Opinion ID: 4211658
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Michael Malloy’s Allegedly False Testimony

Text: In claim 8 of his federal habeas petition, Sanders contends that Michael Malloy’s trial testimony about how he knew to go to the December 23, 1980 lineup was false. Sanders points to an alleged inconsistency between Malloy’s trial testimony and a deposition he gave after Sanders’s trial, in a civil lawsuit Tami Rogoway filed against Bob’s Big Boy restaurant. The district court ruled that the deposition testimony did not contradict Malloy’s trial testimony and that Sanders failed to prove Malloy’s trial testimony was false. We agree with both rulings. In Sanders’s trial, Malloy was asked a series of questions about what he knew before he went to the December 23 lineup: Abramson: Had you heard before you were told that you were going to go downtown to identify anybody, had you heard that there were suspects arrested and in custody for the incident? 32 SANDERS V. CULLEN Malloy: No, I didn’t. Abramson: Did a policeman call you and tell you you had to go downtown to try to identify somebody? Malloy: I don’t recall. Abramson: Well, how did you know you had to go down? Malloy: I believe someone called me, but I don’t know when. Abramson: Okay. Apart from when, do you know who? Malloy: No, I can’t — no, I don’t. Three years after Sanders’s trial, Malloy was asked at his deposition when he first talked to anyone from Bob’s Big Boy after the crime: Attorney: When did anybody from Bob’s talk to you after this incident? Malloy: I believe after I got out of the hospital. Attorney: Who did you talk to? Malloy: David Lind. Attorney: Where? SANDERS V. CULLEN 33 Malloy: I went in a lineup. I went downtown to a lineup. . . . Attorney: Is that the first time you saw Dave Lind after this incident was at the lineup? Malloy: At the lineup. Attorney: Did he talk to you about the incident? Malloy: No. He just told me I was coming downtown for a lineup, identify the guys. Attorney: He called you and asked you if you would come down to the lineup? Malloy: LAPD called me. Attorney: What did Dave Lind — Malloy: Escorted me down. In short, Malloy testified at Sanders’s trial that he could not remember who called to tell him to come to the December 23 lineup, and at his deposition he testified that the LAPD called him and David Lind, the Director of Safety and Security for Bob’s Big Boy, escorted him to the lineup. Whether Malloy’s recollection was accurate or not, the fact that he later recalled being contacted by LAPD about attending the lineup does not come close to demonstrating that his trial testimony was false or that the prosecution knew, or should have known, that it was wrong. Nor does Sanders 34 SANDERS V. CULLEN explain how this detail calls into question Malloy’s identification of Sanders at the video lineup, much less his incourt identification. The state court could have reasonably decided that Sanders failed to prove any of the three MooneyNapue elements with respect to Malloy’s testimony.