United States v. Marcus Robert Castaneda

ON FINAL REPORT

This report will assume one’s familiarity with my interim report filed herein on December 5, 1977, 9 Cir., 571 F.2d 444 .

The hearing on the conduct of the attorneys in the case was resumed in open court on December 9 and concluded that day.

I now find one overriding factor which greatly influences my conclusions. It is this: I see no inconsistency in the denial by Judge A of the government’s petition for a stay on the morning of October 7, 1977, and the granting by Judge B of a stay order on the government’s amended petition on October 11, after a hearing on October 10, a holiday. Thus, assuming Judge B was misled as to one fact (which if he was misled, I find inadvertent) it did no harm.

Although Judge A on October 7 gave no reasons (simply “Denied”), I would have denied the petition on the ground that the threat of a jail door or other sanction in the nature of contempt was yet too remote. On the other hand, when the expanded petition was presented to Judge B on October 10, an “order to show cause re: contempt” had been filed as of 5:01 p.m. October 7, with hearing set for the afternoon of October 11. By this time, the judge in Courtroom 10 was proceeding…