Bonilla v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 231 Conn. App. 836

Syllabus

The petitioner, who had previously been convicted, following a jury trial, of, inter alia, felony murder, appealed, on the granting of certification, from the judgment of the habeas court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He claimed, inter alia, that the court committed plain error when the judge failed to disqualify himself on the ground that he had represented the petitioner in an unrelated matter almost twenty years earlier. Held: The petitioner failed to demonstrate that the habeas judge committed plain error in not disqualifying himself from this matter on the basis of his previous, unrelated representation of the petitioner, as the petitioner, who had cause to know of his prior interactions with the judge, implicitly consented to the judge's adjudication of his petition and waived his right to challenge the decision on this basis. The habeas court did not err in rejecting the petitioner's claims of ineffective assistance of his prior habeas counsel, as those claims lacked merit. Argued February 11—officially released April 8, 2025