OPINION
Judge MANNHEIMER
David N. David appeals the superior courts dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief, The superior court concluded that the petition and its supporting doeu-ments failed to state a prima facie case for relief.
For the reasons explained in this oplinon, we concur in the superior courts assessment that Davids petition-in the form it was presented-failed to state a prima facie case. We therefore affirm the superior . courts judgement. However, as we explain in this opinion, we urge judges to be vigilant and pro-active in making sure that the attorneys who are appointed to represent defendants seeking post-conviction relief do,in fact, provide zealous representation to those defendants.
Underlying facts
In 2001, David N. David was accused of first-degree sexual assault and fourth- degree assault. He was tried two times on these charges, the first trial ended in a hung jury, but he was found guilty at the second trial. David appealed, and this Court affirmed his convictions and his sentence in March 2005. See David v. State, unpublished, 2005 WL 662691 (Alaska App.2005).
Several months later, David filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief, assertmg that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel from his trial attorney, Specifically, David alleged that his trial attorney, David Henderson, had not communicated with him prior to trial and had refused to file pre-trial motions. David also alleged that Henderson had failed to perform pre-trial investigation of the case, including the testing of physical evidence. David asserted that the victim of the sexual assault was coerced into identifying David as her assailant, and that these investigative measures were needed to rebut the victims identification and establish Davids innocence.
- In addition, David asserted that his trial attorney had been operating under a conflict of interest,. David contended that this conflict of interest arose bechuse Henderson represented him before and during the two trials, but then Henderson proceeded to abandon him-leaving another attorney, Brian Kay, to represent David at sentencing.
In May 2006, the superior court appointed the Public Defender Ageney to assist David in pursuing this post-conviction relief action. Over the course of the next three years, the Agency assigned a series of attorneys to Davids cage before Davids petition was eventually submitted in its final form..
The first attorney assigned to Davids case was Assistant Public Defender Joshua Fitzgerald, who worked in the Agencys Bethel office. Between July 2006 and May 2008, Fitzgerald asked for (and was granted) eight extensions of time for filing an amended petition for post-conviction relief Fitzgerald gave various reasons for these requested extensions:, not having received the court file in the underlying criminal case; then needing more time to review the trial file and the transeript; and then needing to acquire additional transeripts.
In May 2008 (two years after the Agency G appointment), Fitzgerald notified the superi- or court that -Davids case was being reassigned <to the < Anchorage office-and he asked for a three-month extension of time so that a new attorney could familiarize them-self with the case. ©
The Anchorage office initially assigned Davids case to Assistant Public Defender Dan Lowery: At that point, Davids amended petition was due in late August 2008. Lowery asked for three extensions, totaling eight months, to file the amended petition. Lowery told the superior court that he needed this extra time so that he could consult an expert witness, and also because he was having difficulty communicating with David, who was incarcerated at, the Red Rock Corree-tional Center in Eloy, Arizona.
In March 2009, with the amended petition due on April 21st, the Public Defender Agency transferred Mr. Lowery to a felony trial position, and Davids post-conviction relief case was assigned to Assistant Public Defender Lee Then, less than three weeks later, Ms. DeGrazia went on leave, and Davids case was re-assigned to Mr. Lowery.
Upon re-acquiring Davids case, Lowery gought another filing extension. He told the superior court that the re-assignment of Davids case within the Agency had delayed the copying and transmitting of court files and transcripts to the expert witness, and thus the Agency needed additional time to secure the expert witnesss opinion in the case.
Finally, in June 2009-3% years after David filed his original pro se petition for post-conviction relief, and more than 3 years after the Agencys appointment-Lowery notified the superior court that he would not be - filing an amended petition, and that he would instead proceed on Davids pro se petition, Lowery did, however, supplement this pro se petition with a one-page affidavit from Davids trial attorney, David Henderson.
In this affidavit, Henderson responded to Davids contentions that he had failed to file pre-trial motions, and that he had failed to investigate the case. Henderson stated that he was not aware of any pre-trial motions that should have been filed and that he was likewise unaware of [any] evidence that should have been independently tested. Henderson added that he had employed an investigator to investigate Davids alibi defense, but this investigator failed to come up with any witness who would corroborate [Davids] alibi. __ .
With,. respect to Davids claim,. that Henderson had not communicated with him about the case, Henderson asserted that he had communicated with Mr. David at the jail on a number of occasions, and that he had corniveyed the [States plea bargain] offer to him-an offer which [David] rejected!
Finally, with respect to Davids claim that Henderson had a conflict of interest, Henderson asserted that he [was] not aware of any conflict of interest that prohibited [him] -from. representing Mr, David. Henderson explained that, by the time of Davids sentencing, he was no longer working for the Office of Public Advocacy, so Mr. Kay handled that matter. Henderson declared that he had had nothing to do with Davids sentencing or his direct appeal. ,
Nothing else happened in Davids case for over a year. Then, in July 2010-thirteen months after Lowery announced that he would proceed on Davids original pro se petition (as supplemented by Hendersons affidavit)-the State filed a motion to dismiss Davids petition for post-conviction relief on the ground that David had failed to set forth a prima facie case for relief. The superior court tentatively agreed with the State that Davids petition was legally inadequate, and the court gave Lowery an additional 90 days to supplement the petition.
Lowery responded to the superior court’ order by submitting an affidavit executed by David, in which David provided a more detailed description of his claims for post-conviction relief,
In this affidavit, David faulted Henderson for failing to point out that there were many other convicted sex offenders living in Bethel .at the time of the sexual assault, and that hundreds of other suspects could have com-fitted the assault. David also asserted that the victims identification of him as her assailant was not anywhere close to reliable because the victims initial descnptlon of her attacker did not match David." David contended that Henderson should have hired an expert on eyethness identification .to attack the victims identification of him.
Davids affidavit also described several potential reasons to doubt the accuracy or the credibility of testimony given by various government Wltnesses at his trial.
In add1t1on to this supplemental affidawt David also submitted a separate pro se pleading in which he made an additional assertion: that Henderson gave him incompetent legal advice by failing to warn him that, if he pleaded guilty, this would prejudice his ability to defend any civil lawsuit filed by the victim. (This particular allegation was merit-less on its face, because David did not plead guilty; rather, he went to trial -twice.)
After receiving these supplemental pleadings, the superior court again concluded that David had failed to set forth a prima facie case for post-conviction relief, The court acknowledged that David had identified pos-gible flaws in the States evidence against him. But the court noted that [these] issues ... were all addressed in. [Davids] two trials. In other words, Davids trial attorney was aware of these potential flaws in the States case, and he pursued them.
The superior court re-affirmed its earlier conclusion that David had failed to provide any reason to believe that Hendersons handling of the case was below. the minimum level of competence expected of criminal defense attorneys,. And the court therefore dismissed Davids petition..
Why we agree with the superior court that Davids pleadings foiled to set forth a prima facie case for post-conviction relief
The question of whether a petition for post-conviction relief and its supporting . documents adequately set forth a prima facie case for relief is a question of law. We therefore review the superior courts decision on this question de novo-4.e, without deference to the superior courts conclusion. See Burton v. State, 180 P.3d 964, 974 (Alaska App.2008).
(We acknowledge that thls Court has previously issued several decisions where we stated that the standard of review governing this question is abuse of discretion. Those decisions are wrong. )
,Dav1d’s petition for post-éqnviction relief contains several claims of ineffective assistance of counsel against his trial lawyer, Henderson. Specifically, David contends that Henderson did not communicate with him prior to trial, that Henderson refused or neglected to file pre-trial motions, and that Henderson did not perform a pretrial investigation of the case (including a fallure to seek testing of physical evidence). .
But for purposes of deciding whether Davids pleadings set forth a prima facile case that Hendersons representation was ineffective, the superior court was not required to accept the truth of these broad assertions unless David backed them up with specifics. See LaBrake v. State, 152 P.3d 474, 480-81 (Alaska App.2007), where this Court held that when a trial court rules on the legal sufficiency of a petition for post-conviction relief, the court need not presume the truth of [a defendants] assertions concerning the legal effect or categorization of the underlying occurrences [nor a defendants] concluso-ry assertions concerning the ultimate facts to be decided.
Here, Dawd’s petition (even in 1ts supple— mented form) does not present any specifics to support his claims of lack. of communication-and Hendersons affidavit asserts just the opposite.
Davids supplemented petition does identify potential flaws in the States criminal case, and David asserts that Henderson failed to pursue these areas of inquiry. But the superior court found that these weaknesses in the States case were explored at Davids two trials. And as this Court said in LaBrake, the court need not assume the truth of assertions that are patently false or unfounded, based on the existing record or based on the courts own Juchcml notice. Id at 481.
Davids petition also asserts that Henderson was incompetent for failing -to present expert testimony on the subject of eyewitness identification. (to attack the vice-tims identification of David as her assailant), and for failing to obtain expert testing of the physical evidence in the case. But Davids petition offers no specific reasons to believe that this proposed expert testimony, or the results of this proposed expert testing, would have helped him.
(We note that the record of the post-conviction relief Htigation-in particular, Mr. Lowerys request for an extension of time-suggests that Lowery intended to consult an expert of some sort, and that Lowery was going to provide this expert with materials from Davids case. But Lowery apparently decided not to present any information on this issue (whatever it might have been), because Lowery did not amend or supplement Davids petition with any offer of expert testimony.)
Davids petition also asserts that his trial attorney was operating under a conflict of interest. But David offers no evidence to support a finding that a conflict existed. As we have explained, David asserted that this purported conflict arose because Henderson,, after representing him at his two trials, stopped working for the Office of Public Ad-vocaey-leaving another attorney, Brian Kay, to handle Davids sentencing hearing. But David does not offer any evidence that Kay was unprepared to represent him at sentencing, or that this change of attorneys prejudiced him in any other way, or that this change of attorneys violated Hendersons responsibilities to David under the applicable rules of professional conduct.
And finally, Davids supplemental pro se pleading asserts that Henderson gave him incompetent legal advice by failing to warn him that, if he pleaded guilty, this would prejudice his ability to defend any civil lawsuit filed by the victim. But as we have already explained, this contention is merit-less on its face, because David did not plead guilty. He pleaded not guilty, and he went to trial.
In sum, we agree with the superior court that Davids petition for post-conviction relief did not set forth a prima facie case for relief.
A mote on the disturbing procedural history of this case
Even though we agree with the superior court that Davids petition failed to set forth a prima fucie case for post-conviction relief, we would be remiss if we failed to comment on the manner in which Davids litigation was handled by his attorneys.
© When an attorney is appointed to represent an indigent defendant who has filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief, Alaska Criminal Rule 85.1(e)(2) requires the post-conviction relief attorney to do one of three things: (1) elect to go forward on the petition as drafted by the client, (2) draft and file an amended petition, or (8) certify to the superi- or court that the petitioner has no colorable claim for relief.
In Griffin v. State, 18 P.3d 71 (Alaska App.2001), this Court held that when the attorney pursues the third course of action listed in Rule certifying that the defendant has no claims of any arguable merit-the attorney must explain in detail why they reached this. conclusion. Id. at 76-77. © :
Our decision in Griffin was based in large measure on the need to protect an indigent defendants constitutional right to counsel. Under the United States Supreme Courts decision in Smith v. Robbins, a court must not allow a court-appointed attorney to concede that an indigent defendants case has no arguable merit-lie., to concede that there are no colorable arguments to be made in favor of the defendants position-unless the attorney has presented the court with sufficient information to allow the court to independently determine that this is true, In Griffin, we concluded that if we did not interpret Criminal Rule 35.1(e)(2) to require a detailed explanation from the defendants post-conviction relief attorney, the superior court would not be able to comply with its duty under Smith v. Robbins to ensure that the defendant received zealous and competent representation. Griffin 18 P.8d at 77.
Two years later, in Tazruk v. State, 67 P.3d 687 (Alaska App.2008), we applied this same rationgle in a case where the defendants court-appointed attorney pursued the first course of action listed in Criminal Rule electing to go forward on the pro se petition drafted by the defendant. The problem in Taosruk was that all of the claims listed in the defendants pro se petition were either facially meritless or, at best, facially inadequate to survive a motion to dismiss. Id. at 690.
When the State filed a motion to dismiss the petition (on the ground that it failed to state a prima facie case for relief), Tazruks attorney did not seek leave to amend or supplement the defendants claims, nor did the attorney ask for more time to investigate the claims and (potentially) adduce more evidence to support them. Instead, Tazruks attorney announced that he had nothing to say in opposition to the States motion to dismiss, Ibid.
We concluded that the record in Tazruks case raised the same constitutional concerns that were presented in Griffin-because it was impossible to tell whether Tazruks attorney zealously and competently worked on the case. As we explained:
Even if we assume that Tazruk did receive effective assistance-that is, even if we assume that a zealous and competent attorney could have done nothing more to advance Tazruks claims-the fact remains that the record contains no indication that Tazruks attorney ever investigated these claims, sought to adduce support for them through discovery, or sought to reformulate them so that they might survive a motion to dismiss. The record shows only the attorneys inaction and ultimate concession of defeat. As was true in Griffin such a record is insufficient to allow the courts to carry out their constitutional duty to make sure that an indigent petitioner receives zealous and competent representation.
We hasten to add that an attorneys decision to adopt the claims stated in their clients existing petltlon for post-conviction relief does not necessarfly bespeak attorney inattention or neglect
But in Tazruks case, there is no record that the attorney did anything to pursue or develop Tazruks claims. We do not know whether the attorney actually investigated these claims or otherwise worked to develop them; if he did, there is no record of it: And because of this gilent record, .we are faced with a Griffin problem.. We do not know-and have no way of assessing-whether the attorney zealously represented Tazruks interests.
Tazruk, 67 P.B3d at 691 (emphasis in the original).
Turning to the facts of Davids case; we acknowledge that the record in Davids case is somewhat fuller than the record in Tazruk.
The pleadings in Davids case suggest that one or more attorneys from the Public Defender Agency reviewed the trial file and the transeript from Davids underlying eriminal case. And one of Mr. Lowerys motions for an extension of time suggests that he consulted (or at least intended to consult) some kind of expert witness. And, in the end, Lowery supplied the superior court with a supplemental affidavit from David, as well as a one-page affidavit from Davids trial attorney-in which the trial attorney denied all of Davids assertlons of ineffective assistance.
But even so, we confront a problem in Davids case that is analogous in many ways to the problem we confronted in Tagruk. On their face, the claims raised in Davids pro se petition suffered from serious deficiencies. The existing record suggests that Davids series of attorneys demonstrated an acceptable level of competence and zeal when they investigated Davids potential claims for post-conviction relief, but we concede that the record also leaves a certain level of doubt on this score. <
In the end, we can not say that the superi- or court acted improperly when it dismissed Davids petition for post-conviction relief on the pleadings-and we therefore uphold the superior courts resolution of this case. But we urge superior court judges to be proactive. in protecting the rights of indigent defendants when, as here, court-appointed attorneys keep shlftmg a defendants case back and forth for months or years, with little discernible progress in the formulation or presentation of the defendants claims.
Conclusion
The judgement of the superior court is AFFIRMED. c
. See, eg., Cole v, State, 72 P.3d 322, 323-24 (Alaska App.2003); Tall v. State, 25 P.3d 704, 708 (Alaska App.2001); Jerrel v. State, 851 P.2d 1365, 1373 (Alaska App.1993); Brown v. State, 803 P.2d 887, 889-890 (Alaska App.1990).
. See also Hoendermis v. Advanced Physical Therapy, Inc., 251 P.3d 346, 351 (Alaska 2011), and Nielson v. Benton, 903 P.2d 1049, 1051-52 (Alaska 1995), holding that it is a question of law whether a civil plaintiffs case is sufficient to survive a motion for summary judgement-and that, for this reason, the trial courts ruling on this issue is reviewed de novo on appeal.
. 528 U.S. 259, 276-281, 120 S.Ct. 746, 759-762, 145 LEd.2d 756 (2000).