Haniffy v. NHSP Warden

2010 DNH 014
District Court, D. New Hampshire·Decided January 26, 2010·No. 08-CV-268-SM·Published

Opinion

Haniffy v . NHSP Warden 08-CV-268-SM 01/26/10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Joseph Haniffy, Petitioner

v. Civil N o . 08-cv-268-SM Opinion N o . 2010 DNH 014 Richard Gerry, Warden, New Hampshire State Prison, Respondent

O R D E R

Joseph Haniffy, a New Hampshire State Prison inmate, petitions for a writ of habeas corpus. 42 U.S.C. § 2254. Before the court is respondent’s motion for summary judgment. Haniffy objects. For the reasons given, respondent’s summary judgment motion is granted in part and denied in part.

Background

Haniffy was convicted of three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault in the New Hampshire Superior Court. Over Haniffy’s objection, first raised in a motion in limine, the trial court admitted the testimony of Haniffy’s codefendants, Christopher Armstrong and Cassidy Coburn. Haniffy’s objection was based on his concern that the State would use Armstrong and Coburn to introduce inadmissable hearsay evidence.

On the fifth day of trial, Haniffy offered his cell phone into evidence, and it was duly admitted. At the close of the evidence, the cell phone was sent into the jury room, along with the rest of the exhibits. While deliberating, the jury sent out a note asking permission to turn the cell phone on. Neither side objected. Shortly after the jury rendered its verdict, the trial court became aware of a notation by a juror, left in the jury room along with the exhibits, indicating that when the phone was turned o n , it displayed the name “Joe Pimp.”

After conferring with counsel, the trial judge recalled the jury and conducted individual voir dire to determine what material, if any, the jurors discovered on the cell phone. The judge asked each juror, under oath, whether he or she had seen, or had heard other jurors talk about the display that came up when the phone was turned o n , photographs stored on the phone, names listed in the phone’s directory, e-mails stored on the phone, or any other material stored in or displayed by the phone.

Each juror testified that he or she saw, or heard others mention, the name “Joe Pimp.” Juror #12, who turned the phone o n , testified that she saw a New York Yankees’ logo, and saw that there were photographs stored on the phone. She also testified that she did not look through the photos. The other eleven

jurors all testified that they neither saw nor heard about any photographs. Juror #12 also testified that she saw the phone display a list of contacts, but that she did not read the list. Juror #10 testified that he heard something about Haniffy’s girlfriend’s name being displayed by the phone. The other ten jurors all testified that they neither saw nor heard of a telephone directory or any names listed in such a directory. Juror #1 testified that he heard about some e-mail correspondence between Haniffy and his girlfriend stored on the phone. The other eleven jurors all testified that they neither saw nor heard of any e-mail on the phone. Each juror was asked whether he or she saw or heard about any other material on the phone, and none mentioned any material apart from that described above.

After the voir dire, Haniffy filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that “[t]he jury’s exposure during deliberations to extrinsic evidence, whatever its source, is an error of constitutional proportions that is grounds for setting aside the verdict.” (Mot. Summ. J., Ex. F (document n o . 1 4 - 5 ) , at 1.) Specifically, Haniffy argued that “[t]he jurors’ exposure to the name ‘Joe Pimp’ on [his] cellphone amounted to the jury being exposed to factual information outside of the record of the trial and this is an error of constitutional proportions that is grounds for setting aside the verdicts.” (Id. at 3.) The trial

court denied Haniffy’s motion in a thirteen-page order in which it analyzed the prejudicial effect of the name “Joe Pimp.”1 (See id., Ex. J (document n o . 14-9).) Subsequently, the trial court sentenced Haniffy to seven and a half to twenty years in the New Hampshire State Prison, with a second sentence of ten to twenty years deferred.

Haniffy appealed his conviction. His notice of appeal listed ten issues, including these:

1 . Did the Court err in denying the defendant’s Motion in Limine #1 (Testimony of Armstrong and Coburn)?

2 . Did the Court err in allowing the State to ask questions of the co-defendants that were designed to elicit inadmissible hearsay?

3 . Did the Court err in denying the defendant’s Motion for a New Trial?

(Status Report, Attach. 4 (document no 5 - 5 ) , at 3.) Of those three issues, Haniffy briefed only the first: “Whether the trial court erred in denying [his] motion to preclude the testimony of the co-defendants?” With regard to that issue, the Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s decision to deny Haniffy’s motion to exclude the testimony of Armstrong and Coburn.

1 Because Haniffy’s motion was based only on the “Joe Pimp”

screen name, the court did not address any of the other material that Jurors 1 , 1 0 , and 12 said they saw or heard about.

In January of 2008, Haniffy filed a motion to retrieve evidence, namely the digital information contained in his cell phone. By the middle of February, the phone was in the possession of Haniffy’s attorney, who began to examine its contents and partially described them in a memorandum to the file. (See Case Status Report, Ex. A (document n o . 7 - 2 ) , at 12- 13.) That memorandum was in Haniffy’s possession no later than July of 2008. It mentioned, among other things, records of two phone calls to someone called “hot bitch,” photographs of women exposing their breasts, and photos or files with labels such as “Girls Gone Wild,” “Fine Young Boobs,” “Strippers,” and “Very Nice Ass.” (Id.) In July of 2008, and again in December of 2008, Haniffy asked the Superior Court to inform him of the status of his motion to retrieve evidence. Then, in February of 2009, he filed a second motion for a new trial, arguing that his trial was constitutionally unfair because the jury was exposed to a variety of prejudicial extrinsic evidence contained in his cell phone. The State objected, on grounds that Haniffy filed his motion after the expiration of the three-year time limit established by N . H . R E V . STAT. A N N . § 526:4, and because he had already litigated the same issue in his previous motion for a new trial. The Superior Court denied Haniffy’s motion “[f]or the reasons given in the State’s object[ion].” (Id. at 7.) Haniffy

appealed, and the state Supreme Court declined his notice of appeal.

As construed by the magistrate judge, Haniffy’s petition for habeas relief consists of the following three claims:

1. Haniffy’s due process and fair trial rights, guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, were violated when the Court allowed his codefendants to testify at his trial, which allowed the prosecution to improperly introduce the substance of hearsay statements of the codefendants into evidence.

2. Haniffy’s due process and fair trial rights, guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, were violated when the trial court allowed the prosecution to repeatedly violate its instructions regarding use of the codefendants’ hearsay statements at trial.

3. Haniffy’s Sixth Amendment rights to a fair trial, to confront evidence against him, and to the effective assistance of counsel, as well as his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights, were violated when the jury was given access t o , and actually examined and discussed, highly prejudicial content in Haniffy’s cell phone during jury deliberations, although that information was not in evidence.

Order (document n o . 9 ) , at 8-9.)

Discussion

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