State v. Davner

100 N.E.3d 1247, 2017 Ohio 8862
CourtCourt of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, Cuyahoga County
DecidedDecember 7, 2017
DocketNos. 104745; 105144
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 100 N.E.3d 1247 (State v. Davner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, Cuyahoga County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Davner, 100 N.E.3d 1247, 2017 Ohio 8862 (Ohio Super. Ct. 2017).

Opinions

EILEEN A. GALLAGHER, P.J.:

{¶ 1} In this consolidated appeal, defendant-appellant James Davner appeals from (1) the judgment of conviction (Appeal No. 104745) and (2) the trial court's denial of his postsentence motion to withdraw his guilty pleas (Appeal No. 105144), after he pled guilty to one count of felonious assault, one count of abduction and one count of gross sexual imposition. Davner contends that his guilty pleas were induced by the ineffective assistance of his trial counsel and were not knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made. He also contends *1252that his aggregate six-year, ten-month sentence was not clearly and convincingly supported by the record. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the trial court's judgment, vacate Davner's guilty pleas and remand the case for further proceedings.

Factual and Procedural Background1

{¶ 2} On December 18, 2015, K.H. filed a complaint in the Lyndhurst Municipal Court alleging that Davner had sexually assaulted her. K.H. alleged that she and her boyfriend had been drinking with Davner the evening of November 21, 2015, and that while she was in the bathroom, intoxicated and vomiting, Davner raped her. Davner originally told police that he had never had any sexual contact with K.H. After DNA test results came back indicating that his semen was found on K.H., Davner admitted having to sex with K.H. but claimed that it was consensual. With the exception of an OVI and several minor traffic offenses, Davner had no prior criminal history.

{¶ 3} Davner retained attorney Daniel Margolis ("Margolis") to represent him. Davner testified that when he first learned of the sexual assault allegations against him, he researched criminal defense attorneys on the internet. He gave his wife, Laurel, attorney Margolis' name and number and asked her to call him "if anything were to happen." Davner testified that he selected Margolis because "[h]e had very good reviews on his website."

{¶ 4} Davner was arrested at his home on December 18, 2015. After Davner was arrested, Laurel contacted Margolis. She paid him $1,000 to represent Davner in the municipal court proceedings and to get a bond set. Laurel testified that she gave Margolis the telephone numbers for K.H.'s boyfriend and the boyfriend's mother and showed him several social media postings K.H. and K.H.'s boyfriend had made that Laurel contended contradicted with what they alleged had occurred. Laurel testified that Margolis told her that he would hire an investigator. Davner was thereafter released on bond.

{¶ 5} On January 4, 2016, a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted Davner on two counts of rape, one count of kidnapping with a sexual motivation specification and two counts of gross sexual imposition arising out of Davner's alleged sexual assault of K.H.

{¶ 6} On January 11, 2016, Davner met with Margolis at his office and signed a fee agreement, agreeing to pay Margolis an additional $20,000 to represent him on the "pretrial portions of the criminal charge." Under the terms of the fee agreement, Margolis would receive an additional $1,000 per day if the case went to trial. Davner paid Margolis $2,000 and Davner's parents paid the $18,000 balance. Davner testified that Margolis told him he would hire an investigator and asked Davner to email him a statement detailing what had occurred on the night of the alleged assault. Davner prepared a statement and emailed it to Margolis a few days later. On January 20, 2016, Davner was arraigned, his bond was continued, and he was placed on court-supervised release.

{¶ 7} Davner claimed that the meeting he had with Margolis in January 2016 was the only time he "really met with" Margolis to discuss his case. He stated that his only other interactions with Margolis were a couple of email messages forwarding discovery materials, brief text messages and telephone calls and a couple minutes conversing with Margolis before and after pretrial conferences. Davner testified that he called Margolis "maybe once a week" to get an update regarding "what's going on,"

*1253"what he's doing with the case" but that he rarely got a call back. He testified that when he did so, it would be "very brief," i.e., that Margolis would simply say, "[n]othing is going on," "waiting for discovery" or "I'll see you at the next pretrial." Davner testified that he repeatedly told Margolis that he was innocent and that he wanted to go to trial and did not want to plea.

{¶ 8} On January 20, 2016, Margolis submitted a written demand for discovery pursuant to Crim.R. 16 to the state. On January 25, 2016, the state provided initial responses to Davner's discovery request and filed its own written demand for discovery. The state filed supplemental discovery responses on April 14, 2016 and May 13, 2016. From January 28, 2016 to May 18, 2016, the trial court conducted eight pretrial conferences. Trial was originally set for April 25, 2016 but was continued to May 24, 2016 "to complete discovery." Margolis never responded to the state's discovery request, never filed any motions, never interviewed any witnesses and never hired an investigator.

{¶ 9} Davner appeared for each of the eight pretrials held in the case. He testified that, at each of the pretrial conferences, Margolis would greet Davner, let him know he was there, then go into the back for an hour or two while Davner waited in the waiting room. When he returned, Margolis would generally say something to the effect of "this was routine" or "still waiting for discovery" or if something had been received in discovery, what it was. He stated that Margolis forwarded him certain discovery materials, including the police report, a recording of the 911 call and the victim's medical records, but that Margolis never reviewed them with Davner. Davner testified that when he would ask Margolis how the discovery materials impacted his case, he "never really got a direct answer on anything." He testified that Margolis would simply respond, "it's a coin flip" or "it's up in the air." When Davner asked Margolis if he could come talk to him about the case, Margolis responded that there was nothing to discuss.

{¶ 10} Margolis disputed Davner's characterization of their interactions. He denied that he told the Davners he would hire an investigator and stated that there were no witnesses who would have been helpful to Davner to interview. He testified that, whenever he received any discovery materials from the state, he provided copies to Davner, if permitted, or read them to him and "explain[ed] what was going on." He testified that he had "face-to-face" meetings with Davner at each of the pretrial conferences, emailed Davner multiple times and regularly communicated with Davner by phone and text.2 He testified that there were multiple pretrial conference and continuances due to difficulties in getting medical records from the state and that he did not respond to the state's discovery request for "tactical reasons."

{¶ 11} Margolis denied that Davner demanded that the case go to trial. He testified that Davner's "frequent demand" was for the case to be dismissed, but that "abated somewhat as the case dragged on." He stated that "[w]e didn't go to trial because [Davner] didn't want to go to trial." Margolis testified that if the case were to have been tried, Davner would have had *1254

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
100 N.E.3d 1247, 2017 Ohio 8862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-davner-ohctapp8cuyahog-2017.