Meade v. United States, 09–CO–1425.

• Decision Date: 26 July 2012
• Docket Number: No. 09–CO–1425.,09–CO–1425.
• Citation: 48 A.3d 761
• Parties: Michael B. MEADE, Appellant v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

48 A.3d 761

Michael B. MEADE, Appellant

v.UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 09–CO–1425.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued Oct. 4, 2011.

Decided July 26, 2012.

Jessica Brand, Public Defender Service, with whom James Klein, Public Defender Service, was on the brief, for appellant.

Kristina L. Ament, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Ronald C. Machen, Jr., United States Attorney, Roy W. McLeese, III, Assistant United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and John P. Mannarino and Anthony T. Quinn, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before WASHINGTON, Chief Judge, GLICKMAN, Associate Judge, and TERRY, Senior Judge.

TERRY, Senior Judge:

On December 25, 1999, appellant was arrested and charged with first-degree sexual abuse while armed, along with two related offenses. On December 27 a Superior Court judge ordered him to be held without bond and scheduled a preliminary hearing for January 13, 2000. After the preliminary hearing was continued twice, appellant came before the court on January 28 and entered pre-indictment guilty pleas to two charges, assault with a dangerous weapon (ADW) and assault with intent to commit first-degree sexual abuse (AWICSA).¹ At a later date he was sentenced to consecutive prison terms of forty months to ten years on the first count and five to fifteen years on the second count. In the ensuing years appellant filed several post-conviction motions seeking various forms of relief, but they were all denied.

In January 2009 appellant filed yet another pro se motion to vacate his conviction of AWICSA, asserting that he had never actually assaulted the complaining witness, which the trial court construed as a motion for relief under the Innocence Protection Act (IPA), D.C.Code § 22–4135(a) (2001). The government filed an opposition to that motion. In response, appellant, through counsel, filed a “Supplement” to the motion, reiterating the claim of legal innocence and asserting that a letter from the complaining witness constituted newly discovered evidence. In the Supplement counsel also argued that, if the court found insufficient grounds for relief under the IPA, it should nevertheless allow appellant to withdraw his Alford plea and, accordingly, vacate his conviction and sentence. The court held a hearing on the motion, seeking the parties' views on whether an evidentiary hearing was required. After an extensive discussion, the court ruled that an evidentiary hearing was not warranted and denied the motion. We affirm that ruling.

I

A. Factual Background²

In the latter part of 1999, following a conviction of assault, appellant was assigned to Hope Village, a Federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house in the District of Columbia. Because he was in a transitional status, he was not required to live in the halfway house; instead, he was allowed to work at a fast-food restaurant during the day and was under a curfew at night, which required him to remain at his home nearby in suburban Maryland. A correctional officer would monitor his compliance with the curfew by calling him on the telephone at home. If he violated the curfew, he would be cited for the violation, and the matter would be referred to his parole officer.

On December 24, instead of coming directly home from work, appellant attended a Christmas party with some of his co-workers. While at the party, he received a call from his roommate informing him that his correctional officer had called, and that he should come home immediately because she would be calling again. He left the party and returned home, but he had not yet arrived when the officer called again at about 1:30 a.m. on December 25. When he finally did arrive at home, he called the correctional officer, whom we shall call A.S., and argued with her over whether he should be cited for violating his curfew.

About an hour later, shortly after 2:30 a.m., appellant went to A.S.'s office at Hope Village and further disputed the curfew violation. During the argument, appellant pulled out an eight-inch butcher knife and slashed A.S. more than twenty times, mostly about the face, neck, and hands. A.S. fell to the ground and began to fade in and out of consciousness.

When A.S. attempted to crawl away, appellant grabbed her legs and pulled her toward him. He then removed her pants and underwear and hit her on the head with a fire extinguisher. At that point he took his penis out of his pants and placed it on her thigh and in her vulva. A.S. began screaming. In response to her screams, two residents of the halfway house came to her office, and there they saw appellant standing over A.S., who was lying on the floor, naked from the waist down. Appellant then fled, exclaiming, “Fuck that bitch and everybody else in this house.”

Within a few minutes, paramedics arrived to attend to A.S.'s injuries. While she was still semi-conscious, A.S. told one paramedic that she had been raped. Medical records later reflected that she had an abrasion within her vulva, an injury indicative of sexual assault.

A few weeks later, appellant pleaded guilty to one count of ADW and one count of AWICSA, and in due course he was sentenced as previously described. During his incarceration, A.S. remained in contact with appellant and, on at least one occasion, wrote to the United States Parole Commission to request that his sentence be reduced.

B. The Present Motion

In January 2009 appellant filed a pro se motion to vacate his conviction of AWICSA on the ground of actual innocence, asserting that he had never sexually assaulted A.S. and relying in part on a letter that she had written on his behalf to the Parole Commission. The government filed an opposition, and shortly thereafter appellant obtained new counsel. Then, on August 3, 2009, almost ten years after the assault, A.S. wrote a letter to the sentencing judge. Describing herself as “a woman of faith,” she stated in part:

I am asking your help in correcting the charges that were given to [appellant] in a plea, charges that just didn't happen. Specifically, the Rape or Intent to Rape charge! ... I don't recall any actions that could have been construed as an attempted Rape or a Rape.... Your Honor, I was not Raped, and I strongly feel because of the accompanying facts that prove my claim and me as the victim stating the same, it is not fair and I am troubled by this.

Counsel then filed a Supplement to the original pro se motion. The Supplement acknowledged that appellant had entered his plea after being confronted with “strong evidence of guilt ( [A.S.'s] statement corroborated by the Hope Village residents' circumstantial testimony).” Nevertheless, viewing the letter from A.S. as a recantation, counsel asked the court to allow appellant to withdraw his Alford plea under Super. Ct.Crim. R. 32(e) and to vacate his conviction, both on the ground of newly discovered evidence under D.C.Code § 23–110, and on the ground of actual innocence under the IPA.³

The court scheduled the motion for a hearing. After considering arguments from both the government and appellant's counsel, the court concluded that even if A.S.'s letter were accepted as true, it would not be sufficient to entitle appellant to relief. The court noted that A.S. was apparently “thinking [of] rape in its classical sense with penetration,” whereas the medical evidence “doesn't support penetration, but it does support ... some form of attempted sexual act.” Interpreting her letter as having been based on “a misunderstanding of what the charge actually was,” the court pointed out that appellant was not convicted of rape:

[A] lay person said I wasn't raped ... and she's looking at the medical record and there's no proof of rape, but there's some other proof of a sexual assault, and she seems to have in her mind the issue of rape, but Mr. Meade didn't plead to that, even under Alford.

Government counsel said in response:

[E]ven if what [A.S. says in the letter] is true, for the sake of argument, it does not present sufficient facts for this court to conclude ... even by a sufficient amount of evidence to justify a hearing on the issue of whether the defendant is actually innocent of the charge of assault with intent to commit first degree sexual abuse.

The court then delivered its ruling. It agreed to “credit” A.S.'s statement, but added:

[M]y impression of her ... [is] that she's a woman who believes in redemption, and ... I think believes that Mr. Meade has redeemed himself over the years and that the sentence that the court imposed ultimately was too harsh, or ... [that] he's not being granted parole.

That being said, the court concludes that ... the defense has not met its burden to show that he's actually innocent of this case.

* * * * * *

... The court notes, in terms of the key facts in this case ... that the defendant committed an especially heinous and violent attack with this knife ... against his helpless victim, who sustained very serious wounds and reported a loss of consciousness.

So it was always an issue as to what degree she actually knew what was happening to her.... [T]his part is uncontested, that at one point the defendant removed her pants and underwear, and that [he] placed his penis ... on her vulva but was unable to penetrate.

It is true that the witnesses who came to her rescue ... didn't see that act ... didn't see her being disrobed either, but there was evidence that came from her that [was] sufficient to warrant a factual finding by the court in this Alford case that ... he attempted first-degree sexual abuse.

And this is further buttressed by ... the medical records that are extant, although certainly not voluminous, do support, then and now ... that she had injuries consistent with a sexual assault, and that those records prove that.

They didn't prove penetration, but they didn't need to.... The court concludes that it was more than sufficient evidence to indicate that the defendant attempted to...