Hampton v. Leibach

• Citation: 290 F.Supp.2d 905
• Decision Date: 29 November 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99 C 5473.,99 C 5473.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
• Parties: Patrick HAMPTON, Petitioner, v. Blair LEIBACH,<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL> Respondent.

Page 905

290 F.Supp.2d 905

Patrick HAMPTON, Petitioner, v. Blair LEIBACH,¹ Respondent.

No. 99 C 5473.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

November 29, 2001.

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Patrick Hampton, Danville, IL, pro se.

Douglas E. Whitney, McDermott, Will & Emery, Chicago, IL, for Petitioner.

Michael Marc Glick, Huma Ali Khan, Illinois Attorney General's Office, Chicago, IL, for Respondent.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

KENNELLY, District Judge.

In October 1982, Patrick Hampton was convicted in state court of deviate sexual assault, attempted rape, robbery, and aggravated battery, and he received an "extended-term" sixty year sentence. Because of the unusually long period it took Hampton's case to progress through the state courts on direct and collateral review, he has already served nearly twenty years in prison, including the time he spent in custody awaiting trial. In August 1999, Hampton petitioned this Court for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that he received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and that his sentence violates the principle announced in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). The Court agrees with Hampton that his trial counsel failed to render effective assistance and that the state courts' rejection of his claim was unreasonable. The Court therefore grants the writ.

Proceedings in state court

At a rhythm and blues concert held at Chicago's International Amphitheatre in December 1981, three young Latinos — two women and a man — were attacked in an area in front of the stage by a large group of young African-American men. The Latinos were beaten and robbed, and the women were brutally sexually assaulted. Security guards were initially overwhelmed by the riot but eventually rescued the victims. No one was detained at the scene, and the victims did not provide the police with any descriptions other than that their assailants were black males.

The next day, Keith Powell, a fourteen year old African-American youth, contacted the police. He reported that he had been at the concert and had seen a number of former acquaintances from the Robert Taylor Homes among a large group that marched toward the stage just before the attack, chanting gang slogans and making gang signs. Powell identified Hampton as one of the members of the group, though he did not identify Hampton as having participated in the attack on the three Latinos. Hampton, who was eighteen years old and had no prior criminal record, was arrested along with eight others in the ensuing days.

Most of the defendants pled guilty and received sentences of probation. Hampton and two others, Ronald Mallory and Ricky Knight, went to trial. Jack Rodgon was Hampton's retained counsel. The attorney-client relationship proved troublesome prior to trial. In July 1982, Rodgon attempted to withdraw from the case, citing lack of payment of his attorney's fees. The trial judge denied this request, but offered to appoint Rodgon to represent Hampton. Rodgon resisted, saying "I would rather not even be appointed on this case, because it is [sic] some problems." Tr. 129. Rodgon then attempted to withdraw all of the motions he had filed. The judge refused to allow this and again said that he would appoint Rodgon. Tr. 130. Rodgon acceded to the court's proposal.

The three defendants' cases were tried simultaneously before three separate juries. Direct examination of the prosecution witnesses proceeded before all three juries, and each defendant had the opportunity to cross examine each witness before the jury hearing his case. In his opening statement, Rodgon told the jury that "Mr. Hampton will testify and tell you that he was at the concert. Mr. Hampton will tell you that he saw what happened but he was not involved with it." Tr. 543. He also promised that "[t]he evidence will show that my client is not a member of any gang nor a part of a gang." Tr. 544.

Keith Powell testified that near the end of the concert, he saw a group of men coming down the aisle toward the stage, making gang signs and chanting gang slogans. He identified Hampton, Knight, and Mallory as members of the group. As they approached the stage, he saw a fight and then saw a naked woman. Powell saw Knight throw some pants into the air. Powell rode a bus home from the concert and saw all three defendants with others on the bus. He overheard a conversation in which someone — he could not say who — was bragging about putting their fingers into a woman and taking her jewelry. He called the police department the next day and eventually identified Knight from a photograph. On cross-examination, Rodgon brought out that Powell had not seen Hampton attack anyone and did not hear him say anything on the bus. Powell claimed that he had identified Hampton in a lineup — but the evidence later showed that in fact he had identified someone else.

William Henrichs, a Cook County Sheriff's officer moonlighting as a security guard and working the concert, testified that just after midnight, a woman with torn clothes approached him and told him that others were being attacked in front of the stage. He approached the stage area with other guards and saw a large crowd of black men in a circle. The guards pushed their way in, and Henrichs saw a man and a woman on the ground being beaten. Henrichs said that he saw a young black man, whom he identified as Hampton, whose arm was thrusting toward the woman's vaginal area. Another guard pulled the man off her. Henrichs testified that on January 6, 1982, he identified Hampton and three others as participants. On cross examination, Rodgon elicited that Henrichs had seen the man for only "as long as it would take to ... run approximately ten feet," Tr. 713, likely just a couple of seconds, and no more than three or four. He also established that Henrichs had no contact with the police, and had not identified Hampton, until after he had seen Hampton's picture for at least sixty seconds on a television news program (after Hampton's arrest).

The male victim, H.N.,² testified that when he and the two women saw the men move toward the front of the stage, they tried to leave, but their path was blocked and they were attacked. He tried to shield D.M., but he was hit and kicked, his clothes were ripped off, a man whom he identified as Ricky Knight hit him and D.M. with a chair, and they fell to the ground. H.N. looked up and saw a number of men around them with their zippers down and their penises out, and Knight tried to put his penis into D.M.'s mouth. H.N. testified that he had identified Knight from photographs and in a lineup. He made no identification of Hampton.

D.M. testified that as she and the others started to leave, their passage was blocked by fifteen to twenty men who attacked them. She was pushed, touched on her breasts and vaginal area, and hit with fists, as was H.N. Someone hit them with a chair and they fell to the ground. She saw several men with their penises out. One, whom she identified as Knight, tried to put his penis into her mouth, as did another whom she identified as Mallory. Several of the men were sitting on her legs, and one tried to pull them apart. She saw another one — whom she identified as Hampton — moving his hands, and she felt something cold and hard that she said he was trying to put into her. D.M. was hospitalized and required stitches in her vaginal area and ended up with a bladder infection and scarring on her breast. She testified that she had identified Hampton from photographs and Knight, Mallory and Hampton in lineups. On cross examination, Rodgon elicited that she was frightened, had lots of men attacking her, was trying to concentrate on the faces of the men who tried to put their penises in her mouth, and could not say how long she had seen the face of the man between her legs. He also established that she had been unable to describe this man in any way other than as a black male.

M.N. said that she ducked when she saw Knight about to hit her with a chair and that a number of men then started hitting and kicking her. There were as many as thirty or thirty-five men around her, and her necklace was pulled off. A man who she identified as Hampton tore her pants and tried unsuccessfully to put his hand into her vagina. She managed to get away, heard someone say "get her," and turned and saw that it was a man she identified as Knight. She later picked Hampton and Knight out of a lineup. On cross examination, Rodgon brought out that the scene was chaotic, she was scared, and she had seen the face of the man who tried to put his hand into her vagina for only four or five seconds. She was not able to describe him or anything he was wearing when she was interviewed by the police.

Chicago Police detective Thomas Ptak testified about various matters concerning the investigation; on cross-examination, Rodgon elicited that he had prepared a report about a lineup in which he had stated that M.N. identified Ezra Gardner (not Hampton) as the man who had put his hand into her vagina. The prosecutor elicited from Ptak that this was an error and that a report of M.N.'s interview indicated that she had identified Hampton.

We have omitted a description of the cross-examinations conducted by counsel for Knight and Mallory, but they followed the same lines as Rodgon's. Knight called no defense witnesses, introducing only a short stipulation (before his jury only) that a detective had testified that the investigation had showed that it was Mallory—and thus presumably not Knight—who had put his penis into D.M.'s mouth.

Hampton did not testify in his own defense, despite Rodgon's promise in his opening statement. Rodgon put on a defense case that consumed barely five pages of transcript and consisted of only one witness, a police detective who testified that Powell had never picked Hampton out of a lineup.

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