U.S. v. Smith

• Decision Date: 21 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-2247.,06-2247.
• Citation: 511 F.3d 77
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Christopher SMITH, Defendant, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

511 F.3d 77

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Christopher SMITH, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 06-2247.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard September 11, 2007.

Decided December 21, 2007.

Margaret D. McGaughey, Appellate Chief, with whom Paula D. Silsby, United States Attorney, was on brief, for appellee.

J. Gregory Batten, for appellant.

Before LIPEZ, Circuit Judge, SELYA, Senior Circuit Judge, and HOWARD, Circuit Judge.

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Christopher Smith was charged, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6), with having falsely stated on a federal firearms transaction record that he had never been committed to a mental hospital. He sought to suppress the record of his involuntary mental health commitment on the ground that it had been obtained through police records that were protected from disclosure by state law. Additionally, he argued that federal regulations governing records at federally assisted drug abuse treatment programs precluded disclosure of the record of his involuntary commitment.

After his suppression motion was denied, Smith entered a conditional guilty plea, preserving his right to appeal the denial. He now exercises that right and also appeals on the ground that the plea hearing, conducted by the district court pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11, was deficient. We hold that state law was not violated by the disclosures in this case and that the order of commitment is not a record to which the federal regulations governing records at federally assisted drug abuse treatment programs apply. We also find that no error occurred during Smith's Rule 11 hearing. We therefore affirm.

I.

The following facts are undisputed. On April 2, 2005, Smith was involuntarily admitted to Acadia Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Bangor, Maine. This involuntary admission was precipitated by his admission to the intensive care unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center ("EMMC") following a drug overdose. In the application section of an Application for Emergency Involuntary Admission to a Mental Hospital (a "blue paper"),¹ EMMC Nurse Practitioner Donna Huff explained:

I believe Christopher Smith has a mental illness and due to mental illness, poses a likelihood of serious harm on the basis that Mr. Smith has a hx [history] of violent outbursts, threatening others and himself. He is here at EMMC in the ICU s/p [status post] overdose on a variety of medications. The last time he was admitted he fled before he was admitted. He is a flight risk. Therefore requesting Bangor PD.

Dr. Victor Kelmenson completed the certification portion of Smith's blue paper, concluding that he "pose[d] a likelihood of serious harm due to a mental illness because [of] amphetamine overdosed psychosis, hx [history] of suicidal ideation and paranoia, [and] violent outbursts." Later the same day, the Penobscot County Probate Judge completed the judicial review and endorsement section of the blue paper and authorized the Bangor police to transport Smith to Acadia Hospital. Smith was subsequently hospitalized for about two weeks.

Less than four months later, on July 18, 2005, Smith went to Frati the Pawnbrokers, a federally licensed firearms dealer in Bangor, and completed ATF Form 4473 in anticipation of purchasing a gun. Question 12.f on the form asked: "Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective (which includes having been adjudicated incompetent to manage your own affairs) or have you ever been committed to a mental institution?" Smith answered, "No." On July 20, 2005, Erik Tall, a Bangor police detective assigned to an ATF Task Force, reviewed Smith's ATF Form. Tall discovered from computerized records at the Bangor Police Department that Smith had been transported by two officers on April 2. He then obtained a copy of the police report indicating that Smith had been transported from EMMC to Acadia Hospital for involuntary admission.

On July 25, Tall interviewed Smith and his mother, who both confirmed that Smith had been involuntarily committed in April. The government then sought a court order, pursuant to regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA"), 45 C.F.R. § 164.512(f), and Maine law, Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 34-B, § 1207(1)(C), directing Acadia Hospital to turn over a copy of the blue paper authorizing Smith's involuntary admission. A magistrate judge granted this request, and the government received a copy of Smith's blue paper on August 30, 2005, confirming his involuntary admission and the inaccuracy of his answer on the ATF form.

Following his indictment on September 27, 2005 for knowingly making a false statement on the ATF Form, Smith moved to suppress the police reports related to his transportation to Acadia Hospital and the blue paper evidencing his involuntary admission. He argued that the police reports should be suppressed because they were obtained in violation of Maine's law designating "all orders of commitment, medical and administrative records, application and reports, and facts contained in them" as confidential records. Me.Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 34-B, § 1207(1). He contended that the blue paper should be suppressed as a fruit of the illegally obtained police report and as a drug abuse treatment record, designated as confidential under the federal Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. § 290dd-2.²

The same magistrate judge who issued the order directing the hospital to turn over the blue paper recommended that Smith's motion to suppress be denied, and the district court adopted her recommendation. Smith then agreed to enter a conditional guilty plea, preserving his right to appeal on the suppression issue. The district court conducted a plea hearing, described in further detail below, and accepted Smith's plea, sentencing him to fifteen months in prison and three years supervised release. Smith now appeals the denial of his motion to suppress the police report and the blue paper. He also appeals on the ground that the judge conducting his Rule 11 hearing improperly relied on a written document instead of directly and personally addressing him in open court about his understanding of the charge against him.

II.

We review the denial of a motion to suppress under a bifurcated standard: questions of law are reviewed de novo, while findings of fact are reviewed for clear error. United States v. Charles, 213 F.3d 10, 17-18 (1st Cir.2000). The facts underlying the motion to suppress in this case are not in dispute. As a result, our review is de novo.

A. State Law

Smith argues that Tall violated state law, specifically Maine Revised Statutes title 34-B, § 1207, when he reviewed computer records and a police report related to the transportation of Smith from EMMC to Acadia Hospital. Section 1207, located in a chapter governing the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services, provides:

1. GENERALLY. All orders of commitment, medical and administrative records, applications and reports, and facts contained in them, pertaining to any client shall be kept confidential and may not be disclosed by any person, except that:

...

C. Information may be disclosed if ordered by a court of record....

Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 34-B, § 1207(1).³

Smith argues that Tall violated Maine law by improperly obtaining and disclosing to federal prosecutors, without a court order, the police report documenting the Bangor Police Department's transport of Smith to Acadia Hospital. This argument fails because the police report is not a "report ... pertaining to [a] client" covered by § 1207(1). A "client" is defined in this title of the Maine statutes as "a person receiving services from the department [of Behavioral and Developmental Services], from any state institution or from any agency licensed or funded to provide services falling under the jurisdiction of the department." Id. § 1001(2). Given that the Bangor Police Department is not a state agency or institution under this definition, Smith cannot be the police department's client. Thus, the police report is not a "report pertaining to a client." It follows that Tall's acquisition of the police report and his disclosure of it to federal prosecutors was not a violation of state law. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's denial of Smith's motion to suppress the police report. Because the police report was not illegally obtained, we also reject Smith's theory that the blue paper should be suppressed as a fruit of the police report.

B. Federal Law

Smith also argues that the blue paper should be suppressed on federal law grounds. The Public Health Service Act (PHSA) makes certain drug abuse records confidential:

Records of the identity, diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment of any patient which are maintained in connection with the performance of any program or activity relating to substance abuse ... treatment [or] rehabilitation ... which is conducted, regulated, or directly or indirectly assisted by any department or agency of the United States shall ... be confidential and be disclosed only for the purposes and under the circumstances expressly authorized....

42 U.S.C. § 290dd-2. The regulations promulgated pursuant to this statute define "records" to mean "any information, whether recorded or not, relating to a patient received or acquired by a federally assisted alcohol or drug program." 42 C.F.R. § 2.11. A "patient" is defined as "any individual who has applied for or been given diagnosis or treatment for alcohol or drug abuse at a federally assisted program." Id. "Drug abuse" is broadly defined to encompass "the use of a psychoactive substance for other than medicinal purposes which impairs the physical, mental, emotional, or social well-being of the user." Id.

The application and certificate on Smith's blue paper contain diagnoses referencing drug abuse ("[status post] overdose on a variety of medications" and "amphetamine overdosed psychosis") and therefore are,...