U.S. v. Paredes-Batista

Decision Date18 March 1998
Docket NumberDocket 97-1110.
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Isaias PAREDES-BATISTA, aka Carmelo Quiñones, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Elan Gerstmann, New York City (Edward S. Panzer, New York City, of counsel), for Defendant-Appellant.

Victor Osaii Olds, Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York (Mary Jo White, United States Attorney, Guy Petrillo, Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, of counsel), for Appellee.

Before: KEARSE and CABRANES, Circuit Judges, and CHIN, District Judge.*

JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge:

Isaias Paredes-Batista ("Batista"),** also known as Carmelo Quiñones, appeals from his conviction and sentence, following a bench trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Robert J. Ward, Judge), for one count of illegally reentering the United States after having been arrested and deported, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326.1 He challenges that conviction on three grounds. First, Batista contends that the district court (Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, Judge) erred in denying his pre-trial motion to dismiss the indictment, in which he alleged the deprivation of his right to a speedy trial under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers ("IAD"), 18 U.S.C.App. § 2, the Speedy Trial Act of 1974 18 U.S.C. §§ 3161 et seq., and Fed.R.Crim.P. 48(b). Second, Batista challenges the judgment of conviction entered by Judge Ward, arguing that he could not properly have been convicted of illegal reentry when the deportation proceeding underlying that offense was not, he alleges, consistent with due process. Third, with respect to the eighty-four month sentence he received, Batista argues that Judge Ward should have granted him a three-point offense level reduction for acceptance of responsibility, under U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1, notwithstanding his having proceeded to trial.

Although we find the government's procedures for processing speedy trial requests disturbing and (for reasons stated below) worthy of revision by pertinent authorities of the executive branch of government, we are constrained to agree with the district court that Batista could not secure a dismissal based on the administrative lapses that hindered his attempt to obtain a prompt adjudication. In addition, we find Batista's collateral attack on his deportation hearing to be unavailing, and uphold the district court's refusal to award an acceptance of responsibility reduction of Batista's Sentencing Guidelines offense level. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's judgment of conviction and sentence.

I.

The facts regarding Batista's sojourns in the United States are generally uncontested. Batista is a citizen of the Dominican Republic who entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident alien in 1987. In 1989, he was arrested for the criminal sale of cocaine in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31.2 He pleaded guilty and began serving a two- to four-year term of imprisonment. That conviction constituted a "drug trafficking crime" sufficient to classify Batista as an "aggravated felon" under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43),3 and rendered him subject to deportation under 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(4)4 and 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(11).5

While incarcerated in a New York state prison, Batista participated in a deportation hearing by telephone in June 1990. He was represented by counsel by telephone during that hearing, although he contends that he never saw or previously conversed with the attorney. At the conclusion of that hearing, the immigration judge ("IJ") found Batista to be deportable. Batista acknowledged in his testimony at the 1996 bench trial before Judge Ward that the IJ in 1990 had informed him of his right to appeal the deportation determination, and that he had chosen not to do so; the transcript of the deportation hearing indicates that the IJ asked Batista three times whether he wished to appeal, to which Batista finally replied, "No. No." Batista offered to pay for his own ticket back to the Dominican Republic, and was told to take the matter up with his lawyer after the hearing.

Batista was deported on June 19, 1990. He admitted at trial in 1996 to returning to the United States in the spring of 1991. He had not sought or received permission from the Attorney General to do so. On January 8, 1992, Batista, then using the name Carmelo Quiñones, was arrested in New York on narcotics charges, to which he pleaded guilty on January 5, 1993 and received a two and a half to five-year sentence.

While Batista was serving that sentence at the Ulster Correctional Facility in Ulster, New York, a federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment charging him with illegally reentering the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326.6 Batista escaped from a work-release program in December 1993 and spent six months as a fugitive before being recaptured in late May 1994. On July 15, 1994, a detainer relating to the federal indictment was served on New York state prison officials, who in turn served a copy on Batista on July 21, 1994.

The detainer notice advised Batista of his right to demand a speedy trial on the federal charge. On an unknown date around July 21, 1994, Batista made that demand in writing on the detainer form, by signing his alias (Carmelo Quiñones) to a preprinted paragraph that included the following language: "I [do] demand a speedy trial on these charges. I understand that if I do request a speedy trial, this request will be delivered to the Office of the United States Attorney who caused the Detainer to be filed." The detainer form, USM-17, requests the state prison officials to return the executed form to the issuing U.S. Marshals' office. Batista's speedy trial request was faxed from the U.S. Marshals' office for the Western District of New York to the U.S. Marshals' office for the Southern District on September 14, 1994. At this point, however, the processing system failed: neither the U.S. Attorney's Office nor the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York appears to have received the request.

Upon his March 6, 1995 release from New York custody, Batista was arrested on the detainer and taken into federal custody. At a pre-trial conference before Judge Cedarbaum on April 21, 1995, Batista, then represented by assigned counsel, produced a copy of his July 1994 speedy trial request; the Assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to the case represented that he first became aware of the request's existence at that conference. On June 9, 1995, Batista moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that he had been denied his right to a speedy trial. Judge Cedarbaum denied the motion on October 2, 1995, citing, inter alia, Supreme Court precedent holding that speedy trial deadlines under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers are triggered only upon the prosecutor's and court's actual receipt of a speedy trial request. Judge Cedarbaum did, however, expressly direct the U.S. Attorney's Office to work with the U.S. Marshals to change form USM-17 so as to accurately inform prisoners that their speedy trial rights under the IAD would only become effective upon both the U.S. Attorney's and district court's actual receipt of the prisoners' requests.

Batista negotiated a plea agreement that would have preserved the speedy trial issue for appeal, but then changed his mind and, on the day that he was to enter the plea, informed the court that he wished to go to trial. Batista declined the government's request to stipulate prior to trial that he was an alien at the time of his 1990 deportation and that he had been found in the United States after having been deported. By consent of the parties, the case was tried without a jury before Judge Ward on May 6 and 7, 1996. At the trial's conclusion, the court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law resulting in Batista's conviction for illegally reentering the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. In the course of rendering his decision, Judge Ward stated that the "deportation hearing conducted by telephone comported with the basic requirements of due process."

Judge Ward sentenced Batista to an eighty-four month prison term, based on an offense level under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines of twenty-three, which included a one-point reduction as a result of Batista's promise to leave the country when asked to do so. Judge Ward rejected Batista's argument that he was entitled to a three-point offense level reduction for acceptance of responsibility. In doing so, the judge stated that, while insisting on a trial solely to preserve legal issues for appeal would not bar such a reduction, Batista's primary defense — that his 1990 deportation was illegal — had effectively contested his guilt with respect to an element of the offense.7

II.

Batista first challenges the district court's October 1995 ruling denying his motion to dismiss the indictment on speedy trial grounds. He argues that the district court erred in not dismissing the indictment under the IAD, the Speedy Trial Act, or Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48.8 We believe the U.S. Marshals' current procedures with respect to detainer speedy trial requests are flawed, and we urge prompt action by the executive branch of government to improve them. However, we are obliged to conclude, in this case at least, that under applicable law these administrative failings did not entitle Batista to a dismissal of the charge against him.

A. The Interstate Agreement on Detainers

A detainer is a notice filed with an institution in which a particular prisoner is incarcerated, advising that he is wanted to face pending criminal charges in another jurisdiction, and requesting that the prisoner either be held for the other jurisdiction's prosecutors or that these prosecutors be notified when the...

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