Regan v. Hoffner
| Decision Date | 22 May 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.01-CV-72515-DT.,CIV.01-CV-72515-DT. |
| Citation | 209 F.Supp.2d 703 |
| Parties | Carl M. REGAN, # 259613, Petitioner, v. Carol HOFFNER, Respondent, |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
Carl Regan, Coldwater, MI, for Plaintiff.
Brenda E. Turner, Michigan Dept. Atty. General Habeas Corpus Div., Lansing, MI, for Respondent.
Carl M. Regan, ("petitioner"), presently confined at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan, seeks the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In his application, filed pro se, petitioner challenges the legality of his conviction after a jury trial in the Wayne County Circuit Court of one count of first degree criminal sexual conduct, M.C.L. § 750.520b, and one count of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder, M.C.L. § 750.84. Petitioner was sentenced to concurrent terms of imprisonment for fifteen to thirty years for criminal sexual conduct and five to ten years for assault. The Court concludes for the following reasons that the petition must be denied.
"The evidence presented at trial indicated that defendant, a 47-year-old-man, tortured and physically and sexually abused the victim, a 29-year-old mentally disabled woman, over a two month period." People v. Regan, Michigan Court of Appeals Docket No. 208807, 2000 WL 33407371 (August 18, 2000)(per curiam).
The victim testified that she was mentally disabled, a legally incapacitated person who had a guardian appointed for her. Petitioner's daughter introduced the victim and petitioner. The victim used crack cocaine for about a year before she met petitioner. She stopped using it after meeting him and going to live at his house. Her desire to stop using crack cocaine was one reason she became involved with petitioner. The victim did not know her way around the neighborhood where petitioner lived on Hubbard Street in Detroit. Petitioner took nude pictures of the victim standing on a bed the first day they met. The complainant agreed to pose for the pictures, but she thought it was unusual for a minister to take such pictures.1
The victim testified that her sexual relationship with petitioner was initially voluntary. Petitioner performed oral sex on the victim at first. After a few days, petitioner became abusive, yelling at the victim when she did not clean his house to his satisfaction. Petitioner began taking the victim's money from her social security disability checks which her father cashed for her. Later the victim only had sex with petitioner because she was afraid of him. Petitioner forced the victim to perform fellatio on him by threatening to hit her and hitting her on the head if she refused or failed to perform to his satisfaction. When he failed to ejaculate, he would blame the complainant and beat her on the head. Later, he began sticking rubber objects up her rectum and forced her to eat her own feces. Petitioner beat the victim with chains, a whip, and a wooden board. Petitioner hung the victim by chains from pipes in the basement, by handcuffs to a bed, and by handcuffs from pipe attached to the bedroom ceiling. Petitioner struck her in the face with his fists and threw her against concrete walls because she could not read the Bible, since she could only read at about a second grade level. Petitioner would force the victim to perform oral sex on him and rub his ejaculate over her face and chest after beating her. He asked her if she liked it. She would say yes to avoid being beaten, but she actually did not like it. The victim called petitioner "Big Daddy," and "Big Daddy Carl." Transcript Volume I ("Tr. Vol.I") at 60 and Tr. Vol. II at 152.
The victim asked two people who lived upstairs from petitioner to help her, but they refused, saying that petitioner was their friend. Petitioner eventually began beating the victim more severely with a board and burning her with cigarettes and other hot objects. Once, when she had been screaming, the police were called. The victim had a black eye and many cigarette burns on her body, including on her breasts, nipples, legs, and vagina. However, she remained under petitioner's control. The victim was also burned by petitioner's daughter Carla Regan and a woman named Miss Valerie. During the last week she lived in petitioner's house, petitioner burned the victim with coals heated on a stove. Petitioner also burned the victim with hot metal pins which he would stick her with while she was performing oral sex on him. Petitioner beat the victim's feet with a paddle until they were extremely swollen, painful, and bruised. The victim remained under petitioner's control and dominance for almost two months. She remained in his house because she did not know her way around the neighborhood, she was often chained or handcuffed, rarely left alone, and petitioner threatened to kill her father if she ran away. Petitioner also threatened to have her prosecuted and put in prison for allegedly having sexual contact with petitioner's two year old granddaughter, an allegation the victim denied. The victim ran away one day when petitioner left her alone unchained so she could clean the house.
Dr. Leonard Kerr, an emergency room treating physician at Mt. Clemens General Hospital, testified for the prosecution. Dr. Kerr treated the victim in the emergency room. She reported to him that she had been physically and sexually abused for a period of about two months prior to coming to the hospital. The victim reported to Dr. Kerr that:
she was beat about the head and face several times with fists, she was burned with cigarettes, charcoal from a grill. She was scratched several times with the teeth of a brush in the vaginal area. She was also cut with some object in the vaginal area. There was both oral, vaginal, and anal penetration, secondary sex acts. She was tied up in a standing position with her hands tied above her head to a pole near the bed in the room she was at.
Dr. Kerr testified that about twenty (20) per cent of the victim's body was covered with burns, abrasions, and cuts from head to toe. There were cuts, abrasions, and bruising on her head; and abrasions, bruising, and burns on her arms, chest, breasts, and nipples. These burns were about the size of the end of a cigarette. There were severe bruises and many burns on the victim's lower legs and thighs as well. These burns were both cigarette end size and larger. The victim's feet were extremely swollen and bruised. There were superficial bruises and deeply swollen area or hematoma caused by blunt trauma around the vaginal area. Id. at 90-98. There was also blood in the vaginal area and a cut and a burn in the vaginal area which was consistent with a cigarette burn. Id. at 111-13. There was no evidence of anal trauma or tearing. Dr. Kerr testified that anal penetration may have occurred without trauma or tearing, depending upon the size and nature of the penetrating object, and the force with which it was inserted. A number of photographs of the complainant's injuries were admitted.
Dr. Kerr testified that the victim had a microcephalic or smaller than normal head, consistent with fetal alcohol syndrome and showed behavioral symptoms of suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome as well, including below average intelligence and emotional immaturity. He opined that her intellectual and emotional disability may have caused her to have an unrealistic estimation of the difficulties escaping from petitioner's home presented.
Petitioner testified on his own behalf. Petitioner said he was a former truck driver who lived on social security and SSI because he had kidney problems and a nervous condition. Petitioner said his daughter introduced him to the victim. They had sex for the first time after he had known her five days. Petitioner did not believe the complainant had any problems, apart from her former drug use. Petitioner denied burning the victim with cigarettes, sticking her with pins, burning her with hot coals, or holding her against her will. Petitioner said he never threatened or beat the victim and did not chain her up when he left her alone. Petitioner admitted taking nude photographs of the victim. They were for his personal use only.
Petitioner testified that he was trying to go to ministry school. He took the victim to church several times, including more than once at least one Sunday. He said that he had planned to marry the victim and at one point put a wedding ring in layaway for her, but never gave it to her. He was not certain how the victim had been injured, although it may have happened in a fight with his daughter. Petitioner thought drug dealers had burned the victim's legs. When asked how the victim's feet got so swollen that she could not put shoes on, petitioner replied that he thought she had a hereditary foot disease or condition.
Petitioner's ex-wife, Linda Regan, and his ex-girlfriend, Geraldine Mungion, testified on his behalf. Linda Regan testified that she was married to petitioner for about two and a half to three years and that he had never abused her. They met at church, sang in the choir, fell in love, and married. Petitioner never used profane or abusive language towards her, or abused anyone else, to her knowledge. They were divorced in 1968, almost thirty years before the events at issue in petitioner's trial.
Geraldine Mungion testified that she had known petitioner since 1991. They were boyfriend and girlfriend for a time. They broke up in February of 1997. Ms. Mungion testified that petitioner never struck her, abused her, stuck her with pins, or paddled her. He did take nude photos of her.
Petitioner was convicted of two counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of assault with intent to commit great...
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