Criminal Law

In prosecution on unlawful possession of firearms charge, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress firearm seized from defendant's person during traffic stop in which defendant was passenger in said vehicle. Officer had reasonable suspicion to believe that defendant was armed, and that his frisk was necessary to assure officer's safety where: (1) instant stop took place late at night in high crime area; (2) defendant failed to give officer identification card and gave age that was at variance with stated birth date; and (3) defendant initially refused to answer officer's question as to whether defendant had guns or drugs in his possession. Fact that arresting officer testified that he was going to search defendant before directing him to exit vehicle was irrelevant. Dissenting justice argued that instant decision gives arresting officers free will to search anyone stopped in high crime area.

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant's habeas petition challenging his murder conviction on grounds that trial judge held bias against defendant arising out of undisclosed personal relationship that trial judge had with relative of murder victim. Defendant failed to establish any actual bias where trial judge testified that, although he was acquainted with another trial court judge, who was uncle of murder victim, he was unaware at time of defendant's trial that said trial court judge was relative of murder victim. Moreover, Ct. rejected defendant's claim that due process required that he receive new trial in absence of any possibility of actual bias on part of trial judge where reasonable outside observer might have thought that said trial judge held bias against defendant because of potential relationship with relative of crime victim.

In prosecution on charges of production, possession and receipt of child pornography, Dist. Ct. erred in admitting evidence of defendant's prior sexual abuse conviction involving minor even though Dist. Ct. found that said evidence was admissible under Rule 413. Rule 413 did not apply since defendant had not been charged with offense of sexual assault in instant indictment, and govt. did not otherwise establish that said evidence was admissible under Rule 404(b) on issue of defendant's motive. However, any error was harmless where other evidence (i.e., images of child pornography that were found in computers either owned by defendant or accessible only by defendant) overwhelmingly established defendant's guilt.

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant's habeas petition challenging his sexual assault conviction on ground that trial court erroneously admitted at defendant's second trial transcript of alleged victim's testimony from first trial after trial court had found that said witness was unavailable in light of prosecutor's unsuccessful attempts at locating her. While prosecutor made minimal efforts to locate witness by contacting her parents and ex-boyfriend, prosecutor did not follow up on other leads and failed to subpoena said witness under circumstances where prosecutor knew that said witness had expressed reluctance to testify.

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 210-month term of incarceration on charge of receipt of child pornography even though defendant argued that Dist. Ct. did not properly consider section 3553(a) factors when imposing said sentence. Dist. Ct. explicitly mentioned factors such as seriousness of offense, extent of defendant's possession of pornography, need for deterrence in light of defendant's diagnosis as pedophile with continuing urges, as well as need to protect public and need for sex offender treatment. Moreover, instant sentence was within applicable guidelines, and defendant failed to overcome resulting presumption that said sentence was reasonable.