Ingerson v. State

• Decision Date: 01 May 1985
• Citation: 491 A.2d 1176
• Parties: Robert D. INGERSON v. STATE of Maine.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 1176

491 A.2d 1176

Robert D. INGERSON v. STATE of Maine.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued Jan. 9, 1985.

Decided May 1, 1985.

Harmon, Jones & Sanford, Robert C. Perkins (orally), Camden, for plaintiff.

James E. Tierney, Atty. Gen., Joseph A. Wannemacher, Asst. Atty. Gen. (orally), Augusta, for defendant.

Before McKUSICK, C.J., and NICHOLS, ROBERTS, GLASSMAN and SCOLNIK, JJ.

McKUSICK, Chief Justice.

In this case we are called upon to review for a second time the State Parole Board's revocation of Robert Ingerson's parole. Ingerson, who in 1976 had been released on parole from a life sentence, had that parole revoked in 1980, as the result of a finding by the Parole Board that he had committed the crime of rape. In Ingerson v. State, 448 A.2d 879 (Me.1982) (Ingerson I), we ordered a new Parole Board hearing because of the erroneous admission of polygraph test results at the first hearing. In this review of the second hearing, which again resulted in revocation of his parole, Ingerson contends that the Parole Board committed reversible error in six respects. We reject all six arguments asserted by Ingerson, and reverse the Superior Court's grant of post-conviction relief.

In 1966, Robert Ingerson, convicted of murdering his wife, received the then mandatory life sentence at Maine State Prison. Ten years later, the Parole Board released Ingerson on parole. He remained at liberty until September of 1980, when he was arrested for allegedly failing to comply with a condition of his parole requiring him to obey "all federal, state and municipal laws"; specifically, the Parole Board charged Ingerson with the rape of a sixteen year old girl. The Parole Board held a hearing on October 16, 1980, to determine whether Ingerson had violated a condition of his release. It determined that he had, and revoked his parole. In July of 1981, however, a Superior Court jury acquitted Ingerson of the rape charge. Ingerson thereafter petitioned the Parole Board for a rehearing on the revocation of his parole, but the Board denied his request.

On September 14, 1981, Ingerson filed in the Superior Court (Cumberland County) a petition for post-conviction review, challenging the legality of the October 16, 1980, Parole Board revocation of his parole. See 15 M.R.S.A. § 2122 (Supp.1984-1985) (a post-conviction review proceeding is exclusive method for reviewing parole revocation). The Superior Court denied his petition. When Ingerson sought review of that decision in this court, we granted a certificate of probable cause on the single issue of the admissibility at the Parole Board hearing of a polygraph test administered to the victim of the alleged rape. In Ingerson I, 448 A.2d at 880-81, we held that admission of the results of that polygraph test was error, and we remanded the case to the Superior Court with instructions to vacate the order of the Parole Board. Thereafter, the Parole Board held a second hearing on the revocation of Ingerson's parole. The Parole Board again revoked his parole, on the basis of its finding that Ingerson had committed the crime of gross sexual misconduct. Ingerson again petitioned the Superior Court for post-conviction relief from the Parole Board's decision. The Superior Court, in an opinion accepting two of Ingerson's arguments and rejecting his other four, vacated the decision of the Parole Board and remanded the case to the Board for yet another hearing. Both the State and Ingerson have appealed that decision of the Superior Court.

Before us, Ingerson argues that the Superior Court erred in rejecting his contentions that: 1) the Parole Board was not a neutral and detached hearing body when it revoked his parole for a second time; 2) a police detective's testimony containing a hearsay statement should have been excluded at the October 1982 hearing; 3) the Parole Board violated his due process rights by failing to provide him a transcript of the first 25 minutes of that hearing; 4) the Board violated his due process rights by revoking his parole based on activities that resulted in a criminal charge of which he had been acquitted. The State's appeal challenges the Superior Court's acceptance of Ingerson's two other arguments and the resulting order of a new parole revocation hearing. Those two contentions were that the Board had failed to provide Ingerson with a constitutionally sufficient notice of his alleged parole violation, and that a detective's testimony concerning the veracity of the victim of the alleged rape was so prejudicial as to require a rehearing. We address in turn each of these six issues. We agree with the State's arguments and reject those of Ingerson.

I. Alleged Bias of the Parole Board

The United States Supreme Court outlined the due process requirements applicable to parole revocation proceedings in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 489, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2604, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972). Those requirements include "a neutral and detached hearing body such as a traditional parole board." Ingerson asserts that the following facts demonstrate that the Maine Parole Board was illegally prejudiced against him at the time of the 1982 parole revocation: 1) the Board had conducted a hearing in 1980 and revoked his parole; 2) the Board, after that first hearing, had placed in its files a memo stating that Ingerson was "very dangerous" and should spend many years in prison before being considered for parole; 3) the Board in August 1981 had refused to reconsider his parole revocation after his acquittal on the rape charge; 4) prior to the 1982 hearing, the Board had received information concerning the traumatic effect the proposed release might have on the alleged victim, communications from the District Attorney concerning Ingerson's violent nature, and an affidavit from an individual purportedly having knowledge that Ingerson's defense to the rape charge was untrue; 5) the Board received legal advice from an attorney who was also advising the Parole Department with regard to its presentation to the Board concerning Ingerson's request for a rehearing after the acquittal on the rape charge; and 6) the Board allowed members of the Parole Department to remain in the hearing room during its 1982 deliberations. Based on our careful review of the entire record, we affirm the Superior Court's rejection of Ingerson's allegation of bias on the part of the Parole Board.

Ingerson's first four bases for alleging Parole Board bias relate to the practical reality that the Board must deal with the same prisoners over and over again, and to the fact that to be effective the Board must continually monitor parolees and seek information from others concerning their behavior. The United States Supreme Court's requirement of a neutral and detached hearing body clearly does not preclude a parole board from undertaking such activities. Indeed, Morrissey v. Brewer specifically states that "a traditional parole board" typifies an appropriately unbiased body. 408 U.S. at 489, 92 S.Ct. at 2604. Moreover, the cases in other jurisdictions that have found the "neutral and detached" requirement to have been violated have involved situations in which a member of the hearing body had initiated the revocation of parole. See, e.g., Shepard v. Taylor, 433 F.Supp. 984 (S.D.N.Y.) aff'd mem., 573 F.2d 1295 (2d Cir.1977); Newell v. State, 620 P.2d 680 (Alaska 1980); see generally State v. Turnbull, 114 Ariz. 289, 560 P.2d 807 (1977). Nothing of that nature occurred here.

In addition, for guidance in determining whether the Parole Board was neutral and detached, we can look to the cases in which attempts have been made to disqualify judges for prejudice or bias. In that line of cases, "[t]he alleged bias and prejudice to be disqualifying must stem from an extrajudicial source," and not from the conduct of court business. United States v. Grinnell Corp., 384 U.S. 563, 583, 86 S.Ct. 1698, 1710, 16 L.Ed.2d 778 (1966). The Board received the information in regard to the first four factors that Ingerson alleges demonstrate its bias, in the course of discharging its official responsibilities vis-a-vis Ingerson's parole. Moreover, this court has noted on several occasions that a trial judge will not be disqualified from rehearing a case on remand because of the possibility that he would be influenced by evidence he erroneously admitted at the first hearing. See Barber v. Town of Fairfield, 486 A.2d 150 152 (Me.1985); Town of Eliot v. Burton, 392 A.2d 56, 58 n. 1 (Me.1978). Even though the members of the Parole Board are not subject to the high standards of professional training and conduct required of judges, we reject, as we do for judges, any per se assumption that the Board members will be improperly biased either by information they receive from monitoring a parolee's activities or by previously admitted evidence that the Law Court directs them to disregard on rehearing. Decisionmakers are not automatically disqualified for bias by reason of having previously dealt with the same matter at an earlier hearing or in the course of other official duties. Our review of the record before the Superior Court reveals nothing that would justify a factual finding of disqualifying bias on the part of the members of the Parole Board.

We also find no merit in parolee's arguments that the Board's contact with an attorney representing the Parole Department or other members of the department's staff unfairly prejudiced the decision of the Board. The attorney merely advised the Board to follow its established procedures in considering the request for a rehearing, and to explain adequately the reasons for its action. See 5 M.R.S.A. § 9055(2) (Supp.1984-1985). Similarly, the presence of the Parole Department staff during the Board's deliberations without participation in those deliberations, does not demonstrate any bias on the part of members of the Board. The Superior Court did not err in rejecting Ingerson's contention that the ...