Appeals court overturns drug conviction, criticizes judge

HELENA (AP) — A federal appeals court has overturned a pair of drug convictions and a 30-year prison sentence for a Minot, North Dakota man, ruling a federal judge in Montana made critical mistakes.

The three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon erred in rejecting a plea agreement and did not allow defendant Lloyd Nickle to cross examine co-defendants about plea agreements that could have meant reduced sentences for them.

The panel remanded Nickle’s case to a judge other than Haddon.

The circuit judges found Haddon erred in rejecting the plea agreement after finding Nickle would not, in his own words, describe his role in a drug conspiracy.

Nickle had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute involving 50 grams of the drug. In exchange, prosecutors would recommend he be sentenced on the low end of the federal guidelines of between five and 40 years.

“He admitted to all of the elements of the offense for purposes of taking the guilty plea,” defense attorney Palmer Hoovestal said during oral arguments on the case in Seattle in October 2015. Hoovestal added that he thought Nickle was reserving his right to contest the amount of drugs he would be held responsible for at sentencing.

Still Haddon said he wanted to hear the information from Nickle himself.

“That is not the law,” appeals court judge Alex Kozinski said during oral arguments. “That’s the district judge making it up as he goes along.”

The District Court’s error made Nickle significantly worse off, the panel wrote.

Nickle was convicted in June 2014 of conspiracy to possess and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine — convictions that carried sentences of 10 years to life. He has been in prison since his conviction, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Because Nickle may want to seek a re-trial, the judges also addressed his inability to question his co-defendants about their plea agreements — an issue the appeals court noted it had already addressed in 2013, in a prior case before Haddon.

“Undaunted ... the district judge this time didn’t merely shut down defense counsel’s valid efforts to vindicate his client’s right to confrontation, he threatened sanctions, saying: ‘Your effort to inject this issue into the case is ... entirely inappropriate, borders on being reprehensible, and I am cautioning you not to repeat it in this courtroom again,’” the judges wrote.

During oral arguments, Justice William Fletcher asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lahr why he didn’t challenge Haddon’s ruling disallowing defense questions about the plea agreements, adding, “You know darn well that the district judge just made a mistake.”

“Why didn’t you stand up, or one of your team stand up and say, ‘Your honor, I think this cross examination should be allowed,’” Fletcher asked.

Lahr said he was concerned that he might “be next placed in the line of fire.”

Nickle was arrested as part of Project Safe Bakken, an effort to reduce drug trafficking in the oil patches of North Dakota and eastern Montana.