Garcia v. Hepp

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s habeas petition that challenged his conviction on bank robbery charges, where defendant asserted that state prosecutors denied him his Sixth Amendment right to counsel, where: (1) police officers placed defendant in lineup hours after court commissioner found existence probable cause for his arrest, set bail and filled out “CR-215 form;” (2) defendant did not have counsel at lineup; (3) state prosecutors did not file criminal complaint against defendant until three days after lineup; and (4) state prosecutors used ensuing eye-witness identification of defendant at lineup in his trial. While Wisconsin Court of Appeals found that defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel had not attached at time of lineup because defendant was not present at probable cause hearing, Ct. of Appeals found that defendant’s right to counsel had attached by time of lineup because said hearing represented start of adversarial proceedings against defendant, and because at time of hearing there were indicators of government’s commitment to prosecute defendant, where county commissioner appeared in court and filled out CR-215 form, which contained probable cause statement submitted by police, judicial determination of same and setting of bail amount. Fact that defendant was not present at probable cause hearing was irrelevant. (Dissent filed.)