Haden v. Dir., TDCJ-CID

• Decision Date: 21 April 2022
• Docket Number: Civil Action 6:19cv566
• Parties: GREGG HADEN v. DIRECTOR, TDCJ-CID
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas

GREGG HADEN
v.
DIRECTOR, TDCJ-CID

Civil Action No. 6:19cv566

United States District Court, E.D. Texas, Tyler Division

April 21, 2022

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

K. NICOLE MITCHELL UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

The Petitioner Gregg Haden, a prisoner of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division proceeding through retained counsel, filed this petition for the writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. §2254 complaining of the legality of his conviction. The petition has been referred to the undersigned United States Magistrate Judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §636(b)(1) and (3) and the Amended Order for the Adoption of Local Rules for the Assignment of Duties to United States Magistrate Judges.

I. Background

Haden was convicted of four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and four counts of indecency with a child, receiving four 75-year sentences and four 20-year sentences, all running consecutively. He took a direct appeal, and the Sixth Judicial District Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction on May 18, 2017. Haden v. State, slip op. no. 06-16-00141-CR, 2-17 Tex.App. LEXIS 4510, 2017 WL 2178897 (Tex.App.-Texarkana, May 18, 2017, pet. ref'd). After the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Haden's petition for discretionary review, he filed a state habeas corpus petition on January 14, 2019. This petition was denied without written order on the findings of the trial court without a hearing on November 20, 2019. Haden has now sought federal habeas corpus relief.

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The facts of the case, as recounted by the Sixth Judicial District Court of Appeals, were as follows:

Angie began dating Haden in February 2003, when Angie's son, John, was three years old. Angie and Haden married in 2007, and John seemed happy with their union. Angie stated that Haden was an active participant in John's life often taking John hunting and fishing. According to Angie from 2007 until 2011, the family seemed to be doing well however, in 2011, Haden was arrested for the offense of online solicitation of a minor, causing things to “change” for the family. Angie explained that John's attitude and mood changed and that he no longer wanted to participate in family activities. Angie testified further that John was regularly angry or frustrated with Haden and that Haden would oftentimes discipline John by making him sit at the kitchen table and write Bible verses, something that John disliked doing.

Jeremy Johnson, a youth pastor at the family's church, testified that he had frequent interaction with John and his family. Johnson explained that he had a connection with John and that eventually John began speaking to him about personal matters. Johnson stated that John usually came into his office, dropped his books and bag, and asked if he could go outside and explore. On one occasion, however, John “came in and kind of had his head down a little bit,” and then handed Johnson a letter. ^[FN3] After reading the letter, Johnson became concerned and contacted the senior pastor of the church, who told Johnson he needed to contact the Department of Family and Protective Services (the Department). Johnson did as the senior pastor advised him to do.

Cindy Dowler Black, an investigator with the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, was asked to speak with John after he had been interviewed at the Children's Advocacy Center (CAC). Black stated that John had some communication issues. “He-he was just-I don't know, just kind of a little nervous about the whole situation, I think.” Black explained that John brought an electronic device to their meeting and that he told her that he had typed in the following information on it the night before the interview:

August 4th, 2007, [Haden] showed me pornographic videos, and he made-and made me touch him. Not long after that, when me and [Haden] and my cousin [William] were moving stuff to our new house, [Haden] said you would give me and [William] BBs for our gun if we did something. I got it-I got out of it, but [William] did not. I do not know what [William] had to do.

John informed Black that Haden had touched John's penis with his hand and his mouth and that Haden made John do the same thing to him. John told Black that these incidents occurred where Haden had lived and also at oil field locations and in a shop behind the residence where John and his mother had lived before Haden and his mother married and lived on Lefever Road. ^[FN4] John explained to Blackthat when they were at the oil fields, “[Haden] took [John]'s hand and put it on his penis and made his arm go up and down, but his hand and fingers didn't move; just his arm up and down” and that Haden put his mouth on John's penis. John told Black that

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Haden would put his hand or mouth on John's penis while showing John video recordings on his phone and that he had done so between five and ten times.

Black also testified that John had informed a CAC interviewer that Haden kept Playboy and Penthouse magazines at John's grandparents' home. John explained that Haden would take the magazines out of the bathroom cabinet when they were at his grandparents' house and that Haden would show them to John and his cousin, William, and then touch John. ^[FN5] Black went to the grandparents' home and found the magazines in the exact location John had said they would be.

In addition, Black explained to the jury that victims of sexual assault can often react very differently. When asked how quickly a child reports abuse, Black stated, “Depends on the child. You could have a child that tells after the first assault; you can have a child that takes this for years and years and doesn't say anything because they're still afraid of their attacker.”

Steven Bradley Stovall, Angie's brother, testified that after he heard the accusations against Haden regarding John, he asked his son, William, if Haden had ever been inappropriate with him. [^FN6] Steven explained, “Before we could get it out he just-his body just dropped, a deer-in-the-headlight look. Just kind of a, ‘Oh, my gosh, how do you know?' ” “[I]t took less than a second for me to realize what the answer was to the question. So it was just kind of disbelief that it-that it had happened.” William, prodded by his mother for a response, replied in the affirmative.

At trial, William related that Haden had begun to act inappropriately toward him in 2008, when he was ten years old. William recalled that on the first occasion, Haden told William that if they complied with his directions, Haden would thereafter take the boys ^[FN7] to a sporting goods store. Haden directed William to go into the bathroom with him and pulled his penis from his pants, asking William if he wanted to touch it, to which William replied, “[N]o, no way.” At that point, Haden redressed and then took William and John to the sporting goods store.

About a year later, Haden approached William again, but on this occasion, Haden touched William's penis with his hand and his mouth. William said that Haden told him that if he told anyone of the incident, they “would both get in trouble, and that no one needed to know.” William related that this kind of behavior was repeated by Haden “[t]welve to fifteen times.” William also testified that Haden would often obtain a magazine or movie that William described as being some form of pornographic material “[a]nytime [Haden] thought he could show [William] without someone else seeing.” William also explained that Haden had been sexually inappropriate with William and John at the same time and that William had observed Haden “touch[ ] [John's] penis with his mouth and his hand.”

John testified that Haden would “harass” him constantly in efforts to get him to engage in sexual activity. John stated that he had touched Haden's penis with his mouth and his hand and that Haden had touched John's penis with his mouth and his hand and he did not like to think about or remember the incidents that had happened with Haden. John explained that the alleged abuse occurred between 2007 and 2011 and that he decided to tell someone in 2011, after reading a book that explained that Haden's behavior was abuse and that it was wrong. It was then that John wrote a letter and gave it to Johnson, his church youth pastor.

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John indicated that he recalled having spoken to Black in Marshall (at the Harrison County Sheriff's Department) about Haden's actions and said that his memory of the events was probably better when he spoke with Black than it was at trial, acknowledging that he could remember some of the events when he spoke with Black that he could no longer recall.

^FN3: The letter stated: “Sexual abuse means forcing a young person to take part in any kind of sexual activity. This may include kissing or touching genitals or breast. It may also include intercourse. Abuse might include asking a child to touch parts of his or her own body or showing children pornographic magazines or videos. In the summer of 2011 (June) my dad got arrested for sexting, which he started four months before. He always showed me videos on the computer that I didn't like.”

^FN4: Black said that each of the locations identified by John (except the Lefever Road property) are in Gregg County, Texas.

^FN5: Black recorded her interview with John, which the defense offered into evidence at trial.

^FN6: Stovall explained that William spent time with John and that the two were together “probably weekly.”

^FN7: William stated that John was outside sitting in the truck at the time of the incident.

Haden v. State, 2017 WL 2178897, at *1-3.

II. The Petition for Habeas Corpus Relief

In his habeas petition and a brief in support, Haden asserts that: (1) hearsay...