U.S. v. Charles

• Decision Date: 03 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-1327.,05-1327.
• Citation: 456 F.3d 249
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Ronald A. CHARLES, Defendant, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

456 F.3d 249

UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Ronald A. CHARLES, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 05-1327.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard March 9, 2006.

Decided August 3, 2006.

Christopher R. Goddu, for appellant.

Todd E. Newhouse, Assistant U.S. Attorney with whom Michael J. Sullivan, United States Attorney, and Virginia M Vander Jagt, Assistant U.S. Attorney, were on brief for appellee.

Before HOWARD, Circuit Judge, COFFIN and CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judges.

CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge.

Ronald Charles appeals from his conviction for assault on a federal officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111 after a jury trial in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He makes two claims: (1) that the district court erred in allowing the admission of evidence related to Charles's possession of drugs and (2) that the district court erred in allowing the government's case agent, who was allegedly also a victim of the assault, to sit at the government's counsel table.

Background and Facts

We state the facts in the light most favorable to the jury verdict, consistent with record support. United States v. Noah, 130 F.3d 490, 493 (1st Cir.1997). On August 4, 2003, two agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA"), John Barron and Jonathan Shankweiler, were conducting surveillance of an individual in Springfield, Massachusetts. Driving separately in unmarked cars, they lost the targeted car. The two agents pulled into a parking lot at a Walgreens, where they waited, hoping the target would reappear. The area, Mason Square, was known by the agents as a site of drug-trafficking and violent crime. While the agents waited, they observed several people in a ten-minute time span pull up in vehicles, park, signal to one another, get out, and walk across the four lanes of the street to the River Inn Motel. The individuals would return to their cars within a minute to a minute and a half and drive away. Barron surmised that retail drug dealing was in progress.

Deciding to investigate, the agents drove to the River Inn Motel, where they parked. As the agents were operating undercover, they were wearing polo shirts and jeans, but had guns and badges at their waists. The agents saw two men on the second-floor balcony "taking a real hard look at [the agents] as [they] were pulling into the parking lot." Barron told his partner to cover his badge, which both agents did with their shirts. Barron entered the building's stairwell first, followed by Shankweiler. Once they were inside, the agents tucked their shirts back in to make the badges and guns "clearly visible."

Charles was standing on the second-floor landing of the stairwell. He had a plastic baggie in his hands, and "he was concentrating very intently on it." Barron concluded the baggie was "consistent with crack cocaine packaged in a retail distribution amount." Charles was trying to tie the baggie; "[h]e was just really, really concentrating on it" and did not see Barron until the agent was about four to six feet away. Barron concluded at that point that there was probable cause to arrest Charles, so Barron announced, "Stop. Police." Charles, however, looked at the agents and ran away from them, up the stairs to his left. Barron reached for Charles's shirt and arm and told him, "Stop. Police," several times. Charles then changed direction and tried to come back down the stairs between the agents and in so doing pulled them over the landing. The agents spent about a minute in the stairwell trying to gain control of Charles, who was "flailing his arms, flailing his feet, trying to pull [the agents] down the stairs." He was "using the railing . . . with one arm trying to pull away from [the agents], whacking [their] arms, chest, head, torso, whatever he could with his arms flailing trying to get away." Charles managed to make contact with most of the agents' upper bodies, arms, shoulders, and heads. Shankweiler also yelled, "Stop. Police," multiple times. Barron struck Charles on the arms, leg, neck, and face during the struggle, trying to make him release the railing. Charles dropped the baggie he had been trying to tie. The agents eventually "got a little bit more control of" Charles and brought him from the stairs onto the landing, although Charles was still fighting. The three "spilled out to the doorway to the left in the hallway," where Charles continued to resist.

Once the struggle had moved into the hallway, bystanders began gathering and were "starting to be pretty verbally abusive" to the agents. Charles was yelling, "Help me. Help me. These guys are hurting me." The agents said "Police" several times in the hallway. They started to get control of Charles, when he suddenly jumped back up. Barron testified that "as [Charles] came back up, one of his hands reached up and grabbed me and my side, on the side I hold my firearm." Barron explained his fear: "My concern was that if the gun came out, myself, my partner, possibly Mr. Charles, if my partner observed that gun, would be killed." As a result of this concern, Barron dealt Charles a blow with his knee, which broke Charles's nose. Charles let go of the holster and then rolled on the ground with his hands underneath him, refusing to comply with the agents' orders to show his hands. Shankweiler, concerned that Charles might have a gun in his waistband, sought to reach Charles's hands.

The struggle lasted about seven minutes. Once Charles was sufficiently under control, Shankweiler left to search for the baggie Charles had dropped but was unable to find it. Shankweiler called the Springfield police for help since Charles was still struggling to get up. The police arrived; they first helped to control the crowd and then assisted the agents in handcuffing Charles. At trial, the government played for the jury a motel video surveillance tape taken during the events; the initial encounter in the stairwell was not, however, visible in the video.

Springfield police took Charles to the police station, where Shankweiler and DEA Special Agent James Clifford read Charles the Miranda warnings. When Shankweiler asked Charles, "do you understand," after the warnings, Charles said, "what [the agents] did was uncalled for. I was just resisting."

In the process of booking Charles, police found in his pocket a plastic baggie, which contained traces of crack cocaine. Charles was subsequently transported to the hospital for treatment of his nose. The next day, Barron awoke with a "decent size" bruise on his arm.

On July 24, 2004, a federal grand jury returned a superceding indictment charging Charles with two counts of assault on a federal officer, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111: one count of assault with physical contact and bodily injury of Barron, see 18 U.S.C. § 111(b), and one count of assault with physical contact of Shankweiler, see 18 U.S.C. § 111(a)(1). On July 30, 2004, the government filed a motion in limine to admit evidence (the plastic baggie seized from Charles) pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). The district court granted the motion by endorsed order over Charles's objection, stating at the hearing on the motion:

If Mr. Charles had drugs on him, that is an explanation for why he would be fighting to not be taken into custody. And so it seems to me that the issue of whether Mr. Charles was in possession of drugs at the time comes into the case to allow the government to argue that this fellow was not defending himself from any assault. He . . . has a bag in his possession which had cocaine residue in it, and . . . that shows that he was doing exactly what the officer said he was doing, A. And, B, it also shows that he wasn't defending himself. . . .

So I don't see — I'm unhappy with the idea of putting the bag in because there is a risk that the jurors will say, well, this guy is a jerk. He's selling drugs. The heck with him. We'll find him guilty of anything the government wants us to find him guilty of because he's a bad person and he's selling drugs, and that's not a proper use of the evidence. But on the other hand, there is a quite proper use of the evidence for the government to show what was really going on here and was this really likely to have been simply a case of some out-of-control police officers attacking someone? Or was it a case of an individual who was caught and was doing everything he could do to tear himself out of the grasp of the officers and bolt out of there?

The court disagreed with Charles's claim that unfair prejudice outweighed probative value, saying: "I think the unfair prejudice is fairly minimal and I think the probative value is fairly great." The court subsequently gave a detailed limiting instruction when the government introduced the baggie at trial:

[Charles is] not charged with any drug-related offense at all.

I'm only letting the evidence with regard to what the government perceived was going on that evening to come before you to give you context as to what was going on, and you may use the evidence to the extent that you find it helpful in determining the issues relating to the assault charges.

But the mere fact that the defendant was involved in some kind of drug distribution, if he was, does not necessarily mean that he assaulted the officers. And you should not assume simply because you may find that he was involved in this activity that he necessarily committed the assaults . . . .

I do believe that it's appropriate for you to have an idea of what the context was at least as the government perceives it and so you may consider the evidence solely for that purpose and that's the reason that I'm allowing this evidence to be put before you.

Charles also objected pretrial to Barron's sitting at the counsel table during trial in his role as case agent and asked the district court to sequester him like any other witness. The government stated that it would put Barron on the stand first and then ask him to remain at counsel table...