Harvey v. Trierweiler

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedJune 16, 2020
Docket1:17-cv-12095
StatusUnknown

This text of Harvey v. Trierweiler (Harvey v. Trierweiler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harvey v. Trierweiler, (E.D. Mich. 2020).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN NORTHERN DIVISION

ROBIN LEROY HARVEY,

Petitioner, Case Number 17-cv-12095 v. Honorable Thomas L. Ludington

TONY TRIERWEILER,

Respondent. _______________________________________/

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING THE HABEAS CORPUS PETITION, DECLINING TO ISSUE A CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY, AND DENYING LEAVE TO APPEAL IN FORMA PAUPERIS

Petitioner Robin Leroy Harvey, a state prisoner at the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan, has filed a pro se habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Petitioner was convicted of five counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first-degree and sentenced to prison for twenty-five to fifty years for each conviction. The trial court ordered four of the sentences to run concurrently with each other and two of the sentences to run consecutively with one another. Petitioner asks that he be re-resentenced before a different judge on grounds that (1) the state trial court improperly relied on his lack of remorse when sentencing him, and (2) he was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of appellate counsel. These claims do not warrant habeas corpus relief for the reasons stated below. Accordingly, the petition will be denied. I.

Petitioner was charged with five counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct pursuant to Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.520b(1)(a) (sexual penetration of a person under the age of thirteen). The charges arose from allegations that Petitioner sexually penetrated his biological daughter from the time the girl was six or seven years old until she was eleven. Petitioner was tried before a jury in Oakland County Circuit Court. As described by the state court, [t]he testimony at trial showed that Defendant committed numerous acts of criminal sexual acts against his daughter over a period of several years. Defendant’s daughter testified [that] she recalled Defendant’s “private part” inside her vagina when she was eight, nine, and ten years [old]. Defendant put his private part inside his daughter’s mouth more than one time, but she could not recall the first time it happened. Defendant put his private part into his daughter’s “butt” on two or three occasions. Defendant would make his daughter go in his bedroom to watch movies and “rape” her on the bed. After Defendant committed these acts, he would make his daughter take a shower and wash herself and tell her to use soap and water on her vagina. Defendant would himself wash his daughter by taking her brother’s toy, filling it up with water, and he would clean her out with it by squeezing the water and “all the stuff came out.” Defendant’s daughter testified that Defendant always began with oral sex and then ended with vaginal penetration with his penis and would make her say “dirty words” during the acts. Defendant told her daughter not to tell anyone or he would hurt her.

Op. and Order at 3-4, People v. Harvey, No.12-242235-FC (Oakland Cty. Cir. Ct. Oct. 8, 2015), ECF No. 8-11, PageID. 640-641. Petitioner did not testify, and his only defense witnesses were two of the complainant’s former teachers who testified, among other things, that they did not notice anything that suggested the complainant was being sexually abused. See 12/13/12 Trial. Tr. at 4-6, ECF No. 8-7, PageID. 425-426 (Tamra Roussey’s testimony); id. at 7-10, PageID. 426-427 (Renee Todd’s testimony). Petitioner’s defense was that the only evidence linking him to the crimes was the complainant’s testimony and that the complainant could not remember details about when, where, and how often the incidents occurred. See id. at 41-45, PageID. 435-436. On December 13, 2012, the jury found Petitioner guilty, as charged, of five counts of first- degree criminal sexual conduct. See id. at 63-65, PageID. 440-441. On January 22, 2013, the trial court sentenced Petitioner to prison for twenty-five to fifty years for each count of criminal sexual conduct. The court ordered counts one, three, four, and five to run concurrently with each other and count two to run consecutively to count one. See 1/22/13 Sentencing Tr. at 7, ECF No. 8-8, PageID. 448. In an appeal as of right, Petitioner’s appellate attorney argued that Petitioner was entitled

to a new trial because his trial attorney failed to challenge the prosecution’s notice of intent to introduce evidence of uncharged acts of criminal sexual conduct. The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected the argument and affirmed Petitioner’s convictions because his cursory treatment of the issue resulted in it being abandoned and because his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel lacked merit. See People v. Harvey, No. 314555, 2014 WL 2118280 (Mich. Ct. App. May 20, 2014) (unpublished). In an application for leave to appeal in the Michigan Supreme Court, Petitioner raised the same issue that he presented to the Michigan Court of Appeals and two new issues. The new claims were that he was excluded as a suspect by a forensic scientist and that he was charged with

anal penetration even though the forensic scientist said there was no evidence of it. The Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal on September 29, 2014, because it was not persuaded to review the questions presented to it. See People v. Harvey, 853 N.W.2d 360 (Mich. 2014). Petitioner subsequently filed a pro se motion for relief from judgment in the state trial court. (ECF No. 8-9.) He argued that: (1) appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to preserve his “other acts” claim for review and for not raising his current claims on direct appeal; (2) there was insufficient evidence of five counts of criminal sexual conduct, and trial counsel was ineffective for not making an opening statement, moving for a directed verdict, or filing a motion for new trial; (3) his sentence was disproportionate and cruel and unusual punishment; and (4) the trial court improperly relied on his lack of remorse when sentencing him and failed to give substantial and compelling reasons for departing upward from the sentence guidelines. (Id., PageID. 454, 457.) The trial court denied Petitioner’s motion in part because Petitioner had failed to demonstrate pursuant to Michigan Court Rule 6.508(D)(3)(b)(i) that, but for the alleged error, he

would have had a reasonably likely chance of acquittal. The trial court also opined that, under Michigan Court Rule 6.508(D)(3)(b)(iii), there was no irregularity so offensive to the maintenance of a sound judicial process that Petitioner’s conviction should not be allowed to stand. The court determined that there was sufficient evidence to support Petitioner’s convictions and that, given the overwhelming evidence, Petitioner had failed to demonstrate the alleged errors would have changed the outcome of the trial. Finally, the court stated that Petitioner’s sentence was presumed proportionate, it was not cruel and/or unusual punishment, and there was no upward departure in Petitioner’s sentence because Petitioner was subject to a twenty-five-year mandatory minimum sentence under state law. (ECF No. 8-11.)

Petitioner applied for leave to appeal the trial court’s decision, but the Michigan Court of Appeals denied the application because Petitioner had failed to establish that the trial court erred in denying his motion for relief from judgment. See People v. Harvey, No. 331291 (Mich. Ct. App. Apr. 11, 2016) (unpublished). On December 28, 2016, the Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal because Petitioner had failed to establish entitlement to relief under Michigan Court Rule 6.508(D). See People v. Harvey, 888 N.W.2d 75 (Mich. 2016). On June 26, 2017, Petitioner filed his habeas corpus petition in this Court. His two claims read as follows: I.

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Harvey v. Trierweiler, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harvey-v-trierweiler-mied-2020.