United States v. Smith

After defendant physically assaulted his ex-girlfriend while serving a 60-month term of supervised release, an assistant public defender represented defendant in the resulting revocation proceeding. Defendant asked to continue the hearing so that he could obtain private counsel, but the district court denied the request. The district court believed that defendant's request was merely a delay tactic. The court concluded that, even if defendant has a right to counsel of choice at a revocation hearing, the district court did not clearly abuse its discretion by denying defendant's motion to continue. In this case, defendant moved to continue his revocation hearing on the morning of the proceeding, defendant had not yet retained new counsel, the Government was ready to proceed, and three witnesses were present to testify, including the victim, who had to be subpoenaed and can be seen in the video footage of the assault to be fearful of defendant. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Smith" on Justia Law