U.S. v. Stanfield

• Decision Date: 19 March 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-3104.,03-3104.
• Citation: 360 F.3d 1346
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. David Christian STANFIELD, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

360 F.3d 1346

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. David Christian STANFIELD, Appellant.

No. 03-3104.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued February 9, 2004.

Decided March 19, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 01cr00239-01).

Cheryl D. Stein, appointed by the court, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant.

Arthur B. Spitzer was on the brief for amicus curiae American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area in support of appellant.

David B. Goodhand, Assistant U.S. Attorney, argued the cause for appellee. With him on the brief were Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., U.S. Attorney, and John R. Fisher, Roy W. McLeese III, and Jay I. Bratt, Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Suzanne G. Curt, Assistant U.S. Attorney, entered an appearance.

Before: EDWARDS, GARLAND, and ROBERTS, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge ROBERTS.

ROBERTS, Circuit Judge:

David Christian Stanfield appeals from the district court's revocation of his probation and imposition of a special condition of supervised release limiting his use of the internet. He argues that the probation revocation hearing was tainted by vindictiveness on the part of the district court and by several procedural violations, including a ruling that certain documents were not producible to the defense under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 26.2, a failure to provide adequate time for defense counsel to review the documents that were produced at the hearing, and a time limitation on the cross-examination of a government witness. Stanfield further contends that the internet restriction is so broad and vague that it contravenes both the First Amendment and relevant statutory guidelines. We find that most of these claims lack merit, but remand to the district court for clarification of the internet restriction and a more considered determination of whether the documents held not to be producible should in fact have been produced.

I.

Stanfield was sentenced to five years probation in December 2002, following a plea of guilty to charges of identity theft, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, and transferral of a false identification document in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The district court imposed a set of standard conditions of probation, including requirements that Stanfield work regularly and notify his probation officer at least ten days prior to any change in employment status. In addition to the standard conditions, the court imposed a number of special conditions: Stanfield was required to participate in a mental health evaluation and obtain mental health treatment, required to submit to periodic drug testing, prohibited from working at a job affording access to customer information such as social security numbers and birth dates, and barred from using the internet "in any way, shape, or form until further order of the Court." The latter two conditions were a response to Stanfield's history of identity theft, although it was conceded that he had not used the internet in the commission of those crimes.

In imposing the five-year probation term, the district court departed downward from the sentence that Stanfield faced under the Sentencing Guidelines — a prison term of fiftyseven to seventy-one months. The significant downward departure was an acknowledgment of Stanfield's substantial assistance in the investigation of the drug conspiracy in which he had been involved. At the sentencing hearing, however, the court warned Stanfield that it would carefully monitor his compliance with the terms of his probation: "[A]ny problems at all and I will hold you accountable, and if I find that you are at fault, I will revoke your probation and impose a period of incarceration. You are so warned." Sentencing Hr'g (Dec. 17, 2002), quoted in Violation Sentencing Hr'g Tr. (Aug. 25, 2003), at 13 (Sentencing Tr.).

In April 2003, the district court became aware that Stanfield had apparently been using the internet in violation of the conditions of his probation — specifically by posting on a website poetry and e-mail addresses through which he could be reached. See Letter from Edward Shaw, U.S. Probation Officer, to Stanfield (Apr. 14, 2003). The court alerted the probation office, which wrote Stanfield that "the court directs you to remove the website and to cancel the e-mail addresses." Id. On April 23, Stanfield filed a motion for clarification of the internet restriction; two days later, the district court ordered that a previously scheduled probation progress hearing be converted to a hearing on violation and asked the probation office to prepare a violation report.

In the probation office's report and at the hearing, held on May 15, 2003, evidence emerged that Stanfield's compliance with the terms of his probation had been mixed. With respect to the employment condition, the record showed that he had worked for only one full day since the December 2002 sentencing. Apparently chafing at the limited range of jobs available to him under the terms of his probation, he had told both his probation officer and a mental health counselor that he refused to take a job "flipping burgers." See Tr. of Hr'g on Violation (May 15, 2003), at 25, 61 (HOV Tr.); Mem. from Sharon Davis, Frayser Family Counseling Center, to Shaw (Apr. 28, 2003), at 2 (Davis Memo).¹ Probation Officer Edward Shaw later testified that Stanfield had applied to only a few of the approximately twenty employment agencies in the Memphis, Tennessee area where Stanfield had been permitted to serve his probation. See HOV Tr. at 25, 61-62. Shaw also testified that Stanfield had violated one of the conditions of his probation by failing to tell Shaw in advance about a one-day temporary job that he took in February 2003. Id. at 24. The evidence on Stanfield's efforts to gain employment was not entirely negative, however: a number of faxes and logs showed that he had been searching for work, see id. at 63-65, and Shaw testified that on two occasions Stanfield received offers for substitute teaching jobs that were later revoked when the employers learned that Stanfield was on probation, id. at 24.

Other evidence at the hearing related to Stanfield's compliance with his obligation to receive mental health counseling. Under a treatment plan dated February 26, 2003, which Stanfield had signed, he was obligated to attend weekly group therapy sessions at the Frayser Family Counseling Center and biweekly intensive therapy sessions one-on-one with Sharon Davis, a counselor at the center. No staff members from the center testified at the hearing; although the court had issued a subpoena (at Stanfield's request) for the testimony of Seth McCaskill, a counselor who led the group therapy sessions, McCaskill received the subpoena just one day before the hearing and was unable to travel from Memphis on such short notice. HOV Tr. at 2-3. The evidence on Stanfield's compliance with this condition thus came primarily from Probation Officer Shaw, who testified about information he received from Davis. Over the defense's objection on double-hearsay grounds, Shaw testified that Davis had told him what McCaskill had told her about Stanfield's allegedly disruptive behavior at one of the group therapy sessions. Id. at 14-16. Shaw then stated that Davis had notified him on April 21, 2003 that Stanfield "had not yet ever presented himself to her" for the biweekly individual counseling sessions. Id. at 16. Later that day, Stanfield went to the center and met with Davis. According to Davis's account of the meeting, Stanfield became "defensive" when reminded of his obligation to meet with her for individual sessions, and "began escalating" to the point where she ended the discussion and asked him to leave. Letter from Davis to Shaw (Apr. 22, 2003). One week later, Davis sent a memorandum to Shaw with a more detailed description of what had transpired during the meeting, stating that "[t]he more I attempted to advise Mr. Stanfield [about] his requirements of treatment, the more verbally defiant he became." Davis Memo at 2. The memorandum formally notified Shaw that Stanfield's treatment at the center had been terminated. Id. at 3.

The final subject of testimony at the hearing was Stanfield's obligation to submit to random drug testing. Shaw testified that Stanfield failed to appear for a drug test on March 13, 2003 — apparently because Stanfield did not call the probation office as required each evening to hear a recording with instructions on whether a drug test would be held the next day. See HOV Tr. at 9-11, 41-42; Letter from Shaw to Stanfield (Feb. 24, 2003) (instructions for drug screening). On the morning of March 14, Shaw explained, Stanfield called in dismay at having missed the drug screen the previous day; he came in later on the 14th and tested negative for illegal drugs. HOV Tr. at 11.

At the end of Shaw's direct testimony, Stanfield's counsel moved for production of his statements pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 26.2, which is analogous to the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500, see FED.R.CRIM.P. 26.2 Advisory Committee note (1979) (Rule "place[s] in the criminal rules the substance of" the Jencks Act). Rule 26.2(a) provides that after a witness has testified, the opposing party may move the court to order the party who called the witness to turn over "any statement of the witness that is in their possession and that relates to the subject matter of the witness's testimony." Shaw gave to Stanfield's counsel what she described at the time as "a very thick stack of papers," HOV Tr. at 31, and later described as "a stack of paper between one and two inches high," Appellant Br. at 22. Stanfield's counsel (assisted by co-counsel) was then given a total of nine minutes to review the papers. HOV Tr. at 31-32. At the end of that time, counsel stated that she "ha[d] not...