Shaneyfelt v. Commissioner, DOC

2008 DNH 018
District Court, D. New Hampshire·Decided January 28, 2008·No. 06-CV-263-PB·Published

Opinion

Shaneyfelt v. Commissioner, DOC 06-CV-263-PB 01/28/08 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Harold E. Shaneyfelt, Jr.

v. Case No. 06-cv-263-PB Opinion No. 2008 DNH 018

Commissioner, N.H. Department of Corrections

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Harold E. Shaneyfelt, Jr. was convicted of three counts of felonious sexual assault. Shaneyfelt has petitioned this court for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that: (1) the trial court erred by permitting the state to amend the indictment on the first day of trial; and (2) trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to object to the prosecution's improper "golden rule" closing argument, failing to object to the prosecution's improper expression of personal belief in Shaneyfelt's guilt during closing arguments, and denying Shaneyfelt the opportunity to participate actively in jury selection. The government has moved for summary judgment. For the reasons discussed herein, I grant the government's motion for summary judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Crime On October 3, 1997, at around 5:00 pm. Dawn Young dropped off her 9-year old and 7-year old daughters (respectively, "MYA" and "MYB") at the home of Bill and Betty Bielinski, the girls' grandparents. Dawn's son ("MYC") was already at the Bielinski home. Harold Shaneyfelt arrived a few hours later and began watching movies and playing with MYA, MYB, and MYC on the home's enclosed sun porch. Later that night, after the children had finished playing, MYC went inside and the girls, clad in t-shirts and underwear, got into a sofa bed on the sun porch where they normally slept when visiting the Bielinskis. Shaneyfelt, who was still clothed, crawled into the bed in between the two girls and sexually assaulted them by repeatedly touching their vaginal areas. B. The Indictment and Trial The Rockingham County Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Shaneyfelt with sexually assaulting MYA and MYB in violation of N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 632-A:3, III. The indictment charged that Shaneyfelt sexually assaulted MYB by purposely

touching her in "the vaginal area, over the underwear . . . under circumstances that can be reasonably construed as being for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification."

During jury selection, Shaneyfelt insisted that counsel challenge a potential juror. Counsel, however, told Shaneyfelt to be quiet and refused to comply with his demand.1 The record does not reveal why Shaneyfelt wanted to challenge the juror, and there is no evidence suggesting that he communicated his concern to the court.

After the jury was sworn, but before the trial began, the state moved to amend the indictment as to MYB to strike out the phrase "over the underwear." The trial court granted this motion over Shaneyfelts objection.

MYB testified at trial that Shaneyfelt touched her vagina with his hand inside her underwear. During her police interviews, however, MYB initially denied that Shaneyfelt had done anything inappropriate, and later told a police detective that Shaneyfelt had touched her outside, not inside, her

1 Shaneyfelt did not provide a transcript of the voir dire, but did swear to the above factual averments. Because the government did not provide any contradictory evidence, I rely solely on Shaneyfelts sworn statement.

underwear. Shaneyfelts attorney cross-examined MYB regarding inconsistencies between her trial testimony and her statements to the police.

Shaneyfelts attorney gave the first closing argument. He began by noting that "it is at least possible that at the conclusion of all of this, an innocent man could be convicted. There's nothing that terrifies a defense lawyer more than that." He then argued that Shaneyfelt's touching had either been inadvertent or entirely fabricated by the girls. He attacked their credibility by highlighting the lack of detail in MYA's testimony and the inconsistencies in M Y B 's testimony, which mostly related to collateral facts such as what they had eaten for dinner on the evening of the crime, what movie they had watched, and so on.

The prosecutor began his closing argument with an anecdote about an injury he had suffered while playing basketball. He remembered certain aspects vividly -- such as going to the hospital and getting x-rays -- but could not remember what clothes he had been wearing or what he had eaten for dinner. He said:

And why is that? It's . . . the nature of who we are.

It's the nature of how we think . . . . [W]e remember the big things. We remember the big happy events. We remember the weddings. We remember the graduations.

And we remember the sad things. We remember the funerals. We remember when somebody's mean to us, really mean to us and hurts us. And we know about them. And we remember facts about them. But there's a lot of stuff that goes with it that you don't remember.

And use your common sense and judgment when you're thinking about that. And what are the things that you hold and the memories that you take with you and that you can recall? And you're thinking about these things as adults, but what we're talking about here is two kids who at the time one just turned seven, . . . and the other one was nine. So you use your common sense as adults to inform your decisions. But at the same time, try not to hold them to the same standard as an adult does. You have to think about how do kids deal with things. How do kids react? And try and use that as your guide when you're assessing their credibility.

The things about the inconsistencies, about, you know, who had supper with -- what did you have for supper?

Who pulled out the couch? Who put in the movie?

Consider that for what you think it's worth. I'm not going to tell you to not consider it. You -- are going to judge what you think is rightand what you think happened, and I don't presume to tell you anything about that.

The prosecutor ended his closing by stating:

I think lastly I'll just end with this statement.

[Defense counsel] had indicated that to be scared about convicting an innocent man, and the thing is is [sic]

that he's not innocent . . . . Don't have a fear of convicting this guy. He is guilty of child molestation. He molested those girls. He did it, and he's guilty. Return verdicts of guilty on all three counts, ladies and gentlemen, these girls did only what we could expect you to do. He did it.

Although defense counsel objected to another, unrelated aspect of the closing, he objected neither to the basketball injury analogy nor to the discussion of S h aneyfelts guilt.

The jury found Shaneyfelt guilty on all three counts of felonious sexual assault. C. Direct Appeal and Post-Conviction Proceedings Shaneyfelt filed a direct appeal with the New Hampshire Supreme Court, alleging, among other things, that the trial court erred in allowing the government to amend the indictment to delete the statement that Shaneyfelt had assaulted MYB "over the underwear." In rejecting this argument, the court concluded that the amendment was not problematic because it neither altered an element of the charged offense nor otherwise prejudiced Shaneyfelts defense. State v. Shaneyfelt. No. 2000-636 (N.H. Oct. 25, 2002) (order denying direct appeal) ("NHSC Oct. 25, 2002 Order").

Shaneyfelt later filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the Rockingham County Superior Court, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. The superior court denied Shaneyfelts motion on November 20, 2003. Shaneyfelt appealed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and on February 11, 2004, the Supreme

Court remanded the case to the superior court for additional fact-finding. On remand, the superior court rejected Shaneyfelts ineffective assistance claims. State v. Shaneyfelt. No. 98-S-782 (N.H. Super. C t . Dec. 14, 2005) (order denying motion for postconviction relief) ("N.H. Super. C t . Dec. 14, 2005 Order"). Shaneyfelt appealed the superior court's ruling to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which summarily declined his appeal on June 30, 2006.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

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