U.S. v. Ecker

• Decision Date: 08 December 1995
• Docket Number: No. 95-1898,95-1898
• Citation: 78 F.3d 726
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. John Leonard ECKER, a/k/a Leonard Hoffecker, Defendant, Appellant. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 726

78 F.3d 726

UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. John Leonard ECKER, a/k/a Leonard Hoffecker, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 95-1898.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Dec. 8, 1995.

Decided March 8, 1996.

Robert D. Richman, Assistant Federal Public Defender, with whom Scott F. Tilsen, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN and Owen S. Walker, Federal Public Defender, Boston, MA, were on brief for appellant.

Mary Elizabeth Carmody, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Donald K. Stern, Boston, MA, United States Attorney, was on brief for appellee.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, and STAHL, Circuit Judge.

STAHL, Circuit Judge.

Appellant John L. Ecker asks us to rule that the federal indictment against him must be dismissed because he has been found incompetent to stand trial and, having been found dangerous, has been indefinitely committed to federal custody. The district court denied Ecker's motion to dismiss the indictment. Ecker appeals. Because neither the relevant statutes nor caselaw require the dismissal of the indictment, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

In November 1989, Ecker was indicted in the District of Massachusetts for possession of a firearm by a felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). Ecker has prior convictions for assault with a weapon, arson, breaking and entering, and burglary, and is therefore subject to the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e); if convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum prison term of fifteen years. After federal authorities found that Ecker's mental illness rendered him incompetent to stand trial and dangerous to the public, he was committed to the custody of the Attorney General for hospitalization under 18 U.S.C. § 4246. Now Ecker seeks to dismiss the indictment charging him as a felon in possession.

A. Ecker's History in Federal Psychiatric Facilities

Ecker's history in federal psychiatric facilities is long and twisted; full detail is unnecessary to resolve the issue before us, so we summarize. From January 1990 through March 1993, federal authorities, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4241(d), conducted seven competency evaluations of Ecker. After five of these, Ecker was found incompetent, and on two occasions he was found competent. Authorities at one point reported that Ecker "displayed excellent knowledge of the federal mental health statutes," and concerns were raised that his mental health problems were of a questionable nature. In March 1993, federal authorities concluded "finally" that Ecker was not competent for trial and that it was unlikely that he would regain competency in the near future.

The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where the indictment was (and is) pending, determined that there was no likelihood of trial and ordered the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota ("FMC-Rochester"), to determine if Ecker was dangerous and therefore subject to indefinite commitment under 18 U.S.C. § 4246. The director of FMC-Rochester did find Ecker dangerous, and the United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota accordingly instituted commitment proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. In October 1993, the Minnesota district court ordered Ecker committed to the custody of the Attorney General under section 4246, and the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed. United States v. Ecker, 30 F.3d 966, 971 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 679, 130 L.Ed.2d 611 (1994).

In October 1994, the staff at the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri ("FMC-Springfield"), where Ecker is currently in custody, filed an annual report of Ecker's mental condition as required by 18 U.S.C. § 4247(e). The report stated that Ecker was "generally able to answer the panel's questions in a logical, coherent, and goal-directed manner." It went on, however, to conclude that "Mr. Ecker is currently a substantial risk to others or the property of others due to mental illness." The civil commitment statute, 18 U.S.C. § 4246, requires Federal authorities to place Ecker in an appropriate state institution in his home state, Massachusetts, if possible. Officials at FMC-Springfield, however, determined that Massachusetts would not accept Ecker in a state institution because of the pendency of the federal indictment. Thus, Ecker remains hospitalized at FMC-Springfield.

B. The District Court Order on Ecker's Motion to Dismiss

In the district court, Ecker advanced two grounds for dismissal of the indictment. First, he contended that the statute under which he was committed, 18 U.S.C. § 4246, requires, upon commitment, dismissal of pending charges upon commitment. Second, he asserted that the pendency of the indictment interfered with his purported right to be placed in a state institution, depriving Ecker of his constitutional right to due process.

The district court denied Ecker's motion to dismiss the indictment, holding that the commitment statute did not require dismissal of the indictment, finding no support for Ecker's statutory argument in the statute's language, its legislative history, or in caselaw. The court also rejected Ecker's due process

argument, concluding that "the statute cannot be fairly read to confer a liberty interest, protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, in being committed to a state institution rather than a 'suitable facility' chosen by the Attorney General."

C. Ecker's Appeal

Ecker appeals the district court's order denying his motion to dismiss the indictment, advancing only the statutory argument that 18 U.S.C. §§ 4241 and 4246 require dismissal. Ecker has abandoned the argument he made below that the pendency of the indictment violates his due process rights. See United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir.) (arguments not raised squarely are waived), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1082, 110 S.Ct. 1814, 108 L.Ed.2d 944 (1990).

II. DISCUSSION

A district court's resolution of a question of statutory interpretation engenders de novo review in the court of appeals. Riva v. Massachusetts, 61 F.3d 1003, 1007 (1st Cir.1995).

Ecker, at the outset, concedes that "[n]either 18 U.S.C. § 4241 ¹ nor 18 U.S.C. § 4246 ² addresses what happens to a pending indictment when a defendant is determined under section 4241 to be incompetent to stand trial and is subject to indefinite civil commitment under section 4246." ³ That concession is virtually dispositive of Ecker's appeal--there is nothing in the statute's language that requires dismissal of a pending indictment. The statutory silence is not surprising. Congress, we have little doubt, intended to leave the decision about the disposition of pending charges to the case-by-case discretion of the prosecutors.

A. Ecker's Arguments

Although conceding that the statute is silent, Ecker argues that the structure of the relevant statutes, their legislative history, and the caselaw compel the conclusion that Congress intended to require dismissal of a pending indictment upon commitment. We disagree, and address each of Ecker's arguments in turn, explaining why we find them unpersuasive.

First, Ecker asserts that section 4246 applies only to individuals "who no longer realistically can be considered to be awaiting trial because there is little possibility of their regaining competency," quoting United States v. Charters, 829 F.2d 479, 485 (4th Cir.1987) (not addressing dismissal of indictment), reh'g, 863 F.2d 302 (4th Cir.1988) That argument is unconvincing. Ecker's liberty is not restricted by the pendency of the indictment, but rather by section 4246 (which authorizes his hospitalization). The only effect that the pending indictment has on Ecker's "liberty" results from a Massachusetts state policy ⁴ of refusing to accept mentally ill federal detainees who are subject to a pending federal indictment. We fail to see how that state policy, or its effect on Ecker, can indicate that Congress intended section 4246 to require dismissal of any pending indictment.

                cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1016, 110 S.Ct. 1317, 108 L.Ed.2d 493 (1990).   From that premise, Ecker concludes that "Congress plainly intended that the liberty of such a person would be restricted only by the requirements of section 4246, not as a result of the continued pendency of an indictment."
                

Ecker's second argument is that there is no statutory mechanism to revisit the issue of competency once a defendant is committed as dangerous under section 4246. While recognizing that section 4247 requires annual reports on the "mental condition" of a person committed under section 4246, he asserts that such reports address dangerousness and not competency to stand trial. That argument finds some support in the October 1994 annual report on Ecker, which concluded that he was still dangerous without addressing his competency for trial on the pending indictment. Ecker argues that nothing in this statutory scheme suggests that Congress envisioned further competency determinations once a defendant is indefinitely committed as dangerous under section 4246. This "unexplained gap," he contends, indicates that Congress must have intended that a pending indictment would be dismissed once a defendant has been committed for dangerousness.

We agree that the statute does not expressly address the reevaluation of trial competency of a defendant committed as dangerous under section 4246. The statute does, however, provide for annual reports by the facility director "concerning the mental condition of the person and containing recommendations for the need for his continued hospitalization." 18 U.S.C. § 4247(e)(1)(B). This broad requirement of a report on "mental condition" would seemingly allow the facility director to report to the court that a defendant has regained competency. Moreover, a defendant or his counsel may bring any relevant change in condition, or a...