Sentencing – Supervised Release

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Eugene Falls

Case No.: 19-3050

Officials: FLAUM, HAMILTON and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing – Supervised Release

Eugene Falls appeals the revocation of his supervised release. He argues that the district court erred during his revocation hearing by not conducting an explicit “interest of justice” analysis under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.1(b)(2)(C) before admitting an audio recording of an interview during which he confessed to the violation in question.

We held in United States v. Jordan that when a district court is deciding whether to admit hearsay at a revocation hearing, it must explicitly conduct an interest-of-justice analysis under Rule 32.1(b)(2)(C) by balancing the defendant’s interest in confrontation against the government’s stated reasons for not making the declarant available for cross-examination. 742 F.3d 276, 280 (7th Cir. 2014). Jordan does not apply here, however, because the probative statements in the audio recording were Falls’s own non-hearsay statements.

Falls suggests that we should nevertheless extend Jordan to require an explicit application of Rule 32.1(b)(2)(C)’s interest-of-justice balancing test given his interest in questioning his interviewing officer about the nature and circumstances of his interview. Falls has not shown, however, that his interviewing officer was an “adverse witness” that Rule 32.1(b)(2)(C) entitled him to question subject to an interest-of justice determination. Accordingly, we affirm.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.