Giles v. Schotten

• Decision Date: 02 June 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-3708.,04-3708.
• Parties: Earl GILES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James SCHOTTEN, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

449 F.3d 698

Earl GILES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James SCHOTTEN, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 04-3708.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: September 16, 2005.

Decided and Filed: June 2, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: William T. Doyle, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellant. M. Scott Criss, Office of the Attorney General, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: William T. Doyle, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellant. J. Joseph Bodine, Jr., Office of the Attorney General, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellee.

Before: CLAY and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges; STEEH, District Judge.^*

GIBBONS, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which STEEH, D.J., joined. CLAY, J. (pp. 706-709), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge.

On May 17, 1993, Earl Giles was convicted on one count of felonious sexual penetration in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.12 and one count of gross sexual imposition in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.05. The conviction was upheld by the state appellate courts. On January 26, 1995, Giles filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The district court denied the petition. On appeal, the Sixth Circuit vacated the district court's judgment and remanded the case for further factual findings and, if necessary, an evidentiary hearing. On remand, the district court again denied Giles's habeas petition but granted a certificate of appealability on the issue of whether the trial court violated Giles's rights by denying him an additional independent medical examination of the children who were the alleged victims. Giles now appeals. We affirm the denial of the petition.

I.

In 1990, Giles separated from his wife, Virginia Beard. From April until September 1992, Beard was involved in outpatient treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. During this time, Giles acted as a babysitter for the two children Giles and Beard had together, Shannon and Ashley. At the time, Giles was living with Patricia Morgan, his girlfriend.

In September 1992, Ashley told her mother that her vagina was hurting her and that her father had pulled down her panties and bit her between the legs. Beard took Ashley to the emergency room at University Hospital, but she refused to allow herself to be examined by a physician. Some time later when Beard was preparing to take Ashley back to the hospital, Shannon told her mother that she had something to tell her mother but did not want to tell her until they reached the hospital. At the hospital, Beard heard Shannon say that her father had put his thing in her.

On November 15, 1992, Dr. Amy Richardson, a board-certified pediatrician and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Child Protection Program at Case Western Reserve University, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, examined Ashley and Shannon Dr. Richardson's examination revealed no evidence of sexual abuse in Ashley. However, Dr. Richardson's examination of Shannon revealed an attenuated hymen, a condition consistent with repeated penetrating trauma.

On December 10, 2002, Ashley and Shannon were interviewed by Brenda Joyce Wilson, a sexual abuse social worker employed by the Department of Human Services and unaffiliated with either the defendant or the prosecution. Sandra Spinello, a social worker employed by the Cuyahoga County Division of Human and Family Services, and Marvin Walton, a police officer in the Cleveland Police Department, observed the interview through a two-way mirror. At trial, Wilson testified for the prosecution that Shannon described abuse inflicted on her by her father using anatomically correct dolls. Walton corroborated Wilson's testimony on this point. Spinello testified at trial that Shannon was not very verbal during the interview and that Wilson did the majority of the talking. Spinello also stated, however, that she, unlike Wilson and Walton, did not have notes from the interview session.

On January 27, 1993, a Cuyahoga County grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Giles for sexually abusing Ashley and Shannon. Counts one and two charged Giles with the rape of Shannon Beard in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.02 with a specification of force, count three charged Giles with felonious sexual penetration of Shannon Beard in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.12 with a specification of force, count four charged Giles with gross sexual imposition of Shannon Beard in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.05, count five charged Giles with the rape of Ashley Beard in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.02 with a specification of force, and count six charged Giles with gross sexual imposition of Ashley Beard in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.05.

On April 21, 1993, Giles entered a plea of not guilty on all of the charges. On May 4, 2003, Giles filed a motion to compel independent psychological and medical examinations of Shannon and Ashley Beard. Following a May 12, 1993, hearing, the trial court denied Giles's motion, stating:

The Court can't order psychological evaluation on every witness. In this type of trial the trauma has already been perpetrated. If these two young girls are to be believed, assuming that for a moment, and then bringing them down to Court and they are going to have to be questioned by the Judge for competency to testify, then they're going to be subjected to direct and cross-examination here, if they are permitted to testify. And on top of that you want a psychiatric examination? How much do you have to put these two little girls through?

When the defense counsel pointed out to the court in response that Giles was facing four life sentences, the trial court stated:

I think your request here goes beyond whatever obligation you may have to your client in this instance. Whether they were psychologically sound or not would not excuse the acts charged in this indictment if they did occur. It is just that simple. In fact, if they were found to be psychiatrically unsound, it would make the crime even more heinous if the crime did occur.

The trial court then conducted a voir dire examination to determine the competency of the children. The trial court found Shannon to be competent but Ashley to be incompetent.

The jury trial commenced on May 12, 1993. At the close of the prosecution's case, the defense made a motion pursuant to Ohio Criminal Rule 29 for a judgment of acquittal. The trial court granted the motion with regard to both counts relating to Ashley, but denied the motion with regard to all charges relating to Shannon. On May 17, 1993, the jury convicted Giles of one count of felonious sexual penetration in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.12 and one count of gross sexual imposition in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.05. Giles was sentenced to life imprisonment on the felonious sexual penetration charge and two years imprisonment to run concurrently on the gross sexual imposition charge. Giles filed a timely appeal, arguing as one ground on appeal that his constitutional rights had been violated when he was denied the opportunity to conduct independent physical and psychological examinations. The Ohio Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction on July 14, 1993. State v. Giles, No. 65731, 1994 WL 372330 (Ohio Ct.App. July 14, 1994). Giles filed a timely notice of appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. The Ohio Supreme Court denied Giles leave to appeal, concluding that Giles' appeal did not involve any substantial constitutional question. State v. Giles, 71 Ohio St.3d 1420, 642 N.E.2d 386 (Ohio 1994).

Giles filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 on January 26, 1995 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, claiming that the state court denied him the right to present evidence and therefore present a defense to the charges against him. Giles v. Schotten, 182 F.3d 917, 1999 WL 519234, at * 3 (6th Cir. July 16, 1999). A magistrate judge recommended, without holding an evidentiary hearing, that the district court deny the petition. Id. On January 10, 1997, the district court denied Giles' habeas petition. Id. Giles filed a timely notice of appeal to the Sixth Circuit on February 3, 1997, and also moved the court for a certificate of appealability on March 6, 1997. Id. The Sixth Circuit treated the motion as a motion seeking a certificate of probable cause and granted the request on March 3, 1998. A panel of this court found that the district court did not properly analyze the state court facts regarding the reason Giles sought independent medical and psychological evaluations of the children because the court held that the district court improperly applied the § 2254(d) presumption of correctness to the state court findings. It held that it could not determine whether the state court had properly applied Ohio law to Giles's claim. Id. at * 6. The panel therefore vacated the district court opinion and remanded the case to the district court for the court to make specific findings or to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the factual issues involved. Id.

Once the case was remanded, the Warden moved for summary judgment. The Warden argued that regardless of whether Giles sought the examinations for a proper purpose, Giles was nonetheless not entitled to them as a matter of constitutional law. In the district court's view, this argument rendered moot the panel's directive to the district court to make specific factual findings or to hold an evidentiary hearing in order to discern the reason that Giles sought the examinations. The district court then examined the merits of the legal issue of whether Giles's constitutional rights were violated by the trial court's denial of his request to conduct the independent medical and psychological examinations of the children. The district court determined that the denial...