Bradley v. Dist. of Columbia

• Decision Date: 22 January 2015
• Docket Number: No. 11–CT–955.,11–CT–955.
• Citation: 107 A.3d 586
• Parties: Jerome BRADLEY, Appellant, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

107 A.3d 586

Jerome BRADLEY, Appellant

v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellee.

No. 11–CT–955.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued Jan. 8, 2013.

Decided Jan. 22, 2015.

George Weiss, with whom Stephen F. Brennwald, Washington, DC, was on the brief, for appellant.

John J. Woykovsky, Assistant Attorney General, with whom Irvin B. Nathan, Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, and Rosalynn Calbert Groce, Deputy Solicitor General, were on the brief and supplemental brief, for appellee.

James Klein and Samia Fam, Public Defender Service, filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of appellant.

Before EASTERLY and McLEESE, Associate Judges, and FERREN, Senior Judge.

Opinion

EASTERLY, Associate Judge:

“[S]entencing is a critical stage of a criminal trial; to a criminal defendant, perhaps the most important.”¹ The goal is to have the punishment fit the individual defendant and the crime he committed. That goal is not served when a sentencing judge relies on a mistaken understanding of a defendant's criminal history.

In this case, Jerome Bradley was convicted of driving without a license,² operating a vehicle after revocation or suspension,³ reckless driving,⁴ operating an all-terrain vehicle on public property,⁵ and fleeing from the scene of an accident.⁶ The charges arose from an incident in which Mr. Bradley lost control of the all-terrain vehicle he was driving on a city street and hit a pedestrian. After finding Mr. Bradley guilty, the magistrate judge immediately proceeded to sentencing and made a number of remarks about Mr. Bradley that lacked adequate support, either in the trial record, or in documents available on CourtView⁷ that the magistrate judge subsequently identified, after a record remand, as the basis for his sentencing determination.

With this opinion we reaffirm that “[m]isinformation or misunderstanding that is materially untrue regarding a prior criminal record, or material false assumptions as to any facts relevant to sentencing, renders the entire sentencing procedure invalid as a violation of due process.” United States v. Hamid, 531 A.2d 628, 644 (D.C.1987) (quoting United States v. Malcolm, 432 F.2d 809, 816 (2d Cir.1970) ) (emphasis omitted). We also reinforce principles of transparency and make clear that if a sentencing court is considering extra-record information about a defendant in CourtView, i.e., pleadings and documents associated with other cases, the court must disclose that fact to the parties and make those documents part of the record. Applying these principles to this case, we hold that Mr. Bradley's right to due process at sentencing was violated. Thus, although we affirm his conviction, we vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing.

I. Facts and Procedural History

In the early evening hours on March 24, 2010, Mr. Bradley was driving an all-terrain vehicle (“ATV”) on 8th Street Southeast when he came head-to-head with a police car. Mr. Bradley veered around the police car, lost control of the ATV, and drove over the curb and into a group of people standing on the other side of the street. The ATV hit Julius Mgongo, who flipped over the vehicle and suffered a broken leg

. After the accident, Mr. Bradley ran, and the police caught up to him a few blocks away.

Mr. Bradley's case was tried before a magistrate judge in a single afternoon. With no pause in the proceedings, the magistrate judge heard testimony from the police, Mr. Mgongo, a number of bystanders, and Mr. Bradley;⁸ heard closing arguments; and found Mr. Bradley guilty of all charges.

Immediately after announcing his verdict, the magistrate judge asked the government if it wanted “to get a presentence report” or to submit a victim impact statement; the magistrate judge acknowledged, however, that “it sounds like the victim has made peace with Mr. Bradley here.” The government responded that it was “ready to proceed with sentencing now” and saw no “need for a presentence report.” The magistrate judge then offered to order a presentence report if defense counsel wished one to be generated, but indicated that Mr. Bradley would be locked up pending sentencing, or, as the magistrate judge put it, Mr. Bradley was “going to jail tonight, right now.” Counsel responded, “then we better proceed today.”

The magistrate judge directed the government to make its sentencing recommendation. The prosecutor requested a sentence of at least six months of jail time. In support of this request the prosecutor quickly reviewed what the government considered to be the salient facts: that Mr. Mgongo suffered a broken leg

which required surgery; Mr. Bradley had run from the scene of the accident; Mr. Bradley had prior convictions, including “run-ins with the law around drug[s] and guns”; and Mr. Bradley was on probation at the time of the accident.

Defense counsel and Mr. Bradley spoke next, with counsel representing that Mr. Mgongo did not want Mr. Bradley to go to jail, and Mr. Bradley explaining that he had apologized to Mr. Mgongo and had tried to help him out financially. Mr. Bradley also explained that he needed to keep working at his autobody business to support his wife and three children.

The magistrate judge then said the following:

THE COURT: All right, Mr. Bradley, I have listened to you. I listened to the evidence here. It's now 20 minutes of 6:00. I don't like putting people in jail. I really don't. The system has been really kind to you, see, and I don't know where you get this attitude that the system's against you and every police are[ ] against you, but the system's been very, very kind to you. That last charge that you were charged with, the 30–year, you could have gone to jail for about 40 years, 60 years maybe, I don't know, and Judge Jackson gave you probation. Took a chance that Mr. Bradley's going to do right, and what happens, he almost kills a guy while he's on a probation, almost kills a guy. That's the pay, pay back that Judge Jackson got for being kind to you.

Now, the buck stops here. I'm not going to be kind because I don't, you've engaged in risky conduct your whole life, selling drugs, being around guns, fleeing from the police. It's all right here. It's a picture of Jerome Bradley as we know him, and today the words out of your mouth would even confirm my suspicions. You have no regard for anybody but yourself. You're only telling me this because you just don't want to go to jail, but you're not going to fool me. I know you and unfortunately I can't put you away for longer than I can because I would, because I truly believe you're a danger to society. I truly believe that you're going to go back out there, no matter how much time I give you, you're going to sell your drugs, you're going, you're going to shoot somebody, you're going to probably cause a lot of problems for innocent people, but I can only do what I can do here.

MR. BRADLEY: Can I say one thing?

THE COURT: And I say that—wait a second. You're telling me what a good guy you are, but I got your alleged probation violation report here. As of this writing, this is, by the way this writing was in March of 2010. As of this writing the defendant has not completed his community service hours. The judge spared you, the system spared you 40 years in jail and you didn't do your community service hours to pay them back, a few lousy hours.

[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Your Honor, he had just—

THE COURT: The defendant, wait a second, hold on a second. On 3/1/2010 the offender submitted a water-loaded specimen. He's trying to fool the probation officer about his drug usage. The defendant has tested positive for cocaine, and then he goes out and he does what he did here. So, it wasn't just this even that's caused you to be in trouble with Judge, Judge Jackson and your probation.

Having thus sketched this “picture of Jerome Bradley as we know him,” the magistrate judge concluded, “[s]o, I don't have any sympathy whatsoever.” The magistrate judge then sentenced Mr. Bradley to the maximum imprisonment or fine permitted for a total of eighteen months incarceration and $2,000 in fines.

Mr. Bradley filed a Motion for Judicial Review of Trial Court's Judgment under Super. Ct.Crim. R. 117(g)(1). He argued that the evidence was insufficient to support his reckless driving conviction. He also argued that he was improperly cut off from allocuting. Lastly, he argued that the magistrate judge made “improper and unfounded comments about [him] at the time of sentencing,” and that it was not clear what information the magistrate judge had reviewed before sentencing, but whatever it was, the magistrate judge's comments had no foundation and could only be attributable to judicial bias. As a consequence, Mr. Bradley argued, he received an overly harsh sentence for “offenses that, although serious, are basic traffic offenses.”

An associate judge of the Superior Court considered Mr. Bradley's motion and rejected his challenges to his conviction and sentence. Specifically with respect to Mr. Bradley's challenge to the magistrate judge's sentencing determination, the associate judge acknowledged that “some of the words used by Magistrate Judge Sullivan at the sentencing hearing were ill chosen.” The associate judge elaborated,

To be sure, the [trial] court made some statements that were overstated and exaggerated: it declared that it believed that defendant was going to “sell drugs” and “shoot somebody” upon release. It also averred (inaccurately) that defendant had “almost killed a guy” while on probation. These words were ill chosen, and if read literally, were not based on any evidence in the record. Defendant had not previously been convicted of selling drugs or shooting anyone; and the court was certainly aware that Mr. Mgongo had not, in fact, almost died from being struck by the ATV.

Nonetheless the associate judge concluded that “a fair reading of the sentencing transcript does not reveal any improper prejudice or bias on the part of the trial judge” and discerned no...