Garcia

MEMORANDUM **

Petitioner Eugene Pascual Garcia was convicted for committing a lewd act upon a child under 14 years old in violation of California Penal Code § 288(a) and continuous child abuse in violation of California Penal Code § 288.5. After an unsuccessful direct appeal, Petitioner’s state-court petitions for a writ of habeas corpus were denied without comment. Petitioner then filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in federal court, which the district court denied.

Petitioner argues that admission of pretrial interviews of the victim, Nicole A., in which law enforcement used “highly suggestive interview tactics,” combined with Nicole’s memory loss at trial violated his rights under the Confrontation and Due Process Clauses. Petitioner also maintains that California Evidence Code §§ 1252, 1253, and 1360 were unconstitutional as applied in violation of his rights under the Confrontation and Due Process Clauses, because the hearsay statements did not contain adequate indicia of reliability. After oral argument, we expanded the Certificate of Appealability to include Petitioner’s ineffective assistance of counsel claims for trial counsel’s…