U.S. v. Schronce
| Decision Date | 21 May 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-5089,83-5089 |
| Citation | 727 F.2d 91 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Edward Lester SCHRONCE, Jr., Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
William R. Vassar, Charlotte, N.C., for appellant.
Kenneth P. Andresen, Chief Asst. U.S. Atty., Charlotte, N.C. (Charles R. Brewer, U.S. Atty., Asheville, N.C., on brief), for appellee.
Before MURNAGHAN, SPROUSE and CHAPMAN, Circuit Judges.
Edward Lester Schronce appeals from his conviction for unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm and unlawful possession of an illegally manufactured firearm in violation of 26 U.S.C. Sec. 5861(c) and (d) (1976). The firearm was an automatic rifle that had been converted from a semi-automatic rifle. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced by the court to a single term of three years' imprisonment (suspended), fined $3,000.00, and placed on three years' probation.
Schronce contends that evidence used against him at trial should have been suppressed because it was seized without a warrant in violation of the fourth amendment. He also claims that the district court abused its discretion (1) by admitting unauthenticated evidence, contrary to Rule 901(a) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, and (2) by allowing the government to present evidence that was irrelevant or, if relevant, was cumulative and prejudicial, in violation of Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. We find no merit in the evidentiary issues Schronce presents and hold that he is precluded from raising the fourth amendment issue because of his failure to object to the magistrate's report recommending that his motion to suppress be denied. Schronce's fourth amendment claim appears meritless, but because his failure to file written objections is dispositive, we discuss only that issue.
On Saturday, May 23, 1981, the Gaston County Police Department had established a traffic checkpoint on Pine Street, Gastonia, North Carolina, after receiving complaints from area residents about reckless driving and sporadic shooting in the neighborhood. Early that morning, Detective Patrick Ramsey of the Gastonia County police force stopped a Pinto automobile there for a routine registration and license check. Schronce was a passenger in the Pinto. As the driver searched for her vehicle registration and driver's license, Detective Ramsey shone his flashlight into the back seat where he spotted a .45 caliber pistol and the barrel of what appeared to him, based on his experience with high-powered weaponry, 1 to be an AR-15 rifle protruding from underneath a jacket. Both weapons were in reach of Schronce, who was turned slightly sideways in the passenger seat towards the driver. Ramsey asked the driver to get out of the car and told her that he was going to take the weapons from the back seat to ensure his own safety and that of the five other officers in the vicinity. Once he had the AR-15 in hand, he observed that it appeared to have been altered to fire automatically. A functional check by the officer confirmed his suspicion--the rifle indeed had been converted from a semi-automatic to an automatic weapon. At this juncture, Schronce told Detective Ramsey that the AR-15 was his. Ramsey asked Schronce if there were any other weapons in the automobile; Schronce responded that he had a pistol in the glove compartment. Ramsey removed the pistol and arrested Schronce for carrying a concealed weapon. The issues on appeal relate only to his conviction for possession of the AR-15.
Before trial, Schronce filed a motion to suppress the AR-15 seized in the May 23, 1981 encounter at the traffic checkpoint. The district court referred the motion to a magistrate, who conducted an evidentiary hearing on March 11, 1983. At the hearing, Schronce challenged the seizure of the AR-15, arguing that it was not justified under either the "plain view" doctrine or the "exigent circumstances" exception to the fourth amendment's warrant requirement. The magistrate found that Ramsey seized the AR-15 out of a legitimate concern for his own safety and that of his fellow officers, and, having lawful custody of the weapon, had a right to examine it. In her written report to the district court, dated March 17, 1983, the magistrate made proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, and recommended that the motion to suppress be denied. She advised the parties that they had ten days to file written objections to the proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. Schronce did not file any objections and in an order dated April 5, 1983, the district court found "[a]fter a careful review of the magistrate's Recommendation ... that the proposed findings of fact are supported by the record and that the proposed conclusions of law are consistent with current case law." Accordingly, the district court adopted the magistrate's recommendation and denied the motion to suppress.
The government's principal response to Schronce's fourth amendment argument is that the defendant is barred from challenging the magistrate's findings of fact and recommendations as approved by the district court, because he failed to file written objections within the ten-day period allotted by both the magistrate's written recommendation and the relevant statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1).
Section 636(b)(1) of the Federal Magistrates Act 2 grants the district court authority to refer pre-trial matters, such as a motion to suppress, to a federal magistrate:
(A) [A] judge may designate a magistrate to hear and determine any pretrial matter pending before the court, except a motion for injunctive relief, for judgment on the pleadings, for summary judgment, to dismiss or quash an indictment or information made by the defendant, to suppress evidence in a criminal case, to dismiss or to permit maintenance of a class action, to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and to involuntarily dismiss an action. A judge of the court may reconsider any pretrial matter under this subparagraph (A) where it has been shown that the magistrate's order is clearly erroneous or contrary to law.
(B) [A] judge may also designate a magistrate to conduct hearings, including evidentiary hearings, and to submit to a judge of the court proposed findings of fact, and recommendations for the disposition, by a judge of the court, of any motion excepted in subparagraph (A), of applications for posttrial relief made by individuals convicted of criminal offenses and of prisoner petitions challenging conditions of confinement.
(C) [T]he magistrate shall file his proposed findings and recommendations under subparagraph (B) with the court and a copy shall forthwith be mailed to all parties.
Within ten days after being served with a copy, any party may serve and file written objections to such proposed findings and recommendations as provided by rules of court. A judge of the court shall make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made. A judge of the court may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate. The judge may also receive further evidence or recommit the matter to the magistrate with instructions.
The legislative history of the Federal Magistrates Act reveals that Congress intended to give magistrates a significant role in the federal judicial system. The Act's main purpose, as stated explicitly in the committee reports, was to relieve district courts of specified judicial chores that could be separated from their article III 3 responsibilities, in order to reduce increasingly unmanageable case loads. See Nettles v. Wainwright, 677 F.2d 404 (5th Cir.1982) (en banc) (Unit B). Neither the legislative history of the Act nor Sec. 636(b)(1) itself, however, specifically addresses the potential consequences a party will suffer if he fails to file the written objections authorized by the last paragraph of that subsection. We do not believe, though, that the Act can be interpreted to permit a party such as Schronce, to ignore his right to file objections...
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