Felder v. Goord
| Decision Date | 23 June 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 06 Civ. 10223(VM).,06 Civ. 10223(VM). |
| Citation | 564 F.Supp.2d 201 |
| Parties | Joe FELDER, Petitioner, v. Glenn S. GOORD, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Joe Felder, Attica, NY, pro se.
DECISION AND ORDER
Pro se petitioner Joe Felder ("Felder") seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2006). Felder was convicted in New York State Supreme Court, New York County (the "Trial Court"), of rape in the first degree in violation of New York Penal Law § 130.35(1) and robbery in the second degree in violation of New York Penal Law § 160.10(2)(a) (collectively, the "Offenses"). Felder, a predicate felon, was sentenced to imprisonment for consecutive terms of twenty-five years for the rape and fifteen years for the robbery. In his petition, Felder raises five claims as bases for habeas relief. First, Felder claims the Trial Court erred in denying his Batson challenges to the prosecutor's use of peremptory strikes. Second, Felder alleges ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Third, Felder claims the Trial Court erred in failing to appoint new counsel after Felder asserted a conflict of interest with his trial counsel and requested a new attorney. Fourth, Felder alleges he was deprived of due process because he was denied the right to testify at trial. Finally, Felder alleges the Trial Court failed to properly instruct the jury on reasonable doubt, thus diluting the burden of proof. For the reasons set forth below, Felder's petition is DENIED.
Shortly after 7:00 p.m. on January 16, 1998, EA2, a sales associate at a Macy's department store in Manhattan, entered an employees-only stockroom carrying several robes and encountered Felder, whom she took to be a fellow employee. Immediately upon turning toward a clothing rack, EA was attacked from behind and wrestled to the ground. Felder choked her and repeatedly punched her in the face and head, while EA struggled and screamed. EA offered Felder approximately $500, which she had in her pocket from cashing her paycheck that day. Felder took the money and resumed hitting EA.
Felder instructed EA to remove her clothes, then he pulled her pants and underwear off and raped her. When Felder thought he heard someone at the door of the stockroom and went to check, EA removed her Macy's name badge from her pocket, which had a pin on the back. When Felder returned, EA used the pin to scratch his face. Felder fled the stockroom upon realizing he was bleeding profusely from his face and managed to escape, leaving behind blood stains on a white bathrobe and cardboard box. Macy's security summoned the police, and EA described the attack before being taken to the hospital. DNA testing confirmed the blood stains in the stockroom were from the same person.
Six months after the crime, Alfred Barrow ("Barrow") was arrested for an unrelated crime at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Security personnel at the hotel informed police that Barrow resembled the police sketch of the Macy's assailant which had been circulated to the public. Upon questioning, Barrow denied involvement with the conduct underlying the Offenses and voluntarily submitted to a DNA test, which confirmed that he was not the perpetrator of the attack on EA. The case remained open until April 2002, when a national DNA data-bank system identified Felder as a match with the DNA recovered from the blood on the robe at the Macy's crime scene. Subsequent testing confirmed the match.
By New York County Indictment Number 3433/02, filed on June 7, 2002, Felder was charged with the Offenses. Counsel was appointed to Felder after he represented to the Trial Court at his arraignment that his mother would be hiring an attorney for him and no counsel appeared at either of the next two adjourned court dates. Felder's appointed counsel, Steven Ross, Esq. ("Ross"), represented him without incident for eight and a half months prior to trial, speaking to him on "many, many occasions." (Sentencing Tr. at 8.)
On the first day of trial, the Trial Court conducted a Sandoval hearing to determine how much of Felder's past criminal history could be made known to the jury if Felder testified. Felder informed the Trial Court at that time that he wanted a new attorney because he and Ross were "having a conflict of interest." (Sandoval Tr. at 20.) The Trial Court denied the application. Felder became combative, leading the Trial Court to warn Felder that he was in danger of being removed from the courtroom; Ross asked to be relieved, which was also denied. After a jury was empaneled, the trial commenced the following week. At trial, the prosecutor (the "Prosecution") presented the DNA test results as evidence, and the victim identified Felder as her assailant. Felder's lack of cooperation with both the Trial Court and his attorney, along with his constant outbursts, led to his removal from the courtroom for much of the trial. Felder declined to testify unless he received new counsel.
The jury convicted Felder of the Offenses, and he was sentenced to a total of forty years. Felder appealed his conviction to the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department (the "Appellate Division"). Appellate counsel for Felder argued that the Trial Court committed reversible error when it: (1) refused to appoint new counsel due to the conflict between Felder and his defense attorney; (2) denied Felder the right to testify; (3) ruled against Felder's Batson challenges; (4) diluted the burden of proof by failing to instruct the jury adequately on reasonable doubt; (5) delegated its authority improperly by using court officers to communicate with Felder after he was removed from the courtroom; and (6) imposed consecutive sentences where both crimes were part of the same act.
On April 5, 2005, the Appellate Division unanimously affirmed Felder's conviction. See People v. Felder, 17 A.D.3d 126, 793 N.Y.S.2d 20 (App. Div. 1st Dep't 2005). The Appellate Division found that the Trial Court "properly denied Felder's request for new counsel, made as the trial was about to commence and subsequently during trial." Id. at 21. The Appellate Division found that Felder was given "ample opportunity" to explain the alleged conflict, but "never elaborated upon his unfocused tirade against his attorney." Id. Because Ross "vigorously defended" Felder at trial, and the alleged conflict was either "utterly meritless" or "created by defendant through his unjustified hostility toward his competent attorney," the Appellate Division determined that Felder was not deprived of his right to conflict-free representation. Id. at 21-22. The Appellate Division also found that Felder was not deprived of the right to testify, as he was "not entitled" to condition his testimony on receiving new counsel. Id. at 22. The Appellate Division also upheld the Trial Court's denial of Felder's Batson challenges, finding no pretext for race in the Prosecution's stated reasons for striking jurors. See id. Furthermore, the Appellate Division held the Trial Court did not act improperly by using a court officer to relay communications between the courtroom and Felder, or by imposing consecutive sentences for the robbery and rape convictions. See id. Finally, the Appellate Division found Felder's challenge to the Trial Court's reasonable doubt charge was unpreserved, and declined to review it in the interests of justice; "[w]ere we to review this claim, we would reject it." Id.
Felder, by a letter dated May 6, 2005 from his counsel, filed an application for leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals (the "Court of Appeals"). (See letters dated May 6 and June 6, 2006, attached as Ex. D and F, respectively, to Resp't's Dec.) The application renewed several of the arguments presented to the Appellate Division; namely the improper delegation of a court function, the reasonable doubt charge, and the propriety of consecutive sentences. Felder combined the right to conflict-free counsel and the right to testify into a single argument that the Trial Court may not reject the application to testify as containing an improper condition where the defendant and defense counsel had both informed the Trial Court of a conflict of interest, and the defendant explicitly informs the Trial Court that he wants to testify but cannot do so without conflict-free counsel. Lastly, Felder narrowed the Batson challenge appeal to one juror, namely whether the Prosecution's proffered reason of not "knowing enough" about a prospective juror in response to a Batson challenge was legitimate. On July 20, 2005, the Court of Appeals denied leave. See People v. Felder, 5 N.Y.3d 788, 801 N.Y.S.2d 809, 835 N.E.2d 669 (2005). On reconsideration, the Court of Appeals again denied leave in an order dated October 3, 2005. See People v. Felder, 5 N.Y.3d 852, 806 N.Y.S.2d 172, 840 N.E.2d 141 (N.Y.2005).
Felder filed a pro se motion dated January 11, 2006, in the Trial Court pursuant to N.Y.Crim. Proc. Law ("NYCPL") § 440.10 ("§ 440 Motion"), in which he sought to vacate his conviction on grounds of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, based on: (1) Ross's failure to address the Prosecution's race-neutral reasons in response to the Batson challenges (Felder also challenged the Trial Court's Batson rulings); (2) failure to investigate the scene of the alleged crime; (3) failure to prepare Felder for trial or meet him in jail to discuss trial strategy beforehand; (4) failure to provide a defense by calling Alfred Barrow and Forensic Analyst Kelli Langley as witnesses to make the jury aware of "another suspect in the case" (See § 440 Motion, attached as Ex. I to Resp't's Dec, at 20-21); and (5) failure to call Detective McCallion ("McCallion") and Criminalist...
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