Ward v. Brown

• Decision Date: 26 March 2018
• Docket Number: No. 2:16-cv-00295-WTL-DLP,2:16-cv-00295-WTL-DLP
• Parties: ROLAND O. WARD, Petitioner, v. RICHARD BROWN, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Indiana

ROLAND O. WARD, Petitioner, v. RICHARD BROWN, Respondent.

No. 2:16-cv-00295-WTL-DLP

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA TERRE HAUTE DIVISION

March 26, 2018

ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

Petitioner Roland O. Ward is serving a 58-year sentence for his 2011 Monroe County, Indiana convictions for child molesting, sexual misconduct with a minor, escape, child seduction, dissemination of matter harmful to minors, and neglect of a dependent. He brings this petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. For the reasons that follow, Mr. Ward's petition for a writ of habeas corpus is denied and the action dismissed with prejudice. In addition, the Court finds that a certificate of appealability should not issue.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

District court review of a habeas petition presumes all factual findings of the state court to be correct, absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); Daniels v. Knight, 476 F.3d 426, 434 (7th Cir. 2007). On direct and post-conviction appeal, the Indiana Court of Appeals summarized the relevant facts and procedural history:

K.M.J. was born in 1993, and her parents divorced when she was three years old. Beginning at age seven, she lived with her mother ("Mother") and Ward, her stepfather, in Monroe County, Indiana. Generally, she visited her biological father ("Father") several evenings each week. Over a period of at least six years, Ward sexually molested K.M.J. at her home.

Ward provided gifts to K.M.J., and he imposed many rules upon K.M.J.'s ability to socialize with friends and participate in after school activities and often precluded her from going out with friends and staying at friends' homes. Ward restricted K.M.J.'s use of her cell phone, which Father had bought for her, and sometimes Ward would review K.M.J.'s text messages and record them on videotape. He deleted contacts or texts that he did not know or like. Ward would tell K.M.J. that he was jealous when she talked or texted with boys.

In 2003 to 2004, K.M.J. was in fourth grade, and one night after Mother had gone to bed, K.M.J. joined Ward in the living room, where he was watching television. K.M.J. sat on his lap and saw that he was watching pornography. Ward asked her, "Wouldn't that be so cool if you could do that?" Tr. at 405. She replied that, no, it would not. Ward lifted her shirt and rubbed and licked her breasts. On another occasion, Ward told his son to let the dog out, and then he turned on pornography and again lifted K.M.J.'s shirt, "sucked" her breasts, and licked her vagina. Id. at 406.

In 2004 to 2005, K.M.J. was in the fifth grade, and Ward continued to molest her "anytime he could get [her] alone." Id. at 408, 411. Ward would "suck [her] boobs" and "finger" her and require her to perform oral sex. Id. at 407, 411, 414. His acts of molestation would occur in the living room, K.M.J.'s bedroom, the basement, which could only be accessed through an outside door, and Ward's bedroom. Ward told K.M.J. that if she told anyone, she would go into foster care, he would go to jail, and Mother would hate her. The molestation happened so often that K.M.J. assumed something would happen every time they were alone.

It continued throughout middle school and into eighth and ninth grades, when she was fourteen through sixteen years old. The basement became the "frequent" location for sex. Id. at 422. In the basement, there was a pool table with a board on top of it. Often Ward would put a small television with a built-in DVD and VHS player on the pool table and play pornographic movies, which K.M.J. identified by title, including one entitled "Slutty Schoolgirls." Id. at 450, 454, 594. Ward stored the movies in a drawer of a gun cabinet in the basement. K.M.J. described that Ward would put his finger in K.M.J.'s vagina, and sometimes he would use "a dildo thing." Id. at 426. One was pink, one was purple, and one was clear but looked like a cactus.

Ward on occasion would take K.M.J. and her female friends and buy alcohol for them, including vodka, tequila, and wine. The teens would drink, and Ward would play strip poker with them. K.M.J.'s friend, E.E., saw Ward do inappropriate things to K.M.J., such as "smack" K.M.J. on the "butt" and "boobs," which E.E. thought was "strange." Id. at 513.

Ward had intercourse with K.M.J. when she was fourteen. The two had been drinking, and he told her that he was "horny." Id. at 437. Ward put a mint green blanket with snowmen on it on top of the pool table, and Ward attempted to insert his penis into K.M.J.'s vagina. K.M.J. cried, and he stopped. Although he did not attempt intercourse again for a period of time, he continued with other acts of sexualmolestation, and the intercourse eventually resumed. When K.M.J. would tell Ward that she did not want to submit to the sex acts, Ward would get angry or cry, saying things like, "why don't you love me?" in an attempt to "make [her] feel bad." Id. at 442. When K.M.J. was fifteen and sixteen years old, the sexual activity "would happen every day," usually when Mother was at work or asleep. Id. at 443. The molestation included anal sex on occasion. Ward wanted to videotape them having intercourse, telling K.M.J. that she could see "how much better [she] had gotten." Id. at 458-59. K.M.J. told Ward she did not want him to videotape them.

Ward also molested a friend of K.M.J.'s named K.H, who, like K.M.J., was born in 1993. The two girls became friends in seventh grade, and K.H. started spending the night in eighth grade. It was "common" for the two girls and Ward to drink alcohol that Ward provided. Id. at 739. K.H. saw Ward grab K.M.J.'s breasts and comment about them. One night when K.H. spent the night, and the girls were discussing the subject of tattoos, Ward suggested that they watch pornographic movies to see more tattoos. Ward videotaped K.M.J. and K.H. sitting on the pool table, drinking vodka, watching a pornographic movie. Ward appeared in the videotape, asking K.M.J. to hold a cigarette for him. State's Ex. 17; Tr. at 461-62.

On another night, while then-fifteen-year-old K.H. was spending the night with K.M.J., the two were drinking and playing strip poker with Ward. K.H. took off her clothes except her underwear, and Ward commented on her breasts. Later that night, after K.M.J. was asleep, Ward told K.H. to meet him in the basement, which she did, and he was standing naked. He told her to get on the pool table, and he had intercourse with K.H. On January 16, 2010, when K.M.J. was sixteen years old, she was sitting with Mother and Father, discussing moving in with Father full-time. Her parents agreed to this arrangement, and thereafter, K.M.J. disclosed to them that Ward was "having sex" with her. Tr. at 466-67, 522-53. K.M.J. told her parents that she could not take it anymore. Father called the Monroe County Sheriff's Department. Detective Shawn Karr ("Detective Karr") of the Monroe County Sheriff's Department and Child Protective Services Investigator Jordan Roberts ("Roberts") met with Mother, Father, and K.M.J. at the detective's office. Detective Karr obtained a buccal swab DNA sample from K.M.J. Thereafter, Detective Karr obtained a search warrant of the residence where the molestations occurred, which was owned by Mother.

That same evening, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Detective Karr, accompanied by Sergeant Braid Swain ("Sergeant Swain"), Roberts, and an evidence technician, executed the search warrant. Ward was home alone at the time. Police instructed Ward that he was to remain seated with them as police officers searched the premises. They also told Ward that he was required to stay with them because officers were going to obtain a DNA sample from him by swabbing the inside of his cheek, as provided in the search warrant. Ward asked and received permission to call his wife, get a drink, go to the bathroom, and let the pet dog inside. As he opened the door to let the dog in the house, Ward fled. Police did not locate him, but Ward turned himself into police custody the following day.

During the search, police collected from the residence, among other things: a Sony digital camera, a video recorder, a Handycam, another camcorder, a Sony VCR, three video cassette tapes, a purple vibrator, a clear vibrator, and a green snowman blanket, and pornographic DVDs including "Slutty Schoolgirls." Two of the video cameras had the recording indicator light covered up with tape.

The State charged Ward with: Count I, Class A felony child molesting for performing or submitting to deviate sexual conduct with K.M.J., a child under fourteen years of age; Count II, Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor for performing or submitting to deviate sexual conduct by penetrating the sex organ of K.M.J. with his finger; Count III, Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor for performing or submitting to deviate sexual conduct by penetrating the anus of K.M.J. with his sex organ; Count IV, Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor for performing or submitting to deviate sexual conduct by penetrating the sex organ of K.M.J. with an object; Count V, Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor for performing or submitting to sexual intercourse with K.M.J., a child at least fourteen but less than sixteen years of age; Count VI, Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor for performing or submitting to sexual intercourse with K.H., a child at least fourteen but less than sixteen years of age; Count VII, Class C felony escape; Count VIII, Class D felony child seduction by engaging in sexual intercourse with K.M.J., who was at least sixteen but less than eighteen years of age with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of Ward or K.M.J.; Count IX, Class D felony dissemination of matter harmful to minors by knowingly disseminating such material to K.M.J.; and Count X, Class D felony neglect of a dependent, by knowingly placing

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