Opinion ID: 788549
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Doe's Second-Degree Sodomy Conviction

Text: 4 The following facts are taken from the affidavits and transcripts in the record, as well as from the testimony given at the evidentiary hearing conducted before the district court in March 2003, and are essentially undisputed. Any factual disputes that have arisen during the habeas proceedings will be treated in greater detail in the discussion of the hearing testimony, below. 5 John Doe's second-degree sodomy conviction was the result of a long-running investigation, conducted jointly by federal and state law enforcement agencies, into a ring of pedophiles based in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. The ring was composed of men who called themselves Boy Lovers, a phrase that Doe defined as men who liked to have sex with young boys, and its activities consisted of exchanging and creating child pornography, seducing and sharing victims, and soliciting child prostitution. 3 Although the exact dates of Doe's affiliation with the group are unclear, it appears that he was friendly with its principals, and participated in its activities, beginning in the early 1980s and continuing at least through 1993. Doe's activities as a member of the group apparently never gave rise to a criminal investigation prior to 1993, although Doe did have one sex offense conviction in Maine, stemming from his 1975 attempt to pay two young boys to pose for pornographic pictures. 6 During the summer of 1993, New York and New Jersey state and federal investigators were investigating the activities of two members of the group, Richard Bagarozy and Edward Federowicz, who were suspected of creating and warehousing child pornography and transporting boys from New York to New Jersey for sex. Investigators for the Westchester County District Attorney's Office in New York (the DA's Office) conducted several wiretaps of Bagarozy and Federowicz, and became alerted to Doe's existence when, on August 17, 1993, they overheard Bagarozy and Federowicz discussing how Doe had recently had sex with a boy named Edwin 4 and had paid him afterwards. 5 In later wiretaps, Doe was overheard discussing Edwin with Federowicz in a sexually explicit manner. Based on this information, the DA's Office attempted to locate Edwin in order to determine whether a crime had been committed, but did not succeed in doing so until February 1994. 7 Meanwhile, the FBI also had begun to investigate Doe as a member of the Boy Lovers. On September 9, 1993, the FBI and investigators from the DA's Office and other state authorities searched Doe's Westchester County apartment as part of a coordinated series of searches and arrests intended to break up the ring. The investigators recovered items of child pornography from Doe's apartment, and the United States Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York initially considered prosecuting him on child pornography charges, although it is not clear how far these deliberations progressed. Six days after the search, on September 15, Doe and his attorney, Murray Richman, met with federal investigators for the purpose of determining whether Doe had sufficient knowledge of the Boy Lovers' ring to warrant offering him a plea bargain in return for his cooperation. 6 Doe spoke with the federal investigators pursuant to a proffer agreement that guaranteed that the United States would not use any of his statements against him in any judicial proceeding, except for purposes of cross-examination or rebuttal. 7 During the proffer session, Doe provided a detailed description of the Boy Lovers'seduction methods, the names of their victims, as well as an account of his personal involvement with Bagarozy and Federowicz and his own sexual acts with children. He volunteered that in the last couple months, he had had sex with a boy named Edwin, who was also sexually associated with Bagarozy. This would place the encounter in July or August of 1993. According to Doe, the sex included oral copulation and masturbation. 8 Doe participated in a second proffer session in October 1993, where he provided more information about Bagarozy's and Federowicz's activities, but apparently did not discuss his own activities with Edwin. 8 Although Doe himself was still under investigation for federal crimes at that time, at some point the federal government decided not to charge him. Nonetheless, Doe continued to work with Special Agent James Kyle of the FBI, providing information regarding the ongoing activities of the Boy Lovers and assisting the FBI in locating Bagarozy's stash of child pornography. In February 1995, Doe testified for the government in the federal trial of Bagarozy and Federowicz, where he provided extensive evidence of the Boy Lovers' activities and victims, as well as the defendants' individual proclivities and creation of child pornography. 9 Meanwhile, investigator Pat Storino of the DA's Office was investigating the connection between Doe and Edwin on the basis of the August wiretaps. Storino located Edwin on February 3, 1994, but did not attempt to question him about his contact with Doe. Also in early February, Doe told Special Agent Kyle that Edwin had attempted to contact Doe because O'Rourke had recently gotten out of prison and had coached Edwin and another underage victim, Edward R., on how to deceive the authorities. According to Doe, Edwin wanted Doe to know that he had promised not to say anything incriminating to any law enforcement authorities. Special Agent Kyle transmitted this information to the DA's Office on February 10. 10 In March 1994, the DA's Office interviewed Edwin on two separate occasions. Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Elizabeth Cronin 9 of the Special Prosecutions Division, which handles domestic violence and child abuse cases, conducted the interviews. In accordance with the DA's Office's customary practice when dealing with underage victims, the interviews were not recorded and Edwin was not asked to sign a written statement, so Cronin's handwritten notes provide the only record of the substance of Edwin's statements. During the first interview, Cronin elicited general information about Edwin's relationship with Doe and Doe's practice of taking Edwin and his friends out for hotdogs at Nathan's, a fast food restaurant, to arcades, and back to Doe's apartment to play video games. Cronin's notes taken during the second interview, on March 18, 1994, indicate that Edwin told her that Doe had on earlier occasions attempted to grab [Edwin's] crotch while driving him to Nathan's, and had at least once tried to force Edwin onto the bed in Doe's apartment. On August 13, 1993, Edwin went to Doe's apartment to play computer games, and Doe tried to pull down Edwin's pants while Edwin was sitting at the computer. Doe then grabbed Edwin, took him to the bedroom, threw him down on the bed, pulled his pants down, and put his mouth around Edwin's penis. Edwin was able to shake Doe off by kicking him, and Doe later drove Edwin home and gave him $50. Edwin also provided a detailed description of Doe's apartment, which Cronin later verified, and indicated that he remembered when the alleged forcible contact had occurred because it was the Friday before he moved on August 15, 1993, which places the incident on August 13. 11 In October 1994, Cronin notified Doe's attorney, Murray Richman, that the DA's Office intended to prosecute Doe for attempting to have sex with Edwin. Richman protested, asserting that the use immunity agreements that Doe had signed during his proffer sessions prohibited the DA's Office from prosecuting Doe for any offense that he had described during the proffer session. Cronin maintained that the September 15 use immunity agreement did not purport to bind the DA's Office, and offered to allow Doe to plead to second-degree sodomy, with a sentence of probation, rather than to a forcible sodomy charge that would mandate a prison sentence. Angry that Richman had apparently misconstrued the immunity agreement, Doe fired him and retained another lawyer, who negotiated the plea bargain. 12 In February 1995, Doe pled guilty in Westchester County Court to one count of second-degree sodomy. During the plea allocution, Doe was asked, Do you admit that you, in the Village of Tarrytown... on or about and between July 1st of 1993 and August 13th of 1993, being 18 years of age or more, engaged in deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 14 years of age, consisting of contact between mouth and penis? Doe, under oath, admitted the charge. Approximately ten months after entering the guilty plea, Doe rehired Richman and attempted to withdraw his plea on the basis of an alleged jurisdictional defect, but did not assert his actual innocence. The motion was denied, and Doe was sentenced to five years' probation in January 1996. The Appellate Division affirmed the conviction in relevant part in September 1997, and denied leave to appeal on August 19, 1998. The AEDPA limitations period therefore began running on November 19, 1998, after the 90-day period to seek certiorari with the United States Supreme Court expired. See Pratt v. Greiner, 306 F.3d 1190, 1195 & n. 1 (2d Cir.2002). Doe did not immediately file a state collateral challenge to his conviction pursuant to New York Criminal Procedure Law § 440.10. 13 In November 1998, Doe was arrested on federal charges of conspiring to receive and possess child pornography over the internet. 10 After it became apparent that the New York second-degree sodomy conviction would adversely affect Doe's sentencing under the United States Sentencing Guidelines, 11 Doe retained attorney Patrick Wall in February 1999 to collaterally attack the conviction in New York Supreme Court by filing a § 440 motion. Because Doe was incarcerated in a federal facility at the time, he gave his brother, Peter Gould, a power of attorney to enable him to retain, pay and supervise Wall. Despite Doe's and Gould's supervision, Wall decided to delay filing the § 440 motion until the federal pre-sentence report was completed, at least in part because the motion might not be necessary if the pre-sentence report did not use the sodomy conviction to enhance Doe's sentencing calculation. When the AEDPA limitations period expired on November 19, 1999, Wall had not yet filed the § 440 motion, thereby losing the opportunity to invoke 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2)'s provision for tolling the limitations period during the pendency of a state post-conviction motion. By February 2000, it was apparent that Wall's various health problems were preventing him from working on the motion, and Doe fired him. Doe finally filed the § 440 motion in May 2000, alleging that the DA's Office withheld exculpatory evidence, committed prosecutorial misconduct by breaching the federal use immunity agreements, and coerced his guilty plea. The motion was denied in June 2001, 12 and the Appellate Division denied leave to appeal in November 2001.