U.S. v. Raddatz
| Decision Date | 04 May 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-1350,78-1350 |
| Citation | 592 F.2d 976 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Herman RADDATZ, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Joan B. Gottschall, Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellant.
Leida A. Schoggen, Asst. U. S. Atty., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before CUMMINGS, SPRECHER, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.
The district court found the defendant, Herman Raddatz, guilt of violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(h), receipt of a firearm in interstate commerce by a convicted felon, and imposed a five year sentence. 1 The Government concedes on appeal that the sentence imposed was improper under our decision in United States v. Batchelder, 581 F.2d 626 (7th Cir. 1978), Cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 99 S.Ct. 830, 59 L.Ed.2d 30 (1979). 2
The defendant argues additionally, however, that the reference of his motion to suppress evidence to a magistrate under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B) violated both the Due Process Clause and Article III of the Constitution. We conclude that the defendant was denied Due Process and accordingly reverse and remand for a new hearing on the motion to suppress before the district court.
On August 8, 1976, two Chicago police officers, Monroe Vollick and James Bach, arrested the defendant for unlawful use of a weapon. Officer Vollick testified at trial that just prior to his arrest, the defendant was found standing over a man with a bleeding head injury. The defendant was holding a gun. The bleeding man, Jimmy Batson, told the officers that he had fallen down. Officer Vollick testified that while in custody, Raddatz told the police that he had been fighting with Batson over a family matter. The officer further testified that Raddatz stated he had brought the gun with him in case any of Batson's friends were around. A formal state charge was filed against the defendant on October 27, 1976.
Paul Russell and Richard McCulloch, Special Agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms learned from Officer Vollick that a state firearm charge was pending against the defendant. The agents were also aware that Raddatz was a convicted felon, and that the gun had traveled in interstate commerce (two of the elements necessary for the prosecution in issue).
On November 19, 1976, McCulloch and Russell interviewed Raddatz at his home. After reading Miranda warnings to him, Russell told Raddatz that the gun which was recovered from the defendant's possession on August 8 had been traced to its last owner, a victim of an unsolved homicide in another state. The defendant told the agents that he had taken the gun from Batson to pistol-whip him and did not know where Batson had acquired the gun.
On January 12, 1977, the defendant called the firearms agents and requested a meeting. The agents picked Raddatz up and brought him to their office. The defendant there informed the agents that his earlier statement of November 19 was incorrect. He told the agents that he had not taken the gun from Batson and related to them how he had acquired it.
The state charges were dismissed on February 22, 1977. A federal indictment under 18 U.S.C. § 922(h) followed on March 1, 1977. Pretrial motions, including a motion to suppress various statements made by the defendant, were filed on May 4, 1977. Over the defendant's objection, the district court judge referred the motion to suppress to a magistrate for hearing.
At the hearing before the magistrate, defense counsel attempted to demonstrate that the January 12, 1977 statement of the defendant was involuntary because it was made in reliance on promises of the agents that the case against him would be dismissed if he cooperated. 3 If the agents had promised a dismissal of the indictment in exchange for information about the origins of the gun the statement would in all likelihood be suppressed. See Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 7, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 1493, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964) (). The January 12 statement was relied upon by the Government to establish two of the essential elements of the offense, thus underscoring the dispositive character of the motion.
The defense elicited two varieties of evidence to support a finding of inducement: testimony of the promise and of a course of conduct suggestive of a prior promise. The defendant testified that at the November 19 meeting Russell told him that he was going to be indicted by federal prosecutors. If the defendant would cooperate with the agents, however, "somebody would talk to the prosecutor, and it would be dismissed." The defendant further testified that he was advised that otherwise he would be given a lengthy sentence in a federal penitentiary. The defendant stated that his meeting with the agents on January 12 was motivated solely by his decision to take advantage of the agents' offer. He testified that before he gave the corrected statement on January 12, the agents assured him that their offer of November 19 was still good.
The defense also introduced testimony to establish a course of cooperation with the agents to support the inference of a promise. First, it is uncontested that the defendant's January 12 trip to see the agents was unsolicited. On that date he gave them all the information he had about the gun he had used on August 8, implicating his half-brother and another individual in gun-dealing activities. The agents gave him $10 on that date to enable him to locate the people from whom he had obtained the gun. On January 14, the defendant brought his wife with him to the agents' office to discuss again activity as an informant. McCulloch gave him $50 at that meeting. On a later date, the defendant took McCulloch to an area of the city where he claimed guns were being sold illegally. He also turned over some additional names of possible firearms violators. The defendant, however, never set up a gun sale for the agents.
The defendant claims that this course of conduct circumstantially supports his testimony that a promise had been made on November 19, 1976. He argues that it is not credible to believe that he just casually volunteered this self- incriminating information. Further, he argues that the agents immediately treated him as an informer when he contacted them because that was in accord with the prior agreement they had made.
Although the agents are essentially in agreement with this account of the conduct which transpired, they deny any November 19 promise to obtain dismissal of anticipated charges in exchange for cooperation. Agent Russell supported this contention by stating that as of the November 19 meeting Raddatz was not even an object of investigation. The purpose of the November 19 meeting was to obtain information about the prior ownership of the gun confiscated from Raddatz on August 8, since that gun had been used in an unsolved homicide. Russell stated that he had met Raddatz on only two occasions, November 19 and January 12. At one point in the hearing he denied that he discussed any possibility of cooperation with the defendant on either date. On cross-examination however, Russell stated that he told the defendant on November 19 that if Raddatz would cooperate in locating Batson, Russell would mention the defendant's cooperation to the United States Attorney in the event a case was brought against him. Russell stated that the request for cooperation was limited to assistance in tracing the ownership of the gun and that Raddatz had not been recruited to act as an informant.
McCulloch also testified that no promise was made to Raddatz on November 19. However, McCulloch's testimony varies from Russell's in several respects. First, McCulloch testified that the purpose of their November 19 visit was to obtain the venue information which they needed to initiate a prosecution against Raddatz. He also specifically testified that the agents sought Raddatz's cooperation as an informant at the January 12 meeting and suggested that Raddatz had been told on November 19 that favorable mention would be made to the United States Attorney if he cooperated. Although the agents concede that Raddatz cooperated by giving them information about the gun used on August 8, no mention of this cooperation was made to the United States Attorney. McCulloch explained that the agents did not speak to the United States Attorney on the defendant's behalf because he never gave the type of cooperation they requested arranging a gun sale.
On the basis of this testimony, the magistrate recommended that the motion to suppress be denied. He specifically stated, "I find the testimony of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents more credible . . . I find that Federal agents never advised Raddatz that charges against him would be dismissed, if he cooperated." The defendant filed objections to the magistrate's recommendation with the district court. After reading the transcript of the motion to suppress and hearing arguments by both parties the district court overruled the objections and adopted the recommendation of the magistrate. The judge did not hear testimony from the witnesses who appeared at the suppression hearing before the magistrate.
The defendant's principal contention on appeal is that his conviction was improper because his motion to suppress was heard before a magistrate and not before the trial court judge. In 1976, Congress amended the United States Magistrates Act to clarify that motions to suppress, as well as a variety of other motions, could be referred to...
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