Court Opinion

ID: 2964525
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-09-21 21:26:58.429006+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:02.344700
License: Public Domain

USCA1 Opinion

	

                                [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]

                            UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT

                                 ____________________

        No. 96-1233

                               ANGEL RIVERA-FELICIANO,

                                Plaintiff, Appellant,

                                          v.

                              UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                                 Defendant, Appellee.

                                 ____________________

                     APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

                           FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

                  [Hon. Juan M. Perez-Gimenez, U.S. District Judge]
                                               ___________________

                                 ____________________

                                        Before

                                Torruella, Chief Judge,
                                           ___________

                     Coffin and Campbell, Senior Circuit Judges.
                                          _____________________

                                 ____________________

            Jose F. Quetglas Jordan for appellant.
            _______________________
            Philip  Urofsky,  Attorney,  with  whom  John  C.  Keeney,  Acting
            _______________                          ________________
        Assistant Attorney General, Guillermo Gil, United States Attorney, and
                                    _____________
        Theresa M.B.  Van Vliet,  Chief,  Narcotic &  Dangerous Drug  Section,
        _______________________
        Criminal Division, U.S. Department  of Justice, were on brief  for the
        United States.

                                 ____________________

                                   January 9, 1997
                                 ____________________

                      Per Curiam.  Upon  consideration of the record, the
                      __________

            briefs and  the  arguments, we  affirm  the judgment  of  the

            district court  for substantially the  same reasons expressed

            by that court in its opinion and order of January 20, 1996.1

                      We  add  the following:    With  regard to  Rivera-

            Feliciano's  ineffective  assistance  of counsel  claim,  his

            counsel's  failure to move to  dismiss the 1986 charges based

            on   the   earlier  plea   agreement   did   not  demonstrate

            constitutionally  ineffective  assistance  as,   for  reasons

            explained in  the opinion below, there  was little likelihood

            that such a motion  would have been allowed.   See Strickland
                                                           ___ __________

            v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687-696 (1984).
               __________

                      Rivera-Feliciano contends that  the district  court

            erred in assigning  his 28  U.S.C.   2255  petition to  Judge

            Perez-Gimenez, the judge who had presided over the 1986 trial

            and  had sentenced him in  Cr. Case No.  86-419(PG).  Rather,

            appellant argues, the case should have gone  to Judge Pieras,

            the  judge who in  1985 had accepted  his guilty plea  in Cr.

            Case No. 85-114(JP),  and sentenced  him on the  plea.   This

            contention runs counter  to Rule 4(a) of the  Rules Governing

                                
            ____________________

            1.  The district court's opinion is published as Feliciano v.
                                                             _________
            United States,  914 F. Supp.  776 (D.P.R.  1996).  We  note a
            _____________
            typographical  error in  the opinion:   on  page 778,  at the
            beginning  of   the  second   paragraph  under   the  heading
            "Background," "1986"  should read "1985."   See United States
                                                        ___ _____________
            v. Rivera-Feliciano, 930 F.2d 951, 952 (1st Cir. 1991).
               ________________

                                         -2-

            Section  2255  Proceedings  for  the United  States  District

            Courts, which provides, in relevant part:

                      The  original  motion shall  be presented
                      promptly to  the  judge of  the  district
                      court  who presided at the movant's trial
                      and sentenced him,  or, if the judge  who
                      imposed sentence was not the trial judge,
                      then it shall go to that judge who was in
                      charge  of that  part of  the proceedings
                      being attacked by the movant.

            Rules  Governing  Section  2255  Proceedings for  the  United

            States  District Courts,  Rule 4(a),  28 U.S.C. foll.    2255

            (1994).

                      The  section  2255  petition  here  challenged  the

            convictions and sentences following trial  in 1986.  As Judge

            Perez-Gimenez  had   also  been  the  trial   judge  in  that

            proceeding,  he  was  the   appropriate  judge  to  hear  the

            petition.      That  petitioner's   challenge  to   the  1986

            convictions  and  sentences  was   based  on  the  1985  plea

            proceeding is immaterial.

                      Finally, we  find no merit in the argument that the

            district court was  required to  accept as true,  or hold  an

            evidentiary   hearing   on,   Rivera-Feliciano's   conclusory

            allegation  that the  government had  sufficient evidence  to

            indict him in  1985 for  charges later included  in the  1986

            indictment.   See Shraiar v. United States, 736 F.2d 817, 818
                          ___ _______    _____________

            (1st  Cir. 1984)  ("A   2255  motion may be  denied without a

            hearing  as to those allegations  which, if accepted as true,

                                         -3-

            entitle  the  movant  to no  relief,  or  which  need not  be

            accepted as  true because  they state conclusions  instead of

            facts . . . .") (citations omitted).  

                      As suggested in  the district court's  opinion, see
                                                                      ___

            Feliciano, 914 F. Supp. at 781 (quoting from United States v.
            _________                                    _____________

            Lovasco, 431 U.S. 783, 794-95 (1976)), it will  ordinarily be
            _______

            up  to  the government  to  decide  when  it  has  sufficient

            evidence  to  prosecute.    Here, the  government  offered  a

            plausible  reason for  its  delay, which  the district  judge

            could evaluate based on  his having presided over  the trial,

            to  wit,  that the  testimony  of  Jos  Panzardi-Alvarez  was

            deemed  essential to  the 1986  conspiracy prosecution.   The

            district court's determination that a separate hearing on the

            state  of the government's evidence in 1985 was not needed in

            order  to permit it to rule intelligently on the petition was

            well within its  discretion.  See  Parsons v. United  States,
                                          ___  _______    ______________

            404 F.2d 888 (5th  Cir. 1968) (On motion to  vacate sentence,

            federal  district court  has discretion to  ascertain whether

            claim  is substantial  before  granting  a  full  evidentiary

            hearing) (per curiam).

                      Affirmed.
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