Opinion ID: 2001201
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Ex Parte Meeting Procedural Bar

Text: The State contends, and Judge Moran so found, that any issue relating to the May 9, 1986, ex parte contact was procedurally barred. We cannot agree. On his direct appeal, Ryan alleged that Judge Finn had an improper ex parte communication with the Thimm family. We concluded there was no evidence in that record supporting such an allegation. Although during Ryan's sentencing hearing Judge Finn had acknowledged that he generally invited family members to meet with him after the proceedings to answer any questions, we determined that there was simply nothing in the record indicating that Judge Finn had ever met with the Thimm family. Thus, we did not address the impact of an ex parte meeting with the Thimm family. As we noted in Ryan I, the record indicated that Judge Finn had met with the Stice family but [t]he record [did] not show, however, that the trial judge met with the James Thimm family.... 233 Neb. at 121, 444 N.W.2d at 640. We further noted that [J]udge [Finn] affirmatively stated, `There was absolutely no discussion about any other cases than that [Luke Stice] case.' There is nothing in the record indicating anything to the contrary. Id. Since this court was unable to find anything in the record on direct appeal indicating that an ex parte meeting occurred with the Thimm family, we certainly would not expect the same record to procedurally bar Ryan from asserting that claim now, in light of new evidence indicating that such a meeting did occur. Likewise, during Ryan's first postconviction proceeding, his postconviction counsel investigated the possibility that Judge Finn had in fact met ex parte with the Thimm family. Creager interviewed Judge Finn and asked if he had met with the Thimm family at any time prior to Ryan's sentencing. Judge Finn denied any such meeting and signed an affidavit to that effect. Creager thereafter ended the investigation. Based on Finn's affidavit, this court concludes that the basis Ryan relies upon for relief in this second postconviction proceeding was not available at the time his first postconviction motion was filed. If we were to determine that the Heppner letter was available to Ryan during his prior postconviction proceeding, we would essentially be requiring Creager to continue the investigation beyond Judge Finn's affidavit. This we are not prepared to do. Once Creager obtained the signed affidavit from Judge Finn swearing that no such meeting had occurred, Creager was entitled to rely upon that information and end his investigation. Accordingly, we find that the Heppner letter falls into the second circumstance we have recognized as a new ground for relief. The letter is newly discovered evidence which was not available in the prior proceedings. See State v. Keithley, 247 Neb. 638, 529 N.W.2d 541 (1995). The Heppner letter was not available to Ryan during either his direct appeal or his first postconviction motion, and there was no other evidence of an ex parte meeting between Judge Finn and the Thimm family. We therefore determine that the meeting between Finn and the Thimm family was not procedurally barred and was appropriately raised in this, Ryan's second postconviction proceeding. Having determined that issues arising from the ex parte meeting between Judge Finn and the Thimm family are not procedurally barred, we now turn to Ryan's claims.