United States v. Radney

484 F. Supp. 1032, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11590
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedJanuary 8, 1980
DocketCrim. No. 79-G-00160-S
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 484 F. Supp. 1032 (United States v. Radney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Radney, 484 F. Supp. 1032, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11590 (N.D. Ala. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

GUIN, District Judge.

This cause came before the court for hearing upon motions by defendants for new trial. Defendants had been tried and convicted .of violating 18 U.S.C. § 2423, transporting or facilitating the transportation of a minor across state lines with the intent to have the minor engage in prostitution or other prohibited sexual conduct. This conviction came after the case ended in mistrial once due to a juror’s viewing a television interview of two of the witnesses and its then having been tried to conclusion with a new jury.

The court believes that the basic sequence of events in this case must be laid out as a preface to its opinion in order for it to be understandable to one who was not present through or involved in all stages of the proceedings. A skeleton of the testimony and recantations will be laid out so that one may thread "his way through the maze of testimony and recantations and the bases therefor. The motions for new trial were based primarily on recantations by two of the key witnesses for the prosecution, Sharon Denise Moreland and Teresa Darlene Adkins, two of the minors whom the Radneys were convicted of transporting across state lines for illegal purposes. There were other grounds of motion, but they were so obviously not well taken that no discussion is necessary.

Sharon Denise Moreland’s testimony to the grand jury, at the first trial, and at the [1033]*1033second trial, was consistent, supporting the prosecution’s position that a trip from Birmingham, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia, planned by and participated in by the defendants, did take place and that the three minor girls were indeed transported in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution. Miss Moreland recanted her grand jury testimony via an affidavit given in the office of Patricia Radney’s attorney (the lead trial attorney) between the hearing before the grand jury and the first trial.1 She subsequently testified at the first and second trials consistently with her grand jury testimony. Miss Moreland recanted her trial testimony in a different manner from her first recantation in an affidavit given in Mr. Bryan’s (Patricia Radney’s attorney) office on September 10 and 11, 1979, and at hearing on the motion. Her testimony at the motion hearing was clearly unworthy of belief.

Teresa Darlene Adkins testified at both trials consistently with her grand jury testimony and in support of the guilt of the defendants. She admitted at the hearing on the motion that the recantation she had given by affidavit on September 10 and 11, 1979, in attorney Bryan’s office was a fabrication and that her trial testimony was in fact true. She, thus, recanted her recantation.

This court finds specifically that Sharon Moreland committed perjury in open court when she recanted the testimony she had given previously to the grand jury and in two trials of the defendants before this judge and two different juries. She has told three different sworn stories. It is a fair inference from the evidence heard by the court during the trial, and this court so finds, that William Leonard “Lamar” Radney, one of the defendants, suborned her to recant the first time (between the grand jury testimony and the first trial). The court also finds from the evidence and from personal observation of the witness that Sharon Moreland appears to be in love with Lamar Radney, is pregnant with a baby which she in good faith believes to be his child, that she is weak-minded, easily led and influenced, is of tender years (barely 16 years of age at the present time, 15 years of age when she became pregnant and when the events involved in the case took place), and that she is an interested witness at the present time, with a bias in favor of Lamar Radney. Her testimony on the motion is unworthy of belief. Her demeanor on the witness stand during the hearing on the motion for new trial was different from her demeanor during the two jury trials. The court observed her demeanor during the two jury trials and compared her testimony with that of the other two key prosecution witnesses, Brenae Rowe and Teresa Adkins, and concluded that while there were discrepancies among the stories of the three witnesses, the discrepancies were minor and such as would be expected from truthful witnesses recounting an involved incident in the past. The stories were complex and difficult for persons of tender years to concoct and memorize in detail so well that the substantial and relevant portions agreed while certain immaterial portions disagreed. The court finds, therefore, that the trial testimony of all three of these young girls was essentially true. If the court had been the trier of fact, the court would have found the defendants guilty, and would have had no difficulty in making such a finding.

Brenae Rowe told her story the very night of the alleged robbery at the Radney home. The court declines to make any finding concerning the nature of this incident since it is outside the scope of this case. However, its occurrence is significant so far as it bears upon the spontaneity and veracity of Miss Rowe’s remarks made on that evening. Miss Rowe was 15 years old at the time and under the stress of circumstances of that evening it is inconceivable that she made up such an , elaborate story, which included an accusation against the defendants of operating a ring of teenagers engaged in both prostitution and shoplifting. She included an allegation of an incident of interstate operation of the ring for [1034]*1034both purposes. At the first opportunity to talk with the police officer without the presence of any other person, she told the same lengthy, bizarre, rather complex story which she later told at both trials, complete with the interstate feature. Such a story must have been true when told under such circumstances. The other two girls told the same story upon being approached by investigators, and later before the grand jury and at the trials, and without significant variation, but with minor variations indicating honesty on the part of the witnesses. These facts further indicate veracity. Brenae Rowe is unsophisticated and weak-minded, as is Sharon Moreland. Teresa Adkins is strong-minded and relatively intelligent, although badly misguided, and this court is not fooled into believing she is a totally unsophisticated “child.” She is really a pretty hard character, although because of her deprived background, and the fact that she really is young, there are good reasons to sympathize with her and to hope that she will change her apparent direct course toward a life of crime and vice. Nevertheless, she was only 15 years old when the events involved in the case took place, and although she appears to be reasonably intelligent, her background, age and courtroom demeanor do not support an assessment of her as bright or particularly sophisticated. The court would classify the other two girls well below Miss Adkins in intelligence and sophistication. Both the other girls clearly could be very easily led and influenced.

Although Teresa Adkins is somewhat more intelligent than the other two girls, the court does not believe that she is sufficiently clever to have concocted this entire story and trained the other two girls to tell it as well as they did through two lengthy trials under searching and highly competent cross-examination.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
484 F. Supp. 1032, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11590, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-radney-alnd-1980.