Schneider v. Jergens
| Decision Date | 26 June 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. C 02-3056-MWB.,C 02-3056-MWB. |
| Citation | 268 F.Supp.2d 1075 |
| Parties | Dennis A. SCHNEIDER, Petitioner, v. Russell B. JERGENS, Palo Alto County Sheriff, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
Timothy J Braunschweig, Algona, IA, for Plaintiff.
James A. Clarity Clarity Law Firm, Spirit Lake, IA, for Defendant.
I. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................1077
II LEGAL ANALYSIS ........................................................1077
A. Standard Of Review For A Report and Recommendation .................1077
B. Procedural Default .................................................1078
1. The recommended disposition .....................................1078
2. The State's objection and Schneider's response ..................1079
3. Analysis ........................................................1079
a. Nature of the claim ..........................................1079
b. The proper time to assert the claim ..........................1080
C. Exhaustion Of State Remedies .......................................1081
1. The recommended disposition .....................................1081
2. The State's objection and Schneider's response ..................1081
3. Analysis ........................................................1082
D. "Mixed Petition" ...................................................1083
III CONCLUSION ............................................................1084
In his petition for habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, petitioner Dennis A. Schneider challenges the constitutionality of a "no contact" order issued by the Palo Alto County District Court on April 1, 1999. As a result of a violation of that "no contact" order, Schneider was found guilty of criminal contempt and sentenced to confinement in the Palo Alto County Jail for 30 days, to be served prior to August 1, 2002. In this action, Schneider challenges, among other things, the constitutionality of the procedure for review of criminal contempt convictions in Iowa. Schneider argues that the review procedure violates the due process and equal protection rights of a person found guilty of contempt and subjected to loss of liberty by failing to afford such a person appellate review. Schneider argues that such a person is limited to discretionary review by petition for certiorari, even though all other individuals in the State of Iowa whose liberty is placed in jeopardy are afforded a right of appeal under the Iowa Rules of Criminal Procedure.
This matter comes before the court pursuant to the June 11, 2003, Report and Recommendation (docket no. 52) of United States Magistrate Judge Paul A. Zoss recommending that the motion to dismiss filed by the respondent-intervenor State of Iowa on March 13, 2003 (docket no. 35), be denied. The State's motion to dismiss, like the State's intervention, focuses on the first ground for relief asserted by Schneider, his contention that the procedure for review of criminal contempt convictions in Iowa is unconstitutional.
In his Report and Recommendation on the State's motion to dismiss this claim, Judge Zoss concluded that, contrary to the State's contentions, Schneider had not procedurally defaulted this claim, nor had he failed to exhaust state remedies. Therefore, Judge Zoss concluded that the present habeas petition was not a "mixed petition"—including both exhausted and unexhausted claims—which would be subject to dismissal without prejudice, unless the petitioner amended his petition to assert only the exhausted claims. Moreover, again contrary to the State's contentions, Judge Zoss concluded that Schneider's first claim for habeas relief did state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Therefore, Judge Zoss recommended that the court deny the State's motion to dismiss. Finally, if the State's motion to dismiss is not granted, Judge Zoss recommended that the court certify the question of the constitutionality of the review procedure for criminal contempt actions to the Iowa Supreme Court. On June 20, 2003, the State filed objections to each of these conclusions and recommendations, accompanied by an extensive brief. On June 23, 2003, Schneider filed a resistance to the State's objections.
The standard of review to be applied by the district court to a report and recommendation of a magistrate judge is established by statute:
A judge of the court shall make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made. A judge of the court may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate [judge].
28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has repeatedly held that it is reversible error for the district court to fail to conduct a de novo review of a magistrate judge's report where such review is required. See, e.g., Hosna v. Groose, 80 F.3d 298, 306 (8th Cir.) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 860, 117 S.Ct. 164, 136 L.Ed.2d 107 (1996); Grinder v. Gammon, 73 F.3d 793, 795 (8th Cir.1996) (citing Belk v. Purkett, 15 F.3d 803, 815 (8th Cir.1994)); Hudson v. Gammon, 46 F.3d 785, 786 (8th Cir. 1995) (also citing Belk). However, the plain language of the statute governing review provides only for de novo review of "those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made." 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). Therefore, portions of the proposed findings or recommendations to which no objections are filed are reviewed only for "plain error." See Griffini v. Mitchell, 31 F.3d 690, 692 (8th Cir.1994) ().
In the present case, the State has filed extensive objections, invoking de novo review by the undersigned. The court will undertake such de novo review, at least to the extent that the State's objections might require a disposition of the State's motion to dismiss that is different from the one recommended by Judge Zoss.
The State objects, first, to Judge Zoss's conclusion that Schneider's claim challenging the review procedure for contempt convictions was not procedurally defaulted. In the pertinent portion of his Report and Recommendation, Judge Zoss rejected the State's argument that the present case was "functionally identical" to the situation in In re C.M., 652 N.W.2d 204 (Iowa 2002), a case in which the Iowa Supreme Court held that the appellant's failure to include constitutional challenges to the expedited appellate procedure in proceedings for termination of parental rights resulted in a failure to preserve those issues for review. Judge Zoss explained, then distinguished, the holding in In re C.M., as follows:
The court [in In re C.M.] found the appellant had failed to preserve the constitutional issues for review, holding as follows:
The appellant did not challenge the constitutionality of the governing rules in her petition on appeal. Constitutional questions must be preserved by raising them "at the earliest opportunity after the grounds for objection become apparent." State v. Yaw, 398 N.W.2d 803, 805 (Iowa 1987); accord State v. Wages, 483 N.W.2d 325, 326 (Iowa 1992). Once the appellant filed her notice of appeal, the procedures at issue were applicable. Consequently, a challenge to the constitutionality of those procedures could have been made in the petition on review filed by the appellant. Having failed to include her constitutional clams in her petition, those issues are not preserved for review.
In C.M., the grounds for the appellant's constitutional objections to the appellate procedures were apparent at the time she filed her appeal. She had the expedited rules in termination cases before her, and could have raised her constitutional challenges to the procedures in her petition on appeal. Such is not the case here. Schneider correctly notes that the grounds for his constitutional objections were not known until his petition for certiorari was denied by the Iowa Supreme Court. The court agrees that to assert, his challenge in his petition for certiorari would have been premature and speculative.
Report and Recommendation at 6-7 (emphasis in the original). For this reason, Judge Zoss concluded that Schneider's claim concerning the allegedly unconstitutional review procedure was not procedurally defaulted.
The State objects to this portion of Judge Zoss's Report and Recommendation by arguing, first, that Schneider admits that he has never presented to any Iowa tribunal his federal habeas claim that the procedure for review of contempt convictions is unconstitutional. More specifically, the State points out that no such claim was raised in Schneider's petition for certiorari to the Iowa Supreme Court, and consequently, the State argues that, under In re C.M., the claim has been procedurally defaulted. The State contends that Judge Zoss's attempt to distinguish In re C.M. is unavailing, because in Schneider's case, as in In re C.M., the relevant appellate procedures were apparent at the time that Schneider filed his petition for certiorari, and indeed, those procedures had been part of Iowa law since the 1850s. Once Schneider filed his petition for certiorari, the State argues, the procedures at issue were applicable and failure to challenge those procedures resulted in procedural default of any such challenge now. On the other hand, Schneider contends in his resistance to the State's...
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