Ramos–martÍnez v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 07 March 2011
• Docket Number: No. 09–1856.,09–1856.
• Citation: 638 F.3d 315
• Parties: Wilfredo RAMOS–MARTÍNEZ, Petitioner, Appellant,v.UNITED STATES of America, Respondent, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

638 F.3d 315

Wilfredo RAMOS–MARTÍNEZ, Petitioner, Appellant,

v.UNITED STATES of America, Respondent, Appellee.

No. 09–1856.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Jan. 5, 2011.Decided March 7, 2011.

Linda Backiel, by appointment of the court, for appellant.Luke Cass, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Rosa Emilia Rodríguez–Vélez, United States Attorney, and Nelson Pérez–Sosa, Assistant United States Attorney (Chief, Appellate Division), were on brief, for appellee.Before BOUDIN, Circuit Judge, SOUTER,^* Associate Justice, and SELYA, Circuit Judge.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This case presents a question of first impression in this circuit: Is the limitations period for the filing of a federal prisoner's habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f) subject to equitable tolling? We answer this question affirmatively, but—even though the petitioner raises a serious question about whether he was unlawfully deprived of the services of a qualified interpreter—we go no further; the record as it stands is insufficient to allow us to resolve the merits of either the equitable tolling claim or the substantive claims that underlie the petition. Consequently, we vacate the order dismissing the petition and remand for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

We start by sketching the historical antecedents of this appeal. On April 16, 2002, petitioner-appellant Wilfredo Ramos–Martínez entered a straight guilty plea (i.e., a plea unencumbered by any agreement) to a charge of conspiracy to distribute multi-kilogram quantities of heroin, cocaine, and cocaine base (crack cocaine). See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846. The change-of-plea hearing took place before a visiting judge (Judge Carter). The petitioner explained that he had very little formal education and authorized his attorney to speak on his behalf. In response to a direct request, he agreed that he would notify the court if he was unable to understand any of its questions.

After the petitioner had been questioned at some length about his understanding of the proffered plea and its consequences, his counsel, David Román, informed the court that the petitioner “does not speak [E]nglish and this indictment is in [E]nglish.” Román declared that he was fluent in Spanish and, therefore, had “explained all of it” to his client in Spanish. Notwithstanding this aposematic disclosure, the court did not inquire further into the petitioner's English language proficiency.

The record contains no indication that, prior to or during the hearing, the court asked the petitioner if he needed the services of an interpreter. ¹ Neither the docket nor the transcript contains any notation showing that a court interpreter participated in the hearing.² Tellingly, the court's criminal minute sheet for the hearing does not identify any interpreter in the space provided for that information.

Some months passed before sentencing. By then, Judge Carter had returned home, and Judge Laffitte presided.

The disposition hearing took place on November 4, 2002. At that time, the petitioner requested “all the documents in the case.” He claimed that he repeatedly had asked Román to procure these papers, but to no avail. He also signaled his intention to file a section 2255 petition premised on Román's ineffective assistance. The district court summarily rejected the petitioner's entreaty and stated that it did not “find a scintilla, an iota of evidence to conclude that Mr. Román was ineffective.” The court proceeded to sentence the petitioner to 480 months in prison.

The petitioner filed a pro se notice of appeal and requested the appointment of counsel. Attorney José Franco–Rivera ultimately appeared as the petitioner's appellate counsel.

In July of 2005, the petitioner wrote to the district court requesting information about the status of his appeal. The court provided the petitioner's attorney with a copy of this letter. The record does not indicate what action (if any) counsel may have taken.

A pro se motion to like effect was received by the district court in August of 2005. The clerk was directed to notify the petitioner of the status of his appeal. Within a matter of weeks, we affirmed the conviction and sentence. United States v. Ramos–Martínez, No. 02–2630 (Oct. 12, 2005) (unpublished order). The conviction became final on January 10, 2006 (when the 90–day period for seeking certiorari expired).

Within a month thereafter, the petitioner wrote to the clerk of the district court about the cost of acquiring a transcript of his change-of-plea hearing. The court directed the clerk to provide the petitioner with the requested information. It is unclear whether that directive was implemented.

On March 27, 2007, the petitioner, acting pro se, filed a motion to reduce his sentence. See 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). Due to Judge Laffitte's retirement, the case was reassigned to Chief Judge Fusté, who denied the sentence reduction motion. The petitioner appealed pro se, and we affirmed the challenged order. United States v. Ramos–Martínez, No. 07–1973 (Jan. 28, 2008) (unpublished order).

Meanwhile, a series of other events were unfolding. Although the record is scumbled, it appears that, at some point in 2005, the petitioner's mother paid a paralegal named José Rosado (ostensibly an associate of the petitioner's appellate counsel) several thousand dollars to assist in the preparation of a section 2255 petition. The precise nature of the agreement with Rosado is not chronicled in the record, nor is it clear what (if anything) Rosado did during 2005 and 2006. Prison records indicate that the petitioner placed a plethora of telephone calls to Rosado during October of 2006. These efforts were thwarted as of October 13, 2006, when the petitioner's calls to that number were blocked by someone on the receiving end. The record contains no explanation of why the calls were blocked. No section 2255 petition prepared by Rosado was filed on the petitioner's behalf.

On April 1, 2008, the petitioner, acting pro se, filed a motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. This petition alleged that his guilty plea had been obtained in violation of the Due Process Clause because his change-of-plea hearing was conducted without the assistance of an interpreter and that, as a result, his plea was involuntary, unintelligent, and unknowing. The petition further alleged that both the petitioner's trial and appellate attorneys had provided ineffective assistance through their respective failures to request an interpreter and to identify the absence of an interpreter as an issue on appeal. The petitioner filed companion motions seeking (i) equitable tolling of the limitations period limned in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f); (ii) leave to expand the record pursuant to Rule 7 of the Rules Governing Section 2255 Proceedings; (iii) an evidentiary hearing pursuant to Rule 8; and (iv) permission to institute the discovery processes generally available through Rule 6.

On April 16, 2008, the district court granted the motion to expand the record. The expanded record contains evidence regarding the events that transpired at the change-of-plea hearing, documents establishing lockdown periods affecting facilities in which the petitioner was incarcerated, information about his relationship with Rosado, and materials evidencing his limited education and low proficiency in the English language.

After denying the petitioner's motions for discovery and for an evidentiary hearing, the district court rejected the section 2255 petition. Ramos–Martínez v. United States, No. 08–1388, 2009 WL 1299563, at *4 (D.P.R. May 6, 2009). The court based its ruling in material part on its appraisal of the protagonists who participated in the change-of-plea hearing:

[A]s seasoned a judge as he is, Judge Carter would not have proceeded to take a plea from a defendant that could not communicate in English. Similarly, David Román, Defendant's lawyer, would not have allowed a non-English-speaking defendant to stand before Judge Carter without understanding the language of the colloquy. We, therefore, find that Petitioner was either able to speak English or was assisted by an interpreter during the plea colloquy.

Id. at *3. In the court's view, the transcript of the hearing showed that the petitioner “answer[ed] several questions with full sentences and never indicated that he could not understand the proceedings.” Id. The court concluded that “[a]lthough the court would have done well to conduct a more thorough inquiry into Petitioner's comprehension of English, the record does not demonstrate that Petitioner had difficulty with English so as to trigger the requirements of the Court Interpreters Act.” Id. In the process of reaching this conclusion, the court creatively interpreted Román's statement that the petitioner did not speak English to mean that he “could not read and understand the indictment, not that he could not comprehend the court proceedings.” Id. Having denied the petition on the merits, the court effectively sidestepped the equitable tolling issue.

On May 26, 2009, the petitioner, again acting pro se, filed a notice of appeal and a motion for a certificate of appealability (COA). The district court declined to issue a COA. The petitioner appealed that denial and, on December 10, 2009, we granted a COA as to three issues: (i) whether, under principles of equitable tolling, the section 2255 petition should be considered timely; (ii) whether, assuming timeliness, the district court erred in rejecting the petitioner's claim that his due process rights were violated when the district court failed to furnish an interpreter during his change-of-plea hearing; and (iii) whether, assuming timeliness, the district court erred in rejecting the petitioner's claim that his trial counsel's failure to request an interpreter at the change-of-plea...