The Schuylkill County man sentenced last year to 40-80 years for raping a child in his home is appealing his conviction, saying he had inadequate legal represenation at trial.
John Thomas Riley, 46, of Pottsville, was in Courtroom 7 at Schuylkill County Courthouse on Thursday for a Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) hearing, at which he claimed his two attorneys, namely lead attorney William Stephens, did not stay in communication with him leading up to his trial last September. And at trial, Riley said they did not present evidence that he believes could have spared him from spending decades behind bars.
Riley is currently an inmate at SCI-Benner Township. At his trial last year, a Schuylkill County jury found him guilty on all 15 charges – 14 of them felonies – he was facing, including rape, rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and statutory sexual assault.
He was represented by Stephens and John Urbanski, who last year ran for Schuylkill County District Attorney in the Republican Party Primary Election. Riley said he originally hired Urbanski to represent him and then Urbanski brought in Stephens, who was then working at the Mack Law Offices in Kingston.
By the time the defense team was prepared for the first trial date, originally scheduled for last Spring, Stephens was lead attorney while Urbanski was to be used for cross-examining the affiant, Pottsville Police Capt. Joseph Welsh. The original trial date was postponed until September because Stephens took ill on the day when opening arguments were to be made.
On the witness stand on Thursday, Riley told his new attorney, Schuylkill County Public Defender Karen Domalakes, that he was “confused” with his legal team’s work starting at his preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge James Reiley. Riley said Stephens and Urbanski didn’t hire a stenographer for that hearing so they could have a transcript of the testimony presented. At that hearing, Riley’s victim presented tearful testimony in which she told of how Riley raped her in his Pottsville home.
“Wouldn’t it have been helpful if a record was made,” Domalakes asked.
Riley simply responded, “Yes.”
Often a transcript of a preliminary hearing or a police affidavit is presented as evidence at a criminal jury trial to show discrepancies in a victim’s or witness’s testimony. However, Stephens said he recorded, with permission of Reiley, audio of the preliminary hearing and had it transcribed by his office.
On the stand Thursday, Stephens told First Assistant District Attorney Mike Stine that his strategy did include bringing up inconsistencies with the victim’s story between the affidavit, the preliminary hearing, and testimony offered at trial. But there were limits as to how far he wanted to go with that.
“We weren’t going to attack every little discrepancy,” he said, specifying things like dates being confused wasn’t something he wanted to bring up in front of the jury. “A lot of her testimony was very vague. We didn’t want to appear to the jury we were picking on her.”
Later, during cross-examination by Domalakes, Stephens said, “I focused on the discrepancies that mattered.”
Riley also said Thursday that between his original trial date and that of the actual proceedings in September, he never heard from Stephens, despite sending emails, texts, and making phone calls.
“I would call the office and I would text,” Riley tesified, saying that up until Sept. 10, he never heard back from Stephens.
During cross-examination by Stine, Riley said it wasn’t until the day before trial that he had an in-person conference with Stephens.
Stephens countered Riley’s claims last week. He admitted to receiving numerous messages and communications from his client and that he did not “respond immediately to everything.”
“We had spent a lot of time meeting with Mr. Riley,” Stephens said, adding that on the original date of the trial, “I was absolutely ready to move forward.”
Stephens said he also cleared his calendar of everything for two days prior to the start of trial.
Further, he said he gave Stephens a list of witnesses that he wanted called to aid in his defense but testified that his attorneys didn’t reach out to them, including the roommate he had at his home, where the crimes occurred.
Stephens again pushed back on Riley’s claims, saying that they didn’t call his roommate as a witness because the two, despite living in the same house, resided on separate floors.
“They didn’t spend a lot of time together in the house,” he said.
While being questioned by Domalakes, Stephens said, “I focused on making it appear that she should not be believed. Our focus was to point out that this story didn’t make sense.”
Riley said he also sent conversations, videos, and a timeline of events between he and his victim. And he says Stephens ignored them.
As for not presenting those messages as evidence, Stephens said there was no “smoking gun” among them and that by presenting them – saying some of the messages were “suggestive” – he would be “opening the door” for the prosecution to cross-examine his client about the nature of the messages.
“She was acting like this because of what was done to her,” Stephens offered up as a hypothetical line of attack the prosecution could have used during the trial. “We didn’t want to open that door.”
Domalakes also questioned Stephens on why he allowed the victim in the case to present uninterrupted testimony while she was on the stand, rarely raising objections to things that were irrelevant. She said some of that testimony – including his house smelling of cat urine – prejudiced the jury about her client.
Urbanski, who was sequestered during Stephens’ testimony, was not called as a witness.
Schuylkill County Judge James Goodman will rule on Riley’s motion for relief.
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