Opinion ID: 4677559
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Post-Conviction Review Proceedings

Text: [¶7] Hodgdon then filed a petition for post-conviction review in the Superior Court (Hancock County). See 15 M.R.S. §§ 2123, 2129 (2021). He argued, among other things, that he had been deprived of his right to the effective assistance of counsel based on (1) trial counsel’s introduction in evidence of the recording and transcript of the entirety of the alleged victim’s police interview and (2) trial counsel’s failure to request jury instructions concerning specific unanimity. The post-conviction court (R. Murray, J.) held an evidentiary hearing. Trial counsel was unavailable to testify because he had died before the hearing took place. The evidence admitted included the 2 On the counts of unlawful sexual contact and sexual abuse of a minor (Counts 6 and 7), which are not at issue in this appeal, see infra ¶ 8, the court imposed concurrent three-year terms of imprisonment. In his direct appeal, Hodgdon argued that (1) the court did not sufficiently instruct the jury that 3 it needed to find that the alleged victim was less than fourteen years old to find him guilty of Counts 5 and 6, (2) the breadth of time encompassed by the indictment exposed him to double jeopardy, and (3) there was insufficient evidence for the jury to find that he had assaulted the alleged victim before she turned fourteen. State v. Hodgdon, 2017 ME 122, ¶ 10, 164 A.3d 959. He also argued that the trial court (Mallonee, J.) should have granted his pretrial motion to dismiss the indictment based on the State’s failure to preserve the alleged victim’s cell phone. Id. ¶ 10 n.5. 6 relevant trial transcripts and exhibits;4 trial counsel’s entire file, which contained copies of communications from trial counsel to Hodgdon; and the testimony of Hodgdon’s expert witness, who opined that trial counsel’s conduct constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. [¶8] In March 2020, the court granted Hodgdon’s petition as to the convictions for unlawful sexual contact and sexual abuse of a minor (Counts 6 and 7), determining that trial counsel’s failure to request specific unanimity instructions concerning those charges amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel. The court therefore vacated Hodgdon’s convictions on those counts, such that only the conviction for gross sexual assault (Count 5) remained. The court found that a specific unanimity instruction was unnecessary for that charge because the trial record contained evidence of only one incident that could have formed the basis for the jury’s finding of guilt. [¶9] The court also determined that trial counsel’s decision to introduce the transcript and recording of the alleged victim’s police interview was part of a trial strategy that “fell within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance.” (Quotation marks omitted.) Concluding that none of Hodgdon’s The post-conviction record included the transcript of the alleged victim’s police interview that 4 had been admitted during the trial, but not the recording. With the agreement of the parties, we ordered that the recording be added to the record on appeal. 7 other arguments merited relief, the court denied Hodgdon’s petition as to the conviction for gross sexual assault (Count 5). [¶10] One month later, in April 2020, we decided Watson v. State, in which we concluded that trial counsel’s introduction of a recording of an alleged crime victim’s interview with police constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. 2020 ME 51, ¶¶ 19-39, 230 A.3d 6. Based on Watson, Hodgdon asked the post-conviction court to reconsider its decision in this case. The court denied his motion. We then granted Hodgdon’s request for a certificate of probable cause to proceed with this appeal. See 15 M.R.S. § 2131(1) (2021); M.R. App. P. 19(a)(2)(F), (f).