have not adopted but which we have described in Thornton v. United States, D.C.App., 357 A.2d 429, 437 n.14 (1976), as having content “eminently sound,” sets forth the successive steps that counsel should take to avoid per-jurious testimony. These include giving advice against such course, seeking leave to withdraw, recording that the client is taking the stand against advice of counsel without revealing the fact to the court, confining examination to identifying the defendant, thus permitting him to make his own statement, and refraining from direct examination or argument relating to the false testimony.
These standards were followed by counsel in Thornton, supra. While in that case we held that it was error for the trial court not to have ascertained counsel’s reasons for wanting to withdraw, we note that there counsel was retained and that trial was had before a jury.9
In the instant case, appointed counsel prematurely raised the spectre of perjury and immoral conduct at the pretrial stage, stated his view of the facts and the law, subsequently advised his client to waive a jury trial, and permitted his client to go to trial before the same judge who sat at pretrial.10 I do not suggest that counsel was incorrect in his assessment of the facts or less than astute in his choice of legal strategy. But the duty of defense counsel is to represent — even when he cannot win — to be the professional voice upon which his client may rely with confidence and to hold his client’s interest and information in trust. See ABA Standards, supra. When counsel, in his own interest, exposes the trier-of-fact to prejudicial material, he is departing from his role as an advocate and paving the way for denial of impartiality. See Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 16 L.Ed.2d 600 (1966); Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961).
In assessing similar but less serious conduct, Judge Hufstedler of the Ninth Circuit has observed:
*872Despite counsel’s ethical concerns, his actions were so adverse to petitioner’s interest as to deprive [her] of effective assistance of counsel. No matter how commendable may have been counsel’s motives, his interest in saving himself from potential violation of the canons was adverse to his client, and the end product was his abandonment of a diligent defense. [Lowery v. Cardwell, 575 F.2d 727, 732 (9th Cir. 1978) (Hufstedler, J., concurring) (citations omitted).]
I believe reversal is mandated because of ineffective assistance of counsel as well as on another ground.
II.
We need to be reminded that a “stop and frisk” is a search and seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and must therefore satisfy constitutional standards of reasonableness. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1877, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). As the majority recognizes, the stop must be supported by “specific and articulable facts.” I would add that any search conducted by an officer must be a limited one for weapons and is justified only if the officer observes unusual conduct which leads him to conclude (1) that criminal activity may be afoot and (2) that the person he is dealing with may be armed and presently dangerous. Id. at 30, 88 S.Ct. at 1884.
The “articulable facts” here upon which the officer based his conclusion that a search was warranted are that the appellant rose from behind a parked car and walked down a street in a high crime area at 11:00 p. m., when stopped could not produce identification, gave an address which the policeman incorrectly believed was false, and became noticeably nervous upon continued questioning. In my view, these facts support neither a conclusion that criminal activity was afoot, nor that appellant was armed and presently dangerous. The officer himself confirmed that the only “suspicious” thing he saw the appellant do was to. stand up from behind a parked car when the officer turned on his headlights. The facts equally support the inference that the appellant may have crouched in fear behind a parked car when he saw an unmarked, dark-colored cruiser with its lights extinguished moving slowly down a dark alley and pulling onto the sidewalk, and that appellant stood only when the officer turned on his lights and became identifiable. Significantly, at that point appellant did not run or make any furtive movements but walked toward the nearest intersection, where he was followed and stopped by the police officer. And certainly increasing nervousness is not an abnormal reaction to being followed and questioned by a police officer.
With respect to the lateness of the hour and the fact that this was a high crime area, these factors have been held, by themselves, not to be conclusive as to the justification for a stop and frisk. This court has stated that it eschews the notion that “facts assume added significance because they happen to have occurred in a high crime area. This familiar talismanic litany, without a great deal more, cannot support an inference that appellant was engaged in criminal conduct.” Curtis v. United States, D.C.App., 349 A.2d 469, 472 (1975). See Kenion v. United States, D.C.App., 302 A.2d 723 (1973).11 “It may be that presence on the streets of this city at an early hour in the morning is suspicious . . . but something more than that is required to justify police detention and interrogation.” *873Robinson v. United States, D.C.App., 278 Á.2d 458, 459 (1971).12 Here the “something more” was lacking. The officer had no report of criminal activity. Cf. Davis v. United States, D.C.App., 284 A.2d 459 (1971) and United States v. Frye, D.C.App., 271 A.2d 788 (1970). Appellant was not running. Cf. Stephenson v. United States, D.C.App., 296 A.2d 606 (1972). Whatever inference may be drawn from his rather undignified posture is dissipated because of the likewise unorthodox approach of the officer. When approached, appellant did not refuse to answer questions nor was there a visible weapon nor bulge which would be suspected to be a weapon. Cf. Stephenson, supra; United States v. Lee, D.C.App., 271 A.2d 566 (1970). I have found no other case in this jurisdiction which has upheld a stop and frisk on such scant facts.
A frisk must be based on the officer’s reasonable apprehension of a need for protection. The Supreme Court has condemned its use to fish for evidence noting “[t]he purpose of this limited search is not to discover evidence of crime, but to allow the officer to pursue his investigation without fear of violence . . . .” Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 146, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 1923, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972).
The police officer here failed to meet both parts of the Terry test. In my opinion the stop and frisk violated the protection of the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable intrusion, and the gun seized as a result of the illegal search should have been suppressed.13

.The degree of competence of defense counsel under the Monroe standard at pretrial is significantly higher than the standard by which defense counsel’s competence is measured in a post-trial claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. See Angarano v. United States, D.C.App., 312 A.2d 295 (1973), petition for rehearing denied (en banc), 329 A.2d 453 (1974).

. Our holding in Monroe was recently reaffirmed by this court in Farrell v. United States, D.C.App., 391 A.2d 755 (1978).

. The charge of carrying a pistol without a license was a felony by virtue of a previous conviction for the same offense.

. I am somewhat puzzled by the majority’s statement that the factual finding that the trial court must make in carrying out the mandate of this court’s decision in Monroe “is binding upon us unless it is ‘plainly wrong or without evidence to support it.’ ” It is fundamental that a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is a claim of constitutional dimension and that after the trial court makes a factual finding as to a defendant’s allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel, the trial court must determine as a matter of law whether a defendant’s allegations amount to a Sixth Amendment deprivation. Such a legal conclusion is always reviewable by this court de novo.

. My sentiments are at least shared by appellant (or is it the other way around?). Thus appellant, in immediately denying at the pretrial hearing that he had told counsel he had a pistol, added,
And by you supposed to be representing me, you ain’t supposed to make no statements such as that anyway.

. Counsel underlined his original remark by shortly thereafter adding, “I have explained to the defendant, Your Honor, that I cannot put him on the stand if I think he’s committing perjury, without telling the Court.” Also, at the time of trial but before appellant had arrived, counsel repeated “I have explained the problems with the court the last time regarding whether or not he [appellant] was telling the truth about the pistol.”

. Appellant’s counsel stated to the trial court “I wouldn’t be revealing these things on the record but for the fact he’s accused me of ineffective assistance of counsel.”

. I do not mean to suggest that a defense counsel upon learning at trial that his client has committed or intends to commit perjury does not owe his client a duty to guard his confidences, for even at this stage of criminal proceedings defense counsel’s disclosures may deprive his client of a fair trial. For example, in Lowery v. Cardwell, 575 F.2d 727 (9th Cir. 1978), it was held that defense counsel who during the course of a trial without a jury attempted to withdraw because he believed that his client had committed perjury, had by such conduct so prejudiced his client’s case as to deny her a fair trial:
The problem presented is that which arises when defense counsel, in the course of a criminal trial, forms the belief that his client’s defense is based on false testimony. We start with the basic proposition that if, under these circumstances, counsel informs the fact finder of his belief he has, by that action, disabled the fact finder from judging the merits of the defendant’s defense. Further, he has by his action openly placed himself in opposition to his client upon her defense. The consequences of such action on the part of counsel, in our judgment, are such as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial. If in truth the defendant has committed perjury (a fact we do not know in this case) she does not by that falsehood forfeit her right to fair trial. [Id. at 730.]
It is important to note that in Cardwell, defense counsel did not make any verbal disclosures of his client’s confidences before the judge who sat as the trier-of-fact. Rather the court found that by merely attempting to withdraw, defense counsel had communicated to the judge who sat as the trier-of-fact his belief that his client had committed perjury and had by such conduct prevented the trier-of-fact from impartially assessing the merits of the case. In the case at bar, appellant’s counsel went far beyond the conduct of defense counsel in Cardwell by prematurely raising the issue of *871his client’s intent to commit perjury at the pretrial stage before the judge who eventually sat as the trier-of-fact. In so doing, he subordinated his client’s interest to his own. ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, Canon 5.

. Chief Justice Warren Burger, a staunch advocate of a lawyer’s duty to disclose his client’s intent to commit perjury, has recognized that different considerations are present where such disclosures are made before a judge sitting as the trier-of-fact than where a jury sits as the trier-of-fact. In setting forth his views as to the proper method of dealing with a client who intends to commit perjury and insists on taking the stand, [then Circuit Judge] Burger stated:
If in those circumstances the lawyer’s immediate withdrawal from the case is either not feasible, or if the judge refuses to permit withdrawal, the lawyer’s course is clear. He may not engage in direct examination of his client to facilitate known perjury. He should confine himself to asking the witness to identify himself and to make a statement, but he cannot participate in the fraud by conventional direct examination. Since this informal procedure is not uncommon with witnesses, there is no basis for saying that this tells the jury the witness is lying. A judge may infer that such is the case but lay jurors will not. [Burger, Standards of Conduct: A Judge's Viewpoint, 5 Am.Crim.Law Q. 11, 13 (1966) (emphasis added).]

. Counsel did in fact persuade appellant not to testify and he presented no witnesses. Much of the government’s testimony developed at the pretrial hearing was stipulated to, a motion for judgment of acquittal on the assault charge was denied, and defense counsel expressed again his opinion that the case would turn on the suppression issue.

. In Curtis v. United States, supra, where a man and a woman were seen walking down an alley at about 7:20 p. m., in an area which had an unusually high number of homicides and considerable narcotics activity, the court found that the fact that an unidentified third person yelled “police officers,” and the appellant made a motion with his hand, was insufficient to justify a search.
In Kenion v. United States, supra, sighting three people gathered in an alley in a high crime area in poor weather, one of whom the police officer believed he had seen before in connection with narcotics and robbery, did not give the officer a reasonable basis upon which to conduct a frisk.

. In Robinson v. United States, supra, the police officers could not search the leather pouch which hung from the appellant’s belt where they had no complaint or report of a crime in the area, had never seen appellant before, and had not observed him engaged in unlawful conduct.

. See Gray v. United States, D.C.App., 292 A.2d 153 (1972).