Thompson v. United States

District of Columbia Court of Appeals·Decided September 5, 2024·No. 20-CO-0294 & 22-CO-0312·Published

Opinion

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS Nos. 20-CO-0294 & 22-CO-0312 MICHAEL THOMPSON, APPELLANT, V.

UNITED STATES, APPELLEE.

Appeal from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (2002-FEL-003708)

(Hon. Russell F. Canan, Trial Judge)

(Hon. Neal E. Kravitz, Motions Judge)

(Submitted March 19, 2024 Decided September 5, 2024)

Jason K. Clark was on the brief for appellant.

Matthew M. Graves, United States Attorney, and Chrisellen R. Kolb, John P.

Mannarino, and Michael E. McGovern, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief for appellee.

Before EASTERLY and SHANKER, Associate Judges, and RUIZ, Senior Judge.

EASTERLY, Associate Judge: In this consolidated appeal, Michael Thompson 1 challenges the Superior Court’s denial of two motions for post-conviction relief

1 In his brief to this court, Mr. Thompson states that his first name is, in fact, Jason, but he has not asked us to recaption the case.

pursuant to D.C. Code § 23-110. We affirm the denial of Mr. Thompson’s first § 23-110 motion and reject his argument, founded on Rule 8 of the Superior Court Rules Governing Proceedings Under D.C. Code § 23-110, that he should have been able to rely on the affidavit he attached to his § 23-110 motion in lieu of testifying at the evidentiary hearing he requested and was granted. We dismiss as moot Mr. Thompson’s appeal of the Superior Court’s denial of his second § 23-110 motion, in which he argued that his counsel was ineffective in seeking a reduced sentence for him under Super. Ct. Crim. R. 35, because he served his sentence of imprisonment before this case was fully briefed and, although he is still on supervised release, that statutory term is unalterable.

I. The First § 23-110 Motion

A. Facts and Procedural History

In 2002, Mr. Thompson was convicted of armed robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon. 2 In August 2017, Mr. Thompson filed his first § 23-110 motion, arguing that his trial counsel provided him ineffective assistance and he “suffered

2 On direct appeal, this court vacated Mr. Thompson’s assault with a dangerous weapon conviction after concluding that it merged with his armed robbery conviction.

several fair trial deprivations.” With respect to the latter, 3 Mr. Thompson argued that he had been “rendered unfit, emotionally and physically, to resume and continue on with his jury trial, . . . due to having been assaulted and beaten by two Deputy United States Marshals . . . at the courthouse, on three separate occasions.” Because “[t]he resulting injuries made him unable to participate in the proceedings in a meaningful, effective manner,” Mr. Thompson asserted that he was deprived of a fair trial and that the trial court should have sua sponte declared a mistrial. 4

Mr. Thompson attached an affidavit to his motion detailing the three times he alleged the U.S. Marshals had beaten him. He stated the beatings had all taken place on the second day of his trial (the first day of testimony), Thursday, September 12, 2002. He asserted that he had been beaten before he came to court midday (the beginning of proceedings were delayed because of his absence in the morning), then again during a midafternoon recess, and then again after court concluded for the day. He acknowledged that he had informed the court of the first two incidents immediately after the fact; he had been seen by a nurse at the courthouse after the

3 Because Mr. Thompson does not challenge the Superior Court’s denial of his ineffective assistance of counsel claims in this appeal, we focus on his due process claim, and the court’s rejection thereof.

4 Mr. Thompson’s motion also stated that “[a] mistrial should have been asked for by defense counsel,” but his post-conviction counsel clarified at the § 23-110 evidentiary hearing that he was not asserting an ineffective assistance of counsel claim with respect to the alleged beatings.

first incident; the court had determined after the first report that he was not visibly injured and did not seem mentally impaired; and the court had determined after the second report that he was not visibly injured, although the court agreed to suspend the examination of witnesses and to recess until the next scheduled trial date. As for the third incident, he alleged that he “was so traumatized and fearful by the [M]arshals’ excessive use of force” and their threat that they would beat him again if he reported his mistreatment that, when trial resumed on September 16, 2002, “he was too afraid to raise his hand and tell [the trial judge]” about it. Mr. Thompson asserted in his motion, but not in his declaration, that his trial counsel, Thomas Heslep, “told him not to mention it.” He further asserted that when trial resumed on September 16, he “still was unfit to participate, meaningfully, in the trial, as [he] continued to suffer, emotionally and physically, from the assaults on [him] from September 12, 2002.”

Mr. Thompson also attached to his first § 23-110 motion the medical records of his visits to the jail infirmary on and after September 12, 2002. The first record, from 9:15 PM on September 12, 2002, documented Mr. Thompson’s complaint that he had been “struck in court today by US Marshals” and that he had a headache, some facial swelling, and “contusions of [the] face and head,” but no broken bones, and that he was experiencing pain around the areas of his injuries. The remainder of the records relevant to this claim documented his visits to the infirmary over

subsequent weeks in which he complained of continued pain, particularly to his neck, as a result of his injuries from September 12.

Mr. Thompson requested a hearing on his motion because, he asserted, the “issues presented cannot be resolved on the record before the [c]ourt.” He asserted that this was “especially true on [his] contention that he was unfit to complete the trial-in-progress, due to the lingering emotional and physical affects from the trauma he suffered on September 12, 2002, when he was assaulted and beaten, on three separate occasions, by two deputy U.S. Marshals at the Courthouse.” But when the Superior Court granted his request for a hearing, Mr. Thompson decided not to attend.

At the start of the hearing, counsel for Mr. Thompson explained to the court that although Mr. Thompson, who had been released on supervision, knew about the hearing, he had, “for personal reasons of his own,” which counsel could not share, “chosen not to appear.” Counsel disavowed a need for a continuance, stating that the reason for Mr. Thompson’s absence “i[s] nothing that I can say, oh, let’s continue this hearing for three days or next week. In other words, that’s not going to cure it.”

The court asked counsel if “Mr. Thompson’s own testimony [was] essential to his claims?” Counsel responded that it was not as to some claims, but as to his claim that he had been beaten, explained,

we do need Mr. Thompson on that, because Mr. Thompson has alleged in this pleading, through me, and in the declaration he filed that the beatings caused him to be so traumatized that he couldn’t effectively participate in the remainder of his jury trial. And one problem with that is that, when [the trial judge] did the Boyd 5 inquiry on two different days, 6 Mr. Thompson never complained about, oh, I’m too traumatized. So I was going to have Mr. Thompson explain why he didn’t bring it up; in other words, he remained silent on that issue.

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