Court Opinion

ID: 9466141
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:06:53.392925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:34.508711
License: Public Domain

ADAMS, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result.
Although I agree with the result reached by Judge Higginbotham, I write separately because I view the issue in this matter from a different perspective.
This is not a case in which a defendant has been forced to face “incomprehensible and overpowering” prosecutorial forces alone, without the assistance of counsel.1 Nor is it a case in which a defendant’s choice of trial strategy has been impeded by the trial court.2 Rather, as I see it, the issue posed by this appeal is whether a defendant, who has been required to retain local counsel, may hire an attorney who has a conflict with the trial judge and then seek to recuse the trial judge because of the conflict.
The district court judge who presided over this case also presided over the criminal proceedings that resulted in Mrs. Laura’s pleading guilty to conspiracy and importation of cocaine in 1976. During the 1976 proceedings, Mrs. Laura and her former husband, one of her codefendants, were represented by Robert I. Kalina, Esquire. Prior to hearing the pretrial motions in that case, the district judge ordered Mr. and Mrs. Laura to obtain separate counsel. Both defendants, through their attorney, moved to vacate that order. The district judge then carefully explained to Mrs. Laura the problem of having the same attorney and the conflict it posed. Mrs. Laura nevertheless elected to keep the one attorney, and the judge permitted the Lauras to continue jointly to employ Mr. Kalina. Mr. Kalina represented both Mr. Laura and Mrs. Laura through the time of their sentencing in 1977; Mrs. Laura was sentenced to five years of probation.
In August 1978, Mrs. Laura was convicted in a Florida federal court of illegally possessing and distributing cocaine, and was sentenced to two years in prison and three years on special parole. In September 1978, Mrs. Laura’s supervising probation officer petitioned the district court to revoke her probation that had been imposed in the earlier Eastern District Court prosecution. Following an evidentiary hearing in October, a United States Magistrate found probable cause to revoke probation. In November, Mrs. Laura filed a motion with the district court to withdraw her guilty plea and to vacate her sentence.3 She claimed that her 1976 conviction was invalid under the sixth amendment because the district court failed to order her and Mr. Laura to retain separate counsel at the time they were negotiating their respective pleas of guilty.
*60Throughout the 1978 proceedings, Mrs. Laura was represented by Paul Casteleiro, Esquire, a member of the New Jersey Bar. At the probation revocation hearing, the district court ordered Mrs. Laura to retain local counsel as required by Local Rule of Criminal Procedure 2 of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.4 Mr. Casteleiro then hired James Rothstein, Esquire, a member of the Berks County bar. Mr. Rothstein was defense counsel in a case in a Pennsylvania state court in which the district judge was listed as an expected witness for the defendant. Mrs. Laura, acting through Mr. Rothstein, then filed a motion requesting the judge to recuse himself because of the apparent conflict between him and Mr. Rothstein. The district judge interpreted the motion as also offering that Mr. Rothstein withdraw from the case5 and, over Mrs. Laura’s objection, ordered Mr. Rothstein to withdraw.
As Judge Higginbotham points out, the right of a criminal defendant to be represented by counsel of her choice is an important right — one that may not lightly be frustrated. But this right is not absolute, and a court may, for substantial reasons, refuse to permit the defendant’s choice of counsel to participate in a case.6
Thus, the district court’s decision to dismiss Mr. Rothstein may be justifiable; but, like the majority, I am unable to address that issue in a thoughtful manner because the district judge did not set forth the reasons for his ruling. A hearing on this issue followed by a written explanation not only would facilitate review by the Court, but also would help to ensure that Mrs. Laura’s sixth amendment rights are not impaired without adequate justification.
Because of the importance of the right at stake, and the closeness of the issue, a few examples of the facts I would deem relevant to an adjudication of this question might be helpful to the district court. Although the district court sua sponte ordered Mrs. Laura to obtain local counsel, it would not necessarily be unreasonable for the court to require her to select an attorney who does not have an apparent conflict with the trial judge who has participated in the proceedings for several years. Thus, if the district court finds that Mr. Rothstein was selected because of his possible conflict with the trial judge, for the purpose of forcing the judge out of this case, the dismissal of Mr. Rothstein might be justifiable.7 Similarly, findings by the district *61court that Mr. Rothstein and Mrs. Laura have had little contact regarding this case, or that Mr. Rothstein’s participation in the preparation of the proceedings has been slight, might also weigh heavily in favor of a decision to dismiss Mr. Rothstein. The trial judge’s long involvement in both this case and the 1976-1977 criminal proceedings out of which the substantive issue of the present appeal arises, also might support a decision to require Mr. Rothstein to withdraw. On the other hand, evidence that Mr. Rothstein had assumed an active role in the preparation of Mrs. Laura’s motions prior to the district court’s decision to dismiss him, or that Mr. Rothstein was hired for his expertise in this type of case, beyond his mere status as local counsel, might militate against a dismissal decision.
The right to select counsel of one’s choice is a critical constitutional right that may be abridged only for substantial reasons. Neither this Court nor a district court can evaluate, under the facts of a particular case, whether the right has been unduly fettered unless the issue has been briefed and argued, and the trial judge sets forth findings to justify his decision. Accordingly, I agree that the matter should be remanded for a further hearing and for findings.
ROSENN, Circuit Judge, also joins in this opinion.

. Compare Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963) (state’s refusal to appoint counsel for indigent defendant in a noncapital felony trial violated sixth amendment as applied to the states through the fourteenth amendment); Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 53 S.Ct. 55, 77 L.Ed. 158 (1932) (state court’s refusal to appoint counsel for indigent defendant in capital case violated sixth amendment as applied through due process clause of fourteenth amendment).

. Compare Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975) (sixth and fourteenth amendments guarantee criminal defendant right to defend himself without assistance of attorney); Brooks v. Tennessee, 406 U.S. 605, 92 S.Ct. 1891, 32 L.Ed.2d 358 (1972) (state’s requirement that criminal defendant who desires to testify on his own behalf must do so prior to presentation of any other defense testimony violates due process and right to effective assistance of counsel).

. Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(d), 35.

. Local Rule of Criminal Procedure 2 applies Local Rule of Civil Procedure 10 to criminal trials.

. The disputed portion of Mrs. Laura’s motion to transfer the case to another judge read as follows:
(6) Local counsel for Defendant, Priscilla Dominguez Laura, has advised said Defendant, Priscilla Dominguez Laura, of the facts set forth hereinabove and has offered to withdraw from the matter of United States of America vs. Priscilla Dominguez Laura and obtain substitute local counsel for the Defendant herein. •
(7) Defendant, Priscilla Dominguez Laura, has informed James S. Rothstein, Esq. that she does not wish him to withdraw as her local counsel in the case at bar.
WHEREFORE, Defendant respectfully requests the Court (i) to waive Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 45 and Local Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 and (ii) to transfer the above-captioned case to the Clerk of this Court for re-assignment.
App. 247. Although the language is somewhat confusing, the district court’s interpretation of it as an offer that Mr. Rothstein withdraw is questionable. For the remainder of this opinion, I will assume that the district court dismissed Mr. Rothstein.

. See United States v. Dolan, 570 F.2d 1177 (3d Cir. 1978), in which we upheld a district court’s order, over both defendants’ objections, that an attorney who represented codefendants in a single criminal trial withdraw as counsel for one defendant. The district court had made extensive findings that the joint representation presented an actual conflict of interest. United States v. Garafola, 428 F.Supp. 620 (D.N.J.1977), aff'd sub nom. United States v. Dolan, 570 F.2d 1177 (3d Cir. 1978).

. A judge will frequently recuse himself, for example, from participating in cases in which one of the parties is represented by the law firm with which the judge was associated prior to coming on the court, and from cases implicating organizations for which the judge, in the past, has been a director or trustee. Thus, in the absence of some means of permitting the court to refuse to accept a litigant’s choice of local counsel, it would be relatively facile for *61litigants to remove the judge assigned to their case simply by hiring as local counsel one who is involved in a separate matter with an organization with which the judge has been associated.