United States v. Velazquez, No. 14-10311 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit vacated convictions related to defendant's guilty plea on the ground that she was constructively denied her right to counsel when the district court denied her motions to substitute counsel without conducting an adequate inquiry. In this case, defendant did everything in her power to alert the district court to her belief that she was receiving inadequate assistance of counsel; the record reflected serious breakdowns in communicaiton and trust; defendant filed her motions promptly; and even if her motions could be considered untimely; the district court's failure to conduct an adequate inquiry and the extent of the conflict outweigh any untimeliness. The Ninth Circuit concluded that there was a substantial risk that defendant agreed that she was satisfied with her attorney's performance because the magistrate judge pressured her to accept the plea and she knew that she had to make that statement to enter the plea.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel vacated the defendant’s convictions that resulted from her guilty plea, and remanded for further proceedings, in a case in which the defendant argued that she was constructively denied her right to counsel. The panel held that the district court abused its discretion by denying the defendant’s requests to substitute counsel without conducting an adequate inquiry. The panel observed that (1) the defendant did everything in her power to alert the court to her belief that she was receiving inadequate assistance of counsel, and the district court never conducted any meaningful inquiry into her concerns about her counsel or their relationship; (2) the record reflects serious breakdowns in communication and trust; (3) the defendant’s two motions to substitute counsel, and three attempts to argue that her attorney had not advised her on the plea, were all made in advance of her plea deadline and more than a month before trial; and (4) even if her motions could be considered untimely, the court’s failure to conduct an adequate inquiry and the extent of the conflict outweigh any untimeliness. Rejecting the government’s argument that any concerns the defendant had about her counsel were remedied by meetings she had with him, the panel wrote that there is a substantial risk that the defendant agreed that she was
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