Anderson, Rodney Young

Court of Appeals of Texas

Anderson, Rodney Young

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided June 11, 2015·No. WR-82,828-01·Published

Opinion

WR-82,828-01 COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS Transmitted 6/11/2015 11:16:22 AM Accepted 6/11/2015 1:44:28 PM ABEL ACOSTA NO. WR-82,828-01 CLERK IN THE TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS RECEIVED AT AUSTIN, TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS 6/11/2015 ABEL ACOSTA, CLERK

EX PARTE RODNEY YOUNG ANDERSON, Applicant

STATE’S RESPONSE TO APPLICANT’S “MOTION TO EXTEND TIME TO CONTINUE WRIT HEARING AND COMPLY WITH ORDER ISSUED ON MARCH 25, 2015”

TO THE HONORABLE JUDGES OF THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS:

COMES NOW the State of Texas, by the undersigned assistant district

attorney, and respectfully moves the Court to deny the applicant’s motion to extend

the time limits for compliance with the Court’s order of March 25, 2015, on

grounds that the applicant has embarked upon a monumental fishing expedition

and squandered his opportunity to elicit evidence regarding the specific issues

designated by this Court for resolution. The State would respectfully show the

Court the following: I.

The applicant intends to serially amend his application for a writ of habeas

corpus in order to prolong these proceedings until he can find a ground for relief

that is not frivolous.

The applicant filed his original application on November 4, 2014, and the

trial court signed findings of fact and conclusions of law and recommended that

relief be denied on November 26, 2014. Before this Court had an opportunity to

rule on the original application, the applicant filed his first amended writ

application on January 23, 2015, asserting what appear to be objectively frivolous

claims of failure to disclose exculpatory evidence, and thereby requiring a remand

to the trial court for resolution of the newly raised issues.

This Court issued an order on March 25, 2015, remanding the case to the

district court for resolution of two specific claims of Brady violations. The order

also included an ambiguous statement that the “trial court shall also make findings

of fact regarding whether the prosecutor improperly suppressed evidence in this

cause.”

Upon remand, the applicant issued a vast quantity of subpoenas duces tecum

to every law enforcement agency tangentially involved in the case, including the

United States Department of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the

2 Conroe Independent School District police department. Copies of some of those

subpoenas are attached as exhibits A through F.

The State moved to quash the subpoena duces tecum issued to the

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, which listed seventeen different categories

of information to be produced, on grounds that the subpoena was unduly

burdensome and called for production of a vast quantity of information that could

not possibly be material to the specific issues designated by this Court for

resolution. In arguing that the motion to quash should be overruled, the applicant

asserted a right to determine whether the government improperly suppressed any

evidence relating to the case, under the terms of this Court’s remand order, and

stated the applicant was entitled to amend his writ application again at any time

prior to this Court’s ruling on the amended application.

II.

The trial court conducted a lengthy evidentiary hearing in this case on May

27, 2015. The applicant called as a witness his former trial counsel, Mr. Chris-

topher Tritico, who had not been provided with access to his file for the case and

ultimately conceded that he lacked any independent recollection of whether he

enjoyed pretrial access to any particular witness statements or police offense report

supplements.

3 Although the applicant’s other trial counsel, Ms. Andrea Kolski, was present

for the hearing and waited hours to testify, the applicant chose not to call her as a

witness and instead elicited testimony from various business records custodians

and civilian eyewitnesses who lacked any knowledge of the pretrial discovery

conducted by the applicant. The applicant thus squandered the time made avail-

able to him by the district court in order to commence a generalized inquest into

the validity of the judgment of conviction, on the stated premise that an article

11.07 writ application can be amended at any time prior to a ruling by this Court.

III.

Counsel for the applicant has not made a diligent effort to address the

specific issues designated by this Court for resolution in its order of March 25,

2015, and further expansion of the time permitted to conduct his global inquest

into the validity of the judgment of conviction is not appropriate.

4 THEREFORE, the State respectfully requests that the Court deny the

applicant’s motion for extension of the time limits set out in its order of March 25,

2015. In the alternative, the State requests that the Court clarify its order of March

25, 2015, with regard to whether the district court is required to permit a general-

ized investigation of whether any law enforcement agency failed to disclose any

exculpatory evidence to the applicant at the time of trial.

Respectfully submitted,

BRETT W. LIGON District Attorney Montgomery County, Texas

/s/ William J. Delmore III WILLIAM J. DELMORE III Assistant District Attorney Montgomery County, Texas S.B.T. No. 05732400 207 W. Phillips, Second Floor Conroe, Texas 77301 (936) 539-7800 E-mail: bill.delmore@mctx.org

5 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that a true and correct copy of the foregoing response is

being served by electronic mail upon counsel for the applicant on the date of the

submission of the original to the Clerk of this Court.

/s/ William J. Delmore III WILLIAM J. DELMORE III Assistant District Attorney Montgomery County, Texas APPENDIX A 12 THE SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM STATE OF TEXAS VS. RODNEY YOUNG ANDERSON Cause No. 09-07-07255-CR TO ANY PEACE OFFICER OF THE STATE OF TEXAS, OR ANY PERSON AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD AND NOT A PARTICIPANT IN THE PROCEEDINGS - GREETING: YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED TO SUMMON MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT CUSTODIAN OF RECORDS to be and pers·onally appear at 10 :.00 AM on the 27th day of MAY, 2015 before the Honorable 359TH Judicial District Court of Montgomery County, Texas to be held within and for said County at the Court House thereof, in Conroe, Texas then and there to testify and the truth to speak on behalf of the Defendant in the above and numbered cause, now·pending in said Court, and there to to remain from day to day, and from term to ·term until discharged from the Court. Said above named witness is further commanded to produce at said time and place above set forth the following books, papers, documents or other tangible things to-wit: PLEASE SEE THE ATTACHED DOCUMENT·FOR DETAILS Please Contact CHRIS.TOPHER M, GRIFFITH at 210-229-1444 upon request for further instructions.. HEREIN FAIL NOT, but of this Writ make due return, showing how you have executed the same. WITNESS my official signature, at Conroe, Texas on the 6th day of MAY, 2015.

Barbara Gladden Adamick, District Clerk Montgomery County, Texas

05--07·-15 11:26 IN CAUSE NO. WR-82.828-01

EXPARTE § IN THE 359'" JUDICIAL § RODNEY YOUNG ANDERSON § DISTRICT COURT § § MONTGOMERY § § COUNTY, TEXAS

ATTACHMENT FOR APPLICANT'S SUBPOENA INSTANTER OF THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

The following items are being subpoenaed Instanter:

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