United States v. William Lewis Hall

We must decide whether the Sixth Amendment right to confront testimonial witnesses established in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 , 124 S.Ct. 1354 , 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), applies to the admission of hearsay evidence during revocation of supervised release proceedings.

Factual Background

William Lewis Hall was on supervised release when, on October 26, 2003, Hall’s probation officer, Janet Bergland, picked up a voice mail message from Susan Hawkins reporting that Hall had been drunk and had beaten her up the night before. Hawkins had attempted to file a police report, but the police had been preoccupied fighting forest fires in the area at the time. Hawkins intended to go to the police department that day to file the police report. The message also indicated that Hawkins had gone to a domestic violence shelter, which, in turn, had sent her to St. Vincent de Paul’s homeless shelter. As was her practice, and pursuant to office policy, Officer Bergland memorialized the voice mail message in her official chronological record of activities in Hall’s case.

Also on October 26, Hawkins sought treatment at University of California San Diego (“UCSD”) Medical Center for multiple…