Ex Parte Wolf

296 S.W.3d 160, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6152, 2009 WL 2365589
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 4, 2009
Docket14-08-00078-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by176 cases

This text of 296 S.W.3d 160 (Ex Parte Wolf) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex Parte Wolf, 296 S.W.3d 160, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6152, 2009 WL 2365589 (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

KEM THOMPSON FROST, Justice.

The State of Texas appeals the trial court’s order granting habeas-corpus relief in favor of appellee Matthew Oscar Wolf based on the ineffective assistance of Wolfs trial counsel. The State asserts that Wolf did not show he was confined or restrained pursuant to state action, so as to invoke the trial court’s habeas-corpus jurisdiction. The State also asserts that Wolfs request for habeas relief is barred under the doctrine of laches and that the trial court erred in finding ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm the trial court’s order.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

On December 23, 2003, while a junior in college, appellee Matthew Oscar Wolf was arrested at a Houston department store. The next day, Wolf was charged with the theft of two shirts and one pair of pants with a value of more than $500 and less than $1,000. Wolf retained attorney Glen Devlin to represent him. One week after he was charged, under a plea bargain, Wolf pleaded “guilty”, and the trial court signed an order assessing a fine of $150, deferring adjudication of guilt, and placing Wolf on community supervision for nine months, as agreed in the plea bargain. Wolf successfully completed the community supervision. On October 15, 2004, the trial court signed an order for nondisclosure.

After Wolf graduated from college, he obtained employment as a custody-fund accountant. Because the order for nondisclosure does not prevent certain agencies from learning about Wolfs arrest, this arrest was uncovered in a search conducted at the request of Wolfs employer. The employer terminated Wolfs employment based on this arrest.

Wolf filed an application for writ of ha-beas corpus in the trial court asserting, among other things, the following:

• Wolf seeks habeas relief under the Texas Constitution and section 11.09 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.
• Wolfs plea bargain was the result of Devlin’s ineffective assistance of counsel.
• Wolf told Devlin that he was guilty and that he needed to resolve the case in a manner that would enable him to clear his record so that he could work in the banking and securities industry after graduation.
• Devlin told Wolf that new legislation would enable Wolf to have his record sealed if Wolf successfully completed a deferred-adjudication community supervision. Devlin did not mention pretrial diversion or a “Class C special expense,” 1 and Wolf did not know about these options.
• Relying on Devlin’s assurance that Wolfs record could be sealed if he successfully completed a deferred-adjudication community supervision, *163 Wolf agreed to the plea bargain negotiated by Devlin. Wolf successfully completed the community supervision and obtained an order for nondisclosure.
• However, despite the order for nondisclosure, certain agencies still are able to access Wolfs arrest information. As a result, Wolfs first post-graduation employer learned of Wolfs arrest and terminated his employment. Wolf cannot work in the banking and securities industry because of the record of his arrest for theft.
• Wolf would not be suffering this collateral consequence if Devlin had sought and obtained either pretrial diversion or a Class C special expense because, in that event, Wolf would have been able to have the record of his arrest expunged.
• Devlin’s failure to seek on Wolfs behalf either pretrial diversion or Class C special expense constituted ineffective assistance of counsel that prejudiced Wolf.

The trial court granted the writ and held a hearing on Wolfs request for relief. At the hearing, Devlin testified as follows:

• Because Devlin believes that he does not have a continuing fiduciary duty to Wolf, he destroyed all of the file regarding his representation of Wolf, except for one written statement by Wolf. Devlin does not recall exactly when he destroyed these documents, but it was sometime in 2004 or 2005.
• Though Devlin is sure he met with Wolf to discuss Wolfs case, he does not remember what was said at that meeting.
• Devlin believes that he negotiated the plea bargain for Wolf on December 31, 2003, the day on which Wolf pleaded “guilty”.
• Devlin did not apply to the district attorney for pretrial diversion for Wolf because Devlin did not think that Wolf would get pretrial diversion. Devlin did not even advise Wolf that he could apply for pretrial diversion.
• Devlin is sure that he asked the prosecutor in this case for a Class C special expense because he does so in every case. However, Devlin did not present the prosecutor with any information in support of such a request.
• In his practice of law, to the best of his recollection, Devlin has applied for pretrial diversion for “less than a dozen” clients, and it was granted one time.

Wolf testified at the hearing as follows:

• On December 23, 2003, Wolf was arrested for stealing clothes from a Houston department store. Wolf was not employed by the department store in question.
• After Wolf was charged, he found Dev-lin by using the “Yellow Pages.” Wolf and his father met with Devlin. At the time Wolf was a junior in college, majoring in economics. Wolf told Devlin that he had committed the theft.
• Wolf also told Devlin that Wolf wanted to have a clear record so that he could be employed in the financial services industry. Wolfs father also discussed this issue with Devlin.
• Devlin presented Wolf with two options: (1) plead “guilty” and accept deferred adjudication or (2) plead “not guilty” and go to trial. Devlin told Wolf that, if he successfully completed deferred adjudication, Wolf could later have his record sealed, which Wolf understood to mean that the record would be sealed from the public.
• Devlin did not mention that the governmental body that would license *164 Wolf in the financial industry could have access to Wolfs record even after the record was “sealed.”
• Devlin did not mention pretrial diversion or Class C special expense.
• Wolf next saw Devlin in the courtroom on December 31, 2003. Wolf accepted the State’s plea bargain offer. Wolf would not have accepted this plea bargain offer if Devlin had told him that Wolfs record would not be sealed from the financial industry.
• Wolf completed his deferred adjudication probation and obtained an order of nondisclosure, which he believed would keep the financial industry from learning about his arrest record.
• Wolf graduated with a degree in economics in June 2005.

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Bluebook (online)
296 S.W.3d 160, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6152, 2009 WL 2365589, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-wolf-texapp-2009.