Opinion ID: 2639434
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Joanna's Recantations

Text: In his petition for writ of habeas corpus and later at the reference hearing this court ordered, petitioner presented evidence that Joanna had lied at his capital trial. Petitioner offered declarations by three people that Joanna had told them that her trial testimony was false. The declaration by Allen Dwyer, who had been married to Joanna between 1987 and 1989, stated that during the brief marriage, Joanna several times said that on the night Denise disappeared, Joanna was not with petitioner nor did she see him kill Denise, and that she had passed out drunk in a park in downtown Placerville. Declarations by Dwyer's mother, Anita Hoosier, and a friend, Laura Lawrence, asserted that Joanna had made similar comments to them. In response, the Attorney General prepared a declaration, which Joanna signed on May 10, 1990, denying ever telling anyone that she had lied at trial. On January 16, 1992, Joanna appeared with counsel at the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office. The district attorney granted Joanna immunity from prosecution for any false testimony at petitioner's preliminary hearing or trial or in her May 10, 1990 declaration. Then, in a tape-recorded deposition, Joanna recanted her trial testimony about Denise's murder. Specifically, Joanna denied that the night of June 12, 1984, she saw Denise get into petitioner's car, that moments later, petitioner picked her up, and that the three then drove to a remote area where petitioner stabbed Denise. Joanna acknowledged encountering Bruce Nesthus early the next morning and sleeping at his house, but she could not remember the exact time that she met him because she was drunk and under the influence of drugs. According to Joanna, she told the sheriffs deputies that she witnessed Denise's murder because she believed petitioner had killed Denise, as well as Lynda and Debbie. Some two years later, at the reference hearing in February 1994, Joanna again recanted her trial testimony. She testified that she made up the story about witnessing petitioner kill Denise because of her own suspicions about petitioner and because of pressure put on her by Detective Harnage and Sergeant Wilson. Joanna mentioned telling Kenny Moulton, her boyfriend at the time of the trial, that she had lied at trial. She also said so to her ex-husband (Allen Dwyer), his mother, and Laura Lawrence, the three people who provided declarations in support of the petition. Joanna said that during the trial she became good friends with Sergeant Wilson and his wife Sherry. Sometime after the trial she told Wilson that her trial testimony about seeing petitioner stab Denise was untrue (she claimed to have only heard Denise's screams), and that she did not ride back to Placerville with Joe (someone she had previously met at a teen dance club) but rather with petitioner. Joanna said she delayed telling the district attorney that she had lied at trial because she was afraid that he would prosecute her for perjury and that ex-husband Dwyer would gain custody of their children. She eventually decided to reveal her false testimony because she wanted to clear her conscience and because of significant changes in her lifestyle, explaining that she no longer used drugs or alcohol, and that she had become a practicing Christian.