The court in United States v. Cartagena, No. 23-1871, affirmed three other convictions against former officer Jose Cartagena arising from the 2014 arrest and beating of 17-year-old Calep Carvajal in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, and the subsequent cover-up. The panel upheld convictions for punching Carvajal in a squad car, filing a false use-of-force report, and lying to a juvenile prosecutor.
Circuit Judge Hamilton, sitting by designation from the Seventh Circuit, wrote that the constitutional error came when the government's medical expert, Dr. Yocasta Brugal, relayed to the jury what Carvajal had told her during a physical examination. Carvajal told Dr. Brugal "that he received a trauma on his head that he identified had been produced by the butt of a revolver." Carvajal never testified at trial because the government was unable to locate him.
The government argued the statement was not offered for its truth but merely to show the basis for Dr. Brugal's expert opinion. The court rejected that argument, holding that the statement "could have helped the jury evaluate Dr. Brugal's opinions only if it were true." The court wrote that the government's reliance on Federal Rule of Evidence 703 "defeats itself."
The panel found the error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt as to Count 1, the pistol-whipping charge. The court noted that Dr. Brugal "was easily the most trustworthy witness who testified against Cartagena" on that count. The government's other witnesses had credibility problems. Co-defendant Shylene Lopez, who testified she saw Cartagena strike Carvajal, was cooperating with the government while facing ten years to life on unrelated charges for stealing drugs and money from criminal suspects.
FBI Agent Brian Doyle, who testified that Cartagena confessed during interviews, was relying on his memory of conversations from six years before trial and on FBI interview reports that the court noted "are not intended to be verbatim recitations of the interviewee's statements." None of the interviews were recorded. Doyle also performed an in-court reenactment of Cartagena's demonstration of the arrest, which the court described as "like something out of Shakespeare" -- with Doyle playing Cartagena while an FBI analyst played Doyle, who had originally played Carvajal.
The government's own closing argument underscored the significance of the error. Prosecutors told jurors that Dr. Brugal was the "one witness" whose credibility the defense "did not call into question" and that Carvajal's statement to her -- "I was hit in the head with a gun" -- was "huge."
The underlying incident involved four officers in a Carolina precinct drug unit who encountered two young men on the side of a road in November 2014. When the youths fled, Officer Carlos Nieves shot Carvajal in the back. Cartagena then tackled Carvajal and, according to trial testimony, pistol-whipped him. The officers continued to assault Carvajal in a squad car and at the police station. Cartagena wrote a false use-of-force report attributing Carvajal's injuries to a bicycle fall and told a juvenile prosecutor that Carvajal might falsely claim the officers assaulted him. Three co-defendant officers reached plea agreements. Cartagena was convicted on all counts and sentenced to concurrent 84-month prison terms.
On the sufficiency of the evidence, the court found Cartagena had forfeited his challenge by failing to renew his motion for acquittal after the verdicts, limiting review to the "clear or gross injustice" standard. The court rejected his arguments on the merits, including his claim that he acted under duress from fellow officers, noting the jury was entitled to reject that defense given that Cartagena is "five feet, ten inches tall, weighs 255 pounds, bench presses 520 pounds, and is trained in the use of firearms."
The case was remanded for further proceedings on Count 1.