United States v. Cartagena

── United States v. Cartagena ── Court: Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Date: April 15, 2026 Category: General United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 23-1871 UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. JOSÉ CARTAGENA, t/n José Ruben Cartagena-Rodríguez, Defendant, Appellant. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO [Hon. Pedro A. Delgado-Hernández, U.S. District Judge] Before Aframe, Hamilton,* and Thompson, Circuit Judges. Luis Rafael Rivera-Rodriguez, with whom Luis Rafael Rivera Law Offices, was on brief, for appellant. Harmeet K. Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General, with whom W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney, Jesus A. Osete, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and Jason S. Lee and Brant S. Levin, Appellate Attorneys, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, were on brief, for appellee. * Of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, sitting by designation. April 15, 2026 - 2 -  HAMILTON, Circuit Judge. Four police officers brutalized a teenage boy during and after an arrest. Then they covered it up. Federal prosecutors brought civil rights and obstruction charges, securing guilty pleas from three officers. A jury convicted the fourth, Defendant José Cartagena, on all counts. At trial, however, the Government introduced into evidence a hearsay statement from the victim, who was never available to the defense for cross-examination, contrary to the defendant's rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. We vacate his conviction on the one count for which that statement was important to the Government's case. We affirm the other convictions as supported by sufficient evidence and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND We relate the facts in the light most favorable to the verdicts. United States v. Buoi, 84 F.4th 31, 34 (1st Cir. 2023). Because there are as many variations on the story as there were people telling it, if not more, we try to avoid extraneous details. In November 2014, Defendant Cartegena was an officer in a police drug unit. He was on patrol in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, with fellow officers in the Carolina precinct's drug unit, Jimmy Davis, Carlos Nieves, and Shylene Lopez. The officers encountered two young men on the side of the road. Suspicious that a drug deal was occurring, the officers tried to confront them. The - 3 - youths fled, one on foot and the other, 17-year-old Calep Carvajal, on a bicycle. Nieves shot Carvajal in the back. Cartagena gave chase on foot, caught up to Carvajal, tackled him to the ground, and handcuffed him. Count 1 of the indictment charged that Cartagena violated 18 U.S.C. § 242 in the arrest by using unlawful force in violation of the Fourth Amendment by pistol-whipping Carvajal in the back of the head while he lay on the ground, unarmed and not resisting. The assaults continued as the officers put Carvajal in the squad car, with his hands cuffed behind his back, to take him to a police station. When Carvajal leaned forward to avoid "smacks and hits" coming from Lopez and Nieves, who were seated beside him, Cartagena turned around from the front passenger seat and, as charged in Count 2 of the indictment, also under § 242, twice struck Carvajal hard in the face. After arriving at the station, Davis and Lopez took Carvajal into an office where he was beaten some more. Meanwhile, Cartagena and Nieves discussed how to cover up what they had done. Each wanted the other