U.S. v. Bratcher

• Citation: 833 F.2d 69
• Decision Date: 19 January 1988
• Docket Number: No. 86-6189,86-6189
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert E. BRATCHER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Page 69

833 F.2d 69

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert E. BRATCHER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 86-6189.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Aug. 6, 1987.

Decided Nov. 4, 1987.

Certiorari Denied Jan. 19, 1988.

See 108 S.Ct. 760.

Henry Haile (argued) (court-appointed), Nashville, Tenn., for defendant-appellant.

Joe B. Brown, U.S. Atty., Nashville, Tenn., William T. Warren, III (argued), for plaintiff-appellee.

Before LIVELY, Chief Judge; KEITH, Circuit Judge; and DOWD, District Judge. ^*

LIVELY, Chief Judge.

This case involves the appealability of a pretrial order under the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3161, et seq. Subject to a number of circumstances that produce "excluded time," the Speedy Trial Act requires generally that the trial of a defendant begin within seventy days from the date of indictment and not less than thirty days from the defendant's first appearance to answer criminal charges. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3161(c)(1), (2). In this case the defendant seeks to appeal a district court order dismissing a superseding indictment without prejudice, contending that it should have been dismissed with prejudice. This is the basis of the appeal.

After briefing the issue of the propriety of a dismissal without prejudice under the circumstances of this case, the government filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on jurisdictional grounds. The basis of this motion is that an order dismissing an indictment without prejudice is not final and appealable within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291. The motion to dismiss was referred to the panel that heard oral argument on the merits. For the reasons hereinafter set forth, we grant the motion and dismiss the appeal.

I.

Robert Bratcher was indicted on July 16, 1986, for two counts of embezzlement and bank fraud. The first count of the indictment was based on five separate incidents where Bratcher authorized the use of bank funds to cover the personal use of rental cars by himself and two other bank employees, and used bank funds to pay for the cost of repairs to his personal vehicle. The second count of the indictment alleged that Bratcher had improperly altered bank records to indicate that the bank was indebted to a local service station for the cost of repairs to his car, in the amount of $616.15.

Bratcher made his initial appearance before a United States Magistrate on July 21, 1986, and entered a plea of not guilty. The case was scheduled for trial on September 15, 1986. On September 10 the Assistant United States Attorney telephoned defense counsel, informed him that he had secured a superseding indictment, and asked if a continuance would be needed. Essentially, the superseding indictment described the same overt acts as the original indictment, but separated each overt act into a different count. One charge was redrawn and one charge was dropped. A new charge in the indictment alleged that the defendant had authorized the use of $73.56 in bank funds to pay for the personal use of a rental car by a bank employee.

Later that day, defense counsel secured a copy of the superseding indictment, and informed the prosecutor that he was ready to defend on the old charges, but that he could not be ready to defend on the new charge, and would "stand on whatever rights he had" with respect to the new charge. On the following day, September 11, the government filed a motion for postponement of trial, stating that the defendant--

does not wish to consent to commencement of trial prior to expiration of the mandatory thirty day period set forth in Title 18, United States Code, Section 3161(c)(2). For this reason, the government respectfully urges the Court to reset the trial of the instant case no sooner than thirty days from the defendant's first appearance through counsel.

A senior district judge continued the government's motion on September 12, 1986, relying on 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3161(c)(2). The case was then reassigned to a different judge who granted the government's motion in an order filed on September 22 and rescheduled the trial for November 3, 1986. The district court stated in its order that the case was being continued because a superseding indictment containing new charges had been returned.

On October 17, 1986, the defendant moved to dismiss the superseding indictment for violation of the Speedy Trial Act and Crim.R. 48(b). At a hearing on this motion, defense counsel argued that no "automatic thirty-day postponement" was required by 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3161(c)(2). Counsel relied on United States v. Rojas-Contreras, 474 U.S. 231, 106 S.Ct. 555, 88 L.Ed.2d 537 (1985), which holds that a new 30-day trial preparation period does not begin to run from the date on which a superseding indictment is issued, even if new charges are included, and that it is the responsibility of defense counsel to move for an "ends of justice" continuance if more time is required to prepare for trial. Counsel also argued that dismissal under Crim.R. 48(b) was proper, since the government had used the superseding indictment process to contrive a delay in order to postpone a case that it was not prepared to try.

The government attorney stated that he was unaware of the Rojas-Contreras decision at the time he moved for a continuance, and argued that a good faith error of law should not be the basis for dismissing the superseding indictment with prejudice. He also stated that the government had not intentionally sought to delay the case by obtaining the superseding indictment.

The district court found no cause for a dismissal under Crim.R. 48(b), since there was no evidence that the government had unnecessarily delayed in bringing the case to trial. However, the court did find that it had been error to continue the trial based on 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3161(c)(2), since the Rojas-Contreras decision requires no such continuance. After counsel had argued, the district court found that the offenses charged by the indictment were serious, that the motion for continuance to reset the case had been granted based upon an "honest misapprehension of what the law was, ... [a]n honest mistake on the part of the Government." The court further found that the public's best interest would be served by permitting reprosecution since the court's docket was current, and that the integrity of the administration of justice also weighed in favor of a dismissal without prejudice. A written order was entered on November 4, 1986, denying the defendant's motion to dismiss on the basis of Crim.R. 48(b), and granting the motion to dismiss on the basis of the Speedy Trial Act, without prejudice.

II.

The decision of the Supreme Court in Parr v. United States, 351 U.S. 513, 76 S.Ct. 912, 100 L.Ed. 1377 (1956), controls our decision in this case. In Parr, a defendant indicted in one division of the Southern District of Texas succeeded in having his case transferred to a different division of the same district. The government then obtained a superseding indictment in the Western District of Texas, and moved to have the earlier indictment dismissed. The superseding indictment was identical to the first except for its venue statement. The district court granted the government's motion to dismiss the first indictment over the defendant's objection, and he appealed. The Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal on the ground that the order dismissing the indictment is not final and appealable under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291.

The Supreme Court examined the appealability issue from two perspectives and reached the same conclusion in each instance. Viewing the original indictment "in isolation" the Court found that the defendant lacked standing to appeal because he was not aggrieved by the dismissal. 351 U.S. at 516, 76 S.Ct. at 915. Rejecting the defendant's argument that he was aggrieved by the fact that the dismissal left him open to further prosecution, Justice Harlan wrote, "the testing of the effect of the dismissal order must abide petitioner's trial, and only then, if convicted, will he have been aggrieved." Id. at 517, 76 S.Ct. at 915 (citation omitted).

Turning to a consideration of the two indictments together, as part of a single prosecution, the Court found that the defendant's right to appeal would be no different. The defendant maintained that the order dismissing the indictment in the Southern District was "final" because it terminated the prosecution under that indictment and could not be reviewed except by an immediate appeal. Declining to accept this argument, the Court quoted from Berman v. United States, 302 U.S. 211, 212, 58 S.Ct. 164, 166, 82 L.Ed. 204 (1937): "Final judgment in a criminal case means sentence. The sentence is the judgment." 351 U.S. at 518, 76 S.Ct. at 916. The Court found that the dismissal of the original indictment was "an interlocutory" step in the prosecution whose review must await the conclusion of the entire matter. Id. "To hold this order 'final' at this stage of the prosecution would defeat the long-standing statutory policy against piecemeal appeals." Id. at 519, 76 S.Ct. at 916.

The Court also rejected Parr's secondary argument that, if not final, the order of dismissal fell within the exception to the finality requirement set forth in Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949). Unlike orders described in Cohen and Swift & Company Packers v. Compania Columbiana del Caribe, 339 U.S. 684, 70 S.Ct. 861, 94 L.Ed. 1206 (1950), which related to matters "outside the stream of the main action and would not be subject to effective review as part of the final judgment in the action," the order of dismissal was "but a 'step toward final disposition of the merits of the case' and will 'be merged in the final judgment.' " 351 U.S. at 519, 76 S. Ct. at 916, quoting Cohen at 546, 69 S.Ct. at 1225. The fact that the defendant would be required to stand trial in the Western District before he could get a review of...