Com. v. Gogan

• Decision Date: 17 May 1983
• Citation: 389 Mass. 255,449 N.E.2d 365
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. William H. GOGAN, Jr.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 365

449 N.E.2d 365

389 Mass. 255

COMMONWEALTH v. William H. GOGAN, Jr.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Berkshire.

Argued Jan. 5, 1983.

Decided May 17, 1983.

David E. Hoyt, Newton, for defendant.

Paul M. Vrabel, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Commonwealth.

Before WILKINS, LIACOS, NOLAN and LYNCH, JJ.

LYNCH, Justice.

The defendant was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, under G.L. c. 265, § 13D, and disturbing the peace, under G.L. c. 272, § 53. He was found guilty by a District Court judge on both complaints and appealed his convictions to a jury of six session of the District Court. In November, 1976, the jury acquitted the defendant of the charge of assault and battery on a police officer, and found him guilty of disturbing the peace, for which he was fined $250. After a series of procedural delays, the defendant's appeal was finally docketed in the Appeals Court on May 3, 1982. We transferred the case to this court on our own motion. The defendant contends that the trial judge's failure to recuse himself, his conduct of the trial, and his denial of motions for a mistrial and for a required finding of not guilty denied the defendant a fair trial and due process of law. The defendant also argues that the admission in evidence of his hospital records was prejudicial error. We find no merit in any of these contentions, and we affirm the judgment of the District Court.

We summarize the evidence. The defendant was arrested on May 31, 1975, for incidents arising from a party given for him by his family at the Pittsfield Elks Club. Approximately 170 guests had been invited to celebrate the defendant's recent wedding. The Commonwealth's witnesses were all Pittsfield police officers. Officer Albert Hubbard, who was not on duty that night and was a patron at the Elks Club, telephoned the police between 11 and 11:30 p.m. to report a disturbance involving thirty to forty people. Officers John Bartow and James Winn responded to the call and entered the building, where the defendant was engaged in a struggle with several others on a stairway landing. The defendant said, "You're not gonna f---ing take me," whereupon Officer Winn seized him, took him through the front door of the building, put him up against a parked vehicle, and attempted to place handcuffs on him. The defendant resisted and a struggle took place, during which Officer Winn went to the ground with the defendant on top of him. Officers Albert Hayford, Jr., and Cardinal Spezzeferro, two of approximately a dozen officers who arrived on the scene, attempted to assist Winn. Officers testified that some members of the crowd, which had swelled substantially in size and moved outside, actively impeded the efforts of the police. Winn and Hayford testified that, after Hayford pulled the defendant off Winn, the defendant struck Hayford in the face with his fist. Spezzeferro testified that he took out his nightstick and attempted to hit the defendant on his body, and that during the struggle he inadvertently struck the defendant on the head. The three officers eventually subdued the defendant, handcuffed him, and placed him in a police van. Sergeant Michael White, who arrived on the scene at about that time, observed that the defendant was injured and ordered him taken to a hospital.

The defense called the defendant's father, his sister, other witnesses of the events, and an orthopedic surgeon who testified that the defendant had suffered a ruptured spinal disc. The defendant testified that, when the police arrived, he had been attempting to take his father to a hospital for treatment of a hand injured in a fan while his father was trying to calm his guests. When the police entered the building, they forcibly moved the defendant to the street, handcuffed, and beat him. He was punched by several officers and hit on the head with a nightstick many times. After he arrived at the hospital, he was hit repeatedly by another police officer while they were alone in the emergency room, and he was tied down when he attempted to get up and go home. Witnesses called by the defendant corroborated various aspects of his version of the night's events.

On rebuttal, two nurses who were on duty that night in the emergency room of the Berkshire Medical Center testified that the defendant was "in a very excited state" while at the hospital, "striking out ... violently," "struggling," "thrashing and fighting," and "very abusive." The charge nurse testified that she asked the police to help restrain the defendant because he would not cooperate with the efforts to treat him.

1. Judge's failure to disqualify himself. The trial judge, who did not preside at the defendant's bench trial, was a practicing attorney sitting as a special justice. See G.L. c. 218, § 6A. ¹ Prior to trial, the defendant moved to have the judge disqualify himself because he had represented a party in a civil suit against the defendant's sister approximately four years previously. The judge noted for the record that the suit was terminated by agreement of the parties and that he did not recall ever having met the defendant's sister. He questioned her in the presence of counsel about that case, and denied the defendant's motion. On his own motion, the judge then apprised both counsel that he had recently represented one of the Commonwealth's principal witnesses, Sergeant Spezzeferro. ² The judge examined the officer and evidently also allowed defense counsel to put questions to him. For the record, the judge commented that he thought there were no other judges available to hear this case, but that he would inquire about obtaining another judge if that became necessary. After hearing defense counsel's argument, the judge denied fresh motions for a continuance and for his disqualification, informing defense counsel that, if some other basis developed during trial, the motion for disqualification could be renewed. The defendant urges that the refusal of the judge to disqualify himself was error.

Article 29 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights requires that judges be "as free, impartial and independent as the lot of humanity will admit." Under former S.J.C. Rule 3:25, Canon 3(C)(1), 359 Mass. 842 (1972) (now Rule 3:09, Canon 3[C] ), a judge "should disqualify himself in a proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned." However, "[n]ot every contention of bias or partiality is entitled to be honored by a judge, or a hearing officer." Police Comm'r of Boston v. Municipal Court of the W. Roxbury Dist., 368 Mass. 501, 508, 332 N.E.2d 901 (1975), and cases cited. Bias requiring disqualification must ordinarily arise from an extrajudicial source. See Kennedy v. District Court of Dukes County, 356 Mass. 367, 379, 252 N.E.2d 201 (1969). In general, the question of disqualification is left to the judge's discretion. Commonwealth v. Coyne, 372 Mass. 599, 602, 363 N.E.2d 256 (1977), citing Commonwealth v. Leventhal, 364 Mass. 718, 722, 307 N.E.2d 839 (1974), and cases cited. We have said that, when faced with a question of his impartiality, a judge must "consult first his own emotions and conscience. If he pass[es] the internal test of freedom from disabling prejudice, he must next attempt an objective appraisal of whether this [is] 'a proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.' " Lena v. Commonwealth, 369 Mass. 571, 575, 340 N.E.2d 884 (1976). Here the judge was careful to explore his past representations on the record, for the benefit and with the apparent participation of trial counsel. These representations appear to have been completely distinct from and unrelated to the pending matter. It is to be assumed from his denial of the motions that the judge was satisfied that he could preside over the proceedings with no danger of prejudice. King v. Grace, 293 Mass. 244, 247, 200 N.E. 346 (1936). Commonwealth v. Campbell, 5 Mass.App. 571, 587, 366 N.E.2d 44 (1977). See also Beauregard v. Dailey, 294 Mass. 315, 325, 1 N.E.2d 481 (1936), involving the disqualification of an attorney acting as a master: "It is the general rule in most jurisdictions that the relationship of attorney and client is ordinarily so close and confidential as to be incompatible with the principle that 'no man can be at once the judge and attorney for one of the parties,' ... and this rule extends to cover cases where the judge is under a general retainer from one of the parties even though the retainer involved issues other than those to be determined in the pending litigation.... This general rule of attorney and client relationship is not applicable to an attorney for a party in past litigation involving issues entirely unrelated to pending issues, and in such case there is no disqualification." (Citations omitted.)

The record before us does not hint of partial treatment of the witnesses or of unfairness to the defense during the course of the trial. Nor was the judge the trier of fact. See Commonwealth v. Leventhal, 364 Mass. 718, 725-726, 307 N.E.2d 839 (1974). It is at least suggestive of no lack of impartiality, and clearly indicative of no prejudice to the defendant, that the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on the graver of the offenses with which the defendant stood charged. The defendant has failed to demonstrate any prejudice, and we perceive none, resulting from the judge's decision to preside at the trial. ³ See King v. Grace, 293 Mass. 244, 246-247, 200 N.E. 346 (1936).

2. Denial of motions for a mistrial and for a required finding of not guilty. The judge granted the defendant's pretrial motion to sequester witnesses. Both Commonwealth and defense witnesses were excluded from the courtroom, and were ordered to discuss neither the case nor the specific testimony of any witness until the trial was at an end. During the Commonwealth's case, after three police officers had testified, defense counsel reported to the judge that he had seen...