Jones v. Seifert
| Decision Date | 08 September 2011 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO. 5:04-cv-0660 |
| Court | U.S. Bankruptcy Court — Southern District of West Virginia |
| Parties | LEE EDWARD JONES, Petitioner, v. EVELYN SEIFERT, Warden, et al., Respondents. |
Pending before the court is a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus [Docket 21], pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The respondents have filed a Motion for Summary Judgment [Docket 34], which has been fully briefed and is now ripe for review. For the reasons provided below, the Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED and the Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus is DENIED.
This case involves the conviction of petitioner Lee Edward Jones on fifty-four counts of sexual abuse and assault in the Circuit Court of Fayette County, West Virginia. After exhausting his state remedies, Jones raises six grounds for federal habeas relief based on allegations of insufficiency of the evidence at trial, prosecutorial misconduct, constitutionally ineffective appellate counsel, and on two of the State witnesses recanting their trial testimony. As amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), 28 U.S.C. § 2254 severely curtails the power of federal courts to grant writs of habeas corpus to prisoners in statecustody. Cullen v. Pinholster, 131 S. Ct. 1388, 1398 (2011). A federal court may grant habeas relief only in the most extraordinary cases, primarily to correct indisputable constitutional errors in the state criminal justice systems. Under controlling Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit precedent, the alleged insufficiency of the evidence at trial, prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective assistance of counsel, and the witness recantations are insufficient grounds for granting the writ of habeas corpus in this case.
The petitioner, Lee Edward Jones, was once the popular chief of police in Gauley Bridge, a small town in Fayette County, West Virginia. Jones had a reputation as a kind, community-oriented man. Jones, who was a bachelor until 1994, was also known to have close personal relationships with various young men, who would stay at his house and travel with him on out-of-town trips. In 1998, allegations emerged that Jones, who was then nearly forty years old, had sexually abused and assaulted some of those young men between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s. The investigation was prompted by an overnight trip that Jones took in the summer of 1997 with a young boy to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Shortly thereafter, an investigation began into Jones's relationships with multiple young boys.
In February 1998, Jones was arrested and then indicted by a grand jury in Fayette County on fifty-four counts of sexual abuse and assault—thirty counts of first-degree sexual assault, nine counts of third-degree sexual assault, and fifteen counts of first-degree sexual abuse. Jones entered a plea of not guilty to all charges. Jones's jury trial commenced on March 1, 1999, in the Circuit Court of Fayette County, Judge Charles M. Vickers presiding. The State was representedby a special prosecutor appointed from neighboring Raleigh County, Kristin Keller. Jones was represented by privately retained counsel, J. Michael Ranson and Cynthia Salmons. The trial took place over two weeks, with the transcript consisting of thousands of pages. Several witnesses testified, including Jones. As the State acknowledged to the jury at trial, its case was primarily built around the eyewitness testimony of three victims: Jarod "Jarhead" Thompson, who was 21 at the time of trial; Adam Christopher Roop, who was 18 at the time of trial; and Michael Allen Roop, who was Adam's distant cousin and who had just turned 14 at the time of trial.1 The following represents a brief summary of the lengthy trial proceedings.
The State laid the groundwork for its case-in-chief by presenting the testimony of witnesses who could attest to Jones's access to young men. Two West Virginia State Police troopers who had once been stationed in Gauley Bridge, John Morrison and Bill McGraw, testified that Jones was frequently seen with young kids around. Morrison also testified that Jones's night shifts would sometimes end at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and that Jones would then take calls from his home. In addition, George Thompson, Sr., the father of Jarod Thompson, testified that Jarod frequently spent weekends with Jones. Next, Jarod's older brother, George Thompson, Jr., testified that Jarod visited with Jones almost every weekend from when he was young until he was an adult and that Jones had taken the boys on vacation on more than one occasion. Jarod's brother explained to the jury that, during these visits, he would sleep on the couch, while Jarod would sleep in the bedroom with Jones.
The State next presented the testimony of Harry B. Clark, IV, who was known as "H.B." Clark got to know Jones through Jarod Thompson. Clark testified that he had first met Jones when he was six or seven years old and that he and Jarod had spent several nights together with Jones. Clark explained that he slept on the couch and that sometimes Jarod also slept on the couch. At other times, Jarod slept in Jones's bed by himself or in the bed with Jones. Clark also described a trip to Myrtle Beach that he and Jarod took with Jones and his then-girlfriend (and later wife) Donna Phillips. According to Clark, their motel room in Myrtle Beach had two beds. Donna slept in one, Jones in the other, and Clark slept on the floor. Clark explained that Jarod either slept on the floor or in the bed with Jones. Finally, Clark testified that Jones had initiated sexual contact with him during one of those nights that he spent with Jones in Gauley Bridge. Clark told the jury that he had fallen asleep on Jones's waterbed. He awoke to Jones pulling his shorts down, followed by Jones touching him. When Clark made it known to Jones that he was awake, Jones quit touching him.
Jarod Lee Thompson was the next witness to take the stand for prosecution, and he was the first to testify as to the particular events charged in the indictment. Thompson explained that he had first stayed overnight with Jones when he was about seven years old. Thompson also thought that was approximately when Jones started molesting him, but Thompson could not really remember, and he admitted that it might have been earlier. Thompson then provided a detailed account of these incidents, which he said continued until he was over sixteen years old. He said that Jones would customarily begin their encounters with oral sex. Thompson explained that he meant that Jones would put his penis in Thompson's mouth and vice versa. Jones wouldthen get behind Thompson and rub his penis between Thompson's legs. Thompson further explained that Jones would sometimes ejaculate after he finished rubbing his penis between Thompson's legs. When asked by the prosecution how many times the abuse occurred, Thompson said that it was "countless," but that he thought it had occurred at least once per month on average. (Trial Tr., Vol. II, 179, Mar. 2, 1999 [Docket 13-4].)
Thompson was then asked how he had come to disclose the abuse. He explained that he had first revealed the abuse to his mother in 1986 and that he had asked her not to tell anyone about it. Thompson later decided it was time to tell the authorities—specifically, Sergeant Van Meter of the West Virginia State Police—the details of what Jones had done to him. The prosecution asked Thompson why he had continued to stay with Jones and subject himself to the abuse. Thompson explained that when he was with Jones he could do what he wanted, that he got what he wanted, and that "it was just somebody that paid attention to [him]." (Id. at 182.)
The State's next witness, Michael McCallister, was 27 at the time of trial. Although McCallister's direct examination was very short, it was significant because he was the only witness at trial to testify to observing Jones molesting another boy. McCallister explained that he had visited the defendant at two of the homes that Jones occupied over the years, including one at the Regina Apartments, and was familiar with a boy who was often called "Jarhead," who had already been identified as Jarod Thompson. McCallister told the jury that one night while he was in the living room of Jones's apartment watching television, he had observed an encounter between Jones and Thompson that took place in the back bedroom. Specifically, McCallistertestified that he had observed Jones "perform[ing] oral sex and touching and everything on a little boy named Jarhead in his bedroom at the apartment building." (Id. at 236.)
On cross-examination, defense counsel challenged McCallister's claim that he had personally witnessed the events transpiring in the back bedroom from his vantage point in the living room. Referencing floor plans and photographs of the Regina Apartments, defense counsel pressed McCallister as to how he could have observed the encounter when there was no clear line of sight between the living room and the bedroom. McCallister then erupted with the following outburst:
I'll tell you what I do know. I had a clear view of a little boy being molested by that fucker sitting right there. That's exactly what I had. That's exactly what I had, a clear view of him doing something to a little boy in his bedroom, and I seen it, and I'm not lying to you whatsoever. Nobody here am I lying to. That's a sick man.
(Id. at 241.) The issue of whether McCallister could have possibly witnessed events that took place in the bedroom from his position in the living room persisted throughout the trial. The investigating officer, West Virginia State Police Sergeant Scott Van Meter, later admitted that there was no direct line of sight from the living room to the bedroom. The State, however, suggested that McCallister...
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