Witness's Grand Jury Testimony Admissible Despite Crawford Where Defendant Caused Witness's Absence

U.S. v. Montague, 2005 WL 1666109 (7/18/05)(decided earlier and only recently ordered published) - Grand jury testimony by the defendant's wife was admissible under Crawford because there was sufficient evidence to show the defendant intimidated her to exercise her marital privilege to refuse to testify against him. Evidence showed she visited the defendant a number of times, despite a court order prohibiting the defendant's contact with her, there had been prior physical abuse and their children indicated she was afraid of the defendant. It was okay to reach the court's conclusion without asking the wife why she didn't want to testify because she had a right to invoke her privilege not to answer that question. A defendant improperly procuring the absence of a witness creates an exception to Crawford. The case was remanded for resentencing because, over objection, the court unconstitutionally enhanced the sentence based on a judicial obstruction of justice finding.