Brandon Laureys was convicted by a jury of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. The offense arose from an online encounter with an undercover detective with whom Laureys enthusiastically envisioned sexual encounters with a nine year-old girl. In United States v. Laureys, 653 F.3d 27, 35 (D.C. Cir. 2011), Laureys’ challenge that there was insufficient evidence of intent faltered but the panel remanded his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel to the district court. Following an evidentiary hearing at which his claims were rebuffed, Laureys appealed again. This time, in an opinion written by Circuit Judge Pillard, the Circuit concluded that Laureys’s trial counsel’s “grievously misguided effort to employ a mental health expert in his client’s defense was so flawed as to be ‘the sort of serious blunder that will singlehandedly support a Strickland [v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687-88, 694 (1984)] claim.’” (Slip Op. at 14) (quoting United States v. Hurt, 527 F.3d 1347, 1356 (D.C. Cir. 2008)).
Laureys was a young man with a prior federal sex offense conviction. In 2008, through an internet chat room, he unwittingly ensnared himself in the clutches of Timothy Palchak, a local detective who was posing as a man offering a sexual relationship with his “girlfriend’s”nine year-old daughter. Laureys expressed interest in joining them both for sex (“’you gotta invite me over . . . let me help with the little girl . . . train the little gir[l, man] . . . make her into a good little whore’”). (slip op. at 2). After a series of increasingly sexually-tinged chats, Laureys suggested “’let her meet me and everything first . . . make sure she wants to do it haha . . . could start with just letting me watch her an[d you]. . . til she feels more comfortable.’” (Id. at 3.) For Laureys, the facts got worse — or so it would seem, at least to most people. After Palchak emailed Laureys a picture of a young girl, to which Laureys responded “‘you fucking NEED to let me hang out with her man.’” (Id.) After twice exchanging information about their own physical characteristics, Palchak and Laureys arranged to meet in D.C. When Laureys arrived at Palchak’s location, Laureys was arrested and later convicted of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor (18 U.S.C. § 2422(b)), and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct (18 U.S.C. § 2423(b)). (Id).
This would have been a daunting case for anyone to defend. Trial counsel contacted Dr. Frederick Berlin, a specialist in sexual disorders at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, about potentially serving as an expert witness to support the theory that Laureys lacked the requisite intent, because he had merely been fantasizing about sex with the girl in his chat but really wanted to meet with Palchak for an assignation. Meanwhile trial counsel conducted his own internet search and conjured a different theory – notably one without support in scholarly research (Slip Op. at 15) – that Laureys suffered from “cybersex addiction,” meaning that his “cybersex addiction and sexual compulsivity prevented him from forming the requisite intent.” (Slip Op. at 3-4).