State v. Reddick

430 N.W.2d 542, 230 Neb. 218, 1988 Neb. LEXIS 386
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 21, 1988
Docket87-941
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 430 N.W.2d 542 (State v. Reddick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Reddick, 430 N.W.2d 542, 230 Neb. 218, 1988 Neb. LEXIS 386 (Neb. 1988).

Opinion

Caporale, J.

Defendant, Dwight E. Reddick, appeals the denial of an evidentiary hearing and dismissal of his motion, made under the provisions of the Postconviction Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-3001 through 29-3004 (Reissue 1985), to vacate or set aside the judgment affirmed in State v. Reddick, 221 Neb. 322, 376 N.W.2d 797 (1985) (Reddick I). He has assigned six errors to the ruling on his postconviction motion, which meld to assert that the postconviction court erred in denying him an evidentiary hearing and dismissing his motion, inasmuch as the records and files establish that the trial court erred (1) in failing to dismiss the public defender and appoint substitute counsel because of the public defender’s conflict of interest and failure to zealously pursue Reddick’s defense and (2) in failing to find one of the trial judges to have lacked impartiality. Reddick has also filed a motion to expand the record, claiming that a certain statement made by him has been omitted from the trial court bill of exceptions. We overrule Reddick’s motion and affirm the postconviction court’s judgment dismissing his motion for postconviction relief.

Reddick, pursuant to his no contest plea, was adjudged guilty of attempted first degree sexual assault. He was thereafter determined to be a nontreatable mentally disordered sex offender and sentenced to imprisonment. Reddick’s direct appeal of his conviction and sentence to this court in Reddick I resulted in the rejection of his claims that the trial court had erred in finding his condition to be nontreatable and in finding constitutional the requirement of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-2914 (Reissue 1985) that nontreatable mentally disordered sex offenders be imprisoned.

We begin by recalling that a defendant seeking postconviction relief has the burden of establishing a basis for such relief, State v. Harton, ante p. 167, 430 N.W.2d 313 (1988), and State v. Painter, 229 Neb. 278, 426 N.W.2d 513 *221 (1988), which is available only when a constitutional right has been infringed or violated. Kerns v. Grammer, 227 Neb. 165, 416 N.W.2d 253 (1987); § 29-3001.

Reddick’s first claimed trial error rests on the fact that he wrote a number of letters to the trial judges, complaining about the representation afforded him by the attorneys assigned to him through the office of the Lancaster County public defender, and that he questioned the ethics of one of those attorneys. He argues that these complaints, coupled with his unsuccessful effort to have substitute counsel appointed, created a conflict of interest between his appointed attorneys and himself such as to have deprived him of the effective assistance of counsel.

There is no question but that a criminal defendant has a constitutional right not only to counsel, but to the effective assistance of counsel. State v. Scholl, 227 Neb. 572, 419 N.W.2d 137 (1988); State v. Grotzky, 222 Neb. 39, 382 N.W.2d 20 (1986); U.S. Const, amend. VI.

The voluntariness of a plea entered upon the advice of counsel depends on whether the advice was within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases. State v. Harton, supra; Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 106 S. Ct. 366, 88 L. Ed. 2d 203 (1985). We have said that to assert a successful claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a criminal defendant must prove (1) that his or her attorney failed to perform as well as an attorney with ordinary training and skill in the criminal law in the area; (2) that the defendant’s interests were not conscientiously protected; and (3) that if the defendant’s attorney had been effective, there is a reasonable probability that the results would have been different. State v. Harton, supra; State v. Painter, supra; State v. Propst, 228 Neb. 722, 424 N.W.2d 136 (1988); Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674 (1984). In order to satisfy the third, or prejudice, requirement in the context of a plea, the defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors, defendant would not have pled and would have insisted upon going to trial. State v. Harton, supra; Hill v. Lockhart, supra. A reasonable probability consists of a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. *222 State v. Harton, supra; State v. Broomhall, 227 Neb. 341, 417 N.W.2d 349 (1988).

The phrase “conflict of interest” denotes a situation in which regard for one duty tends to lead to disregard of another; a conflict of interest places a defense attorney in a situation inherently conducive to divided loyalties. State v. Nance, 227 Neb. 581, 418 N.W.2d 598 (1988). Assuming for purposes of argument, but not concluding, that Reddick’s complaints against his attorneys created the awkward situation he claims, there is nothing to indicate that this situation was “inherently conducive to divided loyalties.” If anything, the attorneys’ best defense against Reddick’s allegations would have been made by providing Reddick with the very best defense to the criminal charges facing him that was possible. Thus, Reddick’s interests and those of his attorneys were in harmony, not at odds.

The fact that Reddick may have been uncomfortable with the situation he himself created provides no basis for the appointment of substitute counsel. The right of an indigent defendant to have counsel does not give such a defendant the right to be represented by counsel of his or her own choosing, and the mere distrust of, or dissatisfaction with, appointed counsel is not enough to secure the appointment of substitute counsel. State v. McCoy, 228 Neb. 178, 421 N.W.2d 780 (1988); State v. Jones, 213 Neb. 1, 328 N.W.2d 166 (1982).

The record not only fails to demonstrate the conflict of interest claimed by Reddick, but demonstrates that the attorneys assigned to represent him competently protected his interests.

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Bluebook (online)
430 N.W.2d 542, 230 Neb. 218, 1988 Neb. LEXIS 386, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-reddick-neb-1988.