Full opinion text
ROBERT J. WARD, District Judge. In this petition for a writ of habeas corpus, filed on June 13,1990, petitioner Sheila Ryan DeLuca (“DeLuca”) asserts that she was (1) denied effective assistance of counsel and (2) deprived of her Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to present a defense by the trial court’s exclusion of expert testimony. This Court initially referred the matter to Magistrate Judge Kathleen A. Roberts, who conducted an evidentiary hearing and filed a Report and Recommendation dated December 21, 1993 (the “Report”). Magistrate Judge Roberts’ comprehensive and detailed Report recommends that petitioner’s application for a writ of habeas corpus be denied. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), petitioner filed timely objections to the Report. After conducting a de novo review, this Court grants the writ on the grounds that petitioner was denied the effective assistance of trial counsel. BACKGROUND I. The Uncontested Facts On the evening of September 21, 1982, Sheila Ryan DeLuca, a recently retired New York City police officer, met friends and family at Pauline’s Bar and Grill in the Bronx to celebrate her forty-second birthday and her retirement from the police force, as well as the Kingsbridge Women’s Softball championship which her team had won that afternoon. Because DeLuca’s husband, Peter DeLuca, was not feeling well, she drove him home early. However, Mr. DeLuca insisted that his wife return to the party since she was the “guest of honor.” While DeLuca spent the night celebrating at Pauline’s, Robert Bissett (“Bissett”) began the evening watching a televised New York Yankee game and drinking a few beers with his friends Eugene Murphy (“Murphy”) and Robert Barrett (“Barrett”). After the game, the three friends climbed into Bissett’s black Ford van and drove to a bar called “Scotty’s,” where they drank more beer and played pool. After Scotty’s closed, the three friends drove to an “after-hours club” located on East 231st Street, near Albany Crescent, arriving between 4:30 and 5:00 on the morning of September 22, 1982. Shortly thereafter, DeLuca entered the same after-hours club with her friend, Karyn Travelina, a schoolteacher, who had been celebrating with her at Pauline’s. Although the three men did not know DeLuca or Travelina, Bissett approached the two and struck up a conversation. By 6:30 or 7:00 a.m., DeLuca and her friend, along with the three young men left the club. At some point, DeLuca got into her light blue Cadillac with the three men and spent the early morning hours driving around the Bronx. Bissett sat in the passenger seat while Murphy and Barrett rode in the back. Continuing to drink beer and wine, the four drove around for a number of hours, eventually winding up at the Bronx Park Motel where they rented a room. At first, only Murphy and Barrett entered the motel, where they drank more beer and watched a pornographic film. Eventually, Bissett and DeLuca entered. Bissett then asked his two friends to leave so that he could be alone in the room with DeLuea. Locked outside, his friends quickly became angry and began banging on the door. In fact, Murphy became so enraged that he kicked in a window located three feet above the ground. Hearing the disturbance, the motel manager told his clerk to call the room and order the group to leave. After that telephone call, Murphy and Barrett left the hotel on foot. Meanwhile, De-Luca and Bissett drove in her car back to Bissett’s van, which was parked near the after-hours club. The two entered his van, drove for some time, and finally parked in a deserted area alongside the service road adjacent to the Major Deegan Expressway near Fordham and Landing Roads. At approximately 2:00 in the afternoon, DeLuca left the van and headed towards Fordham Road, where she called her husband. After being out all night, DeLuca arrived home in her own car sometime around 2:30 on the afternoon of September 22nd. Her husband, who had gone out looking for his wife, drove up almost immediately after-wards. Shortly before 7:00 that evening, Mr. DeLuca, himself a retired New York City Police Captain, telephoned the 46th Precinct Detective Unit and told the police that they would find a body in a van located behind the Dale Oldsmobile Auto Dealership. The police investigated the scene and found Bis-sett’s dead body. He had been shot in the head four times. DeLuca’s husband again called the police sometime around 8:00 p.m. and stated that the man in the van had raped his wife at approximately 1:00 that afternoon. Mr. De-Luca told the desk sergeant that he wanted to speak to the “Rape Squad”. Shortly thereafter, Sergeant Rudolph Eberhardt (“Eberhardt”) of the Bronx Sex Crimes Squad called the DeLucas. After answering the telephone, Mr. DeLuca immediately handed the receiver to his wife who described her abduction and rape to the sergeant. According to Eberhardt, DeLuca told him that, as she left the after-hours club, she was forced into a van by three men and taken to a motel near the Bronx Zoo. She stated that one of the men had subsequently forced her back into the van and taken her to the vicinity of Fordham Road and the Major Deegan Expressway where he had raped her. De-Luca also told Eberhardt that she finally managed to escape by hitting the man on the head with a bottle, which caused him to roll off of her. DeLuca stated that when she left the van, Bissett was lying in the back, bleeding. She then walked to a gas station, where she called her husband to come get her. When he failed to appear, DeLuca walked back to her car, and drove home. DeLuca then told Eberhardt that she did not wish to say anything more without her lawyer present. The first police officers arrived at petitioner’s home sometime around 8:45 p.m. While Peter DeLuca introduced himself and his wife as former officers and stated that “the bum in the truck down there raped my wife this afternoon,” petitioner remained quiet. A few minutes later John Patten (“Patten”), the DeLucas’ newly retained attorney, telephoned and told the officers that he did not want his clients speaking to the police prior to his arrival. No further efforts were made to interview the DeLucas after Patten’s call. Arriving at the DeLucas’ home, Patten announced that he would not allow any questioning of petitioner or her husband, but asked that the rape investigation proceed. John GaNun (“GaNun”), Patten’s law partner, arrived soon after and the DeLucas spent some time consulting privately with their attorneys. Following Patten’s advice, DeLuca then gave the police the jeans, sneakers, sweater, and torn underpants she had been wearing the previous evening. Eberhardt noticed that the pant legs of the jeans were still damp up to a point approximately nine inches above their bottoms and that the sneakers were also damp. The DeLucas and their counsel accompanied the police back to the 52nd Precinct where petitioner filled out a formal rape complaint, in which she claimed that three men had abducted her using a knife. After filling out her complaint, DeLuea was taken to North Central Bronx Hospital for a medical examination and returned home with a Detective Fusilli sometime after midnight. Pursuant to an earlier agreement entered into with Patten’s consent, DeLuea went to her bedroom to retrieve her guns and turn them over to the police. Peter DeLuea, who was waiting in the living room with Fusilli, reached over a nearby hutch and picked up a holstered, off-duty revolver which he gave to Fusilli. Mr. DeLuea told the detective, “This is the gun you’re looking for.” Detective Fusilli unloaded the .38 calibre revolver and found that it contained five spent shells. Petitioner then came out of the bedroom and produced two additional regular service revolvers which were loaded with eleven live bullets. Ballistics tests positively established that petitioner’s off-duty revolver, which contained the five spent shells, had been recently fired and was the same gun that was used to kill Bissett. Investigators searching petitioner’s blue Cadillac discovered two beer bottles and a beer can. A latent fingerprint lifted from a Heineken bottle was identified as belonging to Robert Barrett. On Friday, September 24, 1982, DeLuea was arrested for the murder of Robert Bissett. II. Defense Counsel’s Pre-Trial Investigation DeLuea first told Patten her version of the events of September 21 and 22, 1982 on the night that he was retained as her counsel. After asking the police to cease their questioning of DeLuea and her husband, Patten and GaNun had a private conversation with the couple. During that meeting, DeLuea explained the facts and circumstances surrounding the shooting of Bissett, an account she repeatedly discussed with her counsel prior to trial. A. The Petitioner’s Version of Events DeLuea testified before Magistrate Judge Roberts that at approximately 4 a.m., she and Travelina arrived at the after-hours club in her car. After entering the bar, they were approached by Bissett and his friends, who offered to buy them drinks. DeLuea and Travelina were polite but answered that they already had drinks. Bissett, Murphy, and Barrett responded by calling the two women “dykes” and “lesbians.” DeLuea overheard their remarks and answered “You don’t know who we are. You don’t know what we’re about. And I just wish you’d leave us alone and stop calling [us] names.” DeLuea then moved to the black-jack table while Travelina remained at the bar. According to petitioner’s testimony, she played cards for approximately two hours. Eventually, Travelina told DeLuea that she needed to call a colleague, whom she was supposed to drive to school in the morning. Since Travelina did not want her Mend to know why she was missing school that day, she decided not to make the telephone call from the noisy bar. DeLuca and Travelina walked out of the club and petitioner offered to drive Travelina to the nearest telephone but Travelina told her that she could use the walk. The two parted company and DeLuca re-entered the club and resumed playing cards. When DeLuca left the bar about a half hour later, she was accosted by Barrett, Murphy, and Bissett. Bissett allegedly told her, “We’re going to have some fun. Get in the car and don’t say anything. My Mends and I are going to have a party. Just do as we say and you won’t get hurt.” They forced her into the driver’s seat of her Cadillac. Then, pushing her seat-back forward, Barrett and Murphy climbed into the back of her car. Bissett ran around the front of the car and got in the passenger seat beside DeLuca. Once they were all in the car, either Bissett or Murphy threatened DeLuca with a knife. There was an argument among the men as to who should drive. Since she was the most sober, DeLuca offered to drive and they all agreed with her suggestion. The three men then ordered her to drive through the Bronx, telling her “to turn at various places.” During the ride, Barrett, Bissett, and Murphy began talking about various sexual exploits that they had engaged in with other women, which they referred to as “gangbangs.” The men discussed going up to the country to do what they had done to another woman, including tying her to a bed “and that type of thing.” DeLuca recalled Bissett asking her, ‘Wouldn’t you like that?” From that moment on, DeLuca stated that she did not speak to them at all. Angered that she would not reply to his question, Bissett told his Mends, “[t]his one is not cooperative like the others,” and told her, “I’ll have you know, killing is nothing to me, I’ve done it before.” The other men just laughed. DeLuca recalled that the men smoked marijuana and snorted a white powder and it appeared to DeLuca that Bissett was in charge. DeLuca testified that she thought she was going to be raped and killed. Escape did not seem possible. She thought about crashing her car, but could not bring herself to do it and she saw no police cars — to whom she could wave for help — while she was driving. Although she recalled stopping to buy more beer, she did not remember stopping at a paint store, nor stopping at the Bissett home. DeLuca was not aware of how long she drove; she knew only that it “seemed like forever” and that she was “completely terrorized.” DeLuca continued driving until they reached the Bronx Park Motel. While the other two men went into the room he had rented, Bissett told DeLuca, “this is what it is going to be. [The] four of us are going to go and we’re going to have sex.” DeLuca begged him to let her go. He said, “behave yourself, and it will be over soon ... I don’t want to hear you talking above a whisper, just walk into the room and do as I say when you get in there. If you don’t do as we ask, we’re just going to kill you.” Hoping to isolate Bissett from the others so that she could plead her case, DeLuca told him that she was “not used to this. I’m not a hooker.” She urged Bissett to get rid of Barrett and Murphy because she would be more willing to have sex with him alone. In apparent agreement, Bissett sent the other two men out of the room, telling them that he would let them in when it was their turn. Barrett and Murphy left reluctantly, telling Bissett that they did not want to stand outside for long, and that he better not keep DeLuca all to himself. After Barrett and Murphy left, Bissett tried to take DeLuca’s top off. When she pulled away, he “smashed her” in the shoulder or neck and reminded DeLuca that he had already warned her. Barrett and Murphy started pounding on the door yelling for Bissett to let them in. Murphy then kicked in the window. Shortly thereafter, the telephone rang and Bissett picked it up. After he hung up, he was “furious at everybody.” Cursing uncontrollably, Bissett yelled, “bitch, all you had to do was cooperate. You said you would if I let those other two guys out, and you went back on your promise.” To Barrett and Murphy he screamed, “you fucks, you screwed it up.” Visibly and verbally angry, he told DeLuca to get in the car, threatening, “if you dare cause me any more trouble you’re dead.” Barrett and Murphy left the motel on foot, while DeLuca and Bissett drove off in her ear with DeLuca at the wheel. Although DeLuca is not sure how long she drove with Bissett, she testified that they ended up back at Bissett’s van, where he repeated his warning that she better not try anything and ordered her to get into the back of the van. She does not remember seeing a weapon, but she did testify that as she climbed in, he gave her “a good shove.” Immediately, DeLuca glanced around the inside of the van and saw that there were no doors other than the two in front and the two in the very back. She also noticed that there was no door handle on the front passenger door and that the dashboard, floor, and walls were all carpeted. Bissett climbed into the driver’s seat and drove to the location near Fordham and Landing Roads. There, Bissett punched De-Luca several times, took off her clothes, and then forced her to perform oral sex on him. He then threw her down and attempted to anally rape her, but was unsuccessful. Finally, he forced her to have vaginal intercourse. “He was on top of me for a long time,” she testified, “and then he just became still and didn’t move.” At this point, DeLuca grabbed a bottle that was in the back of the van and struck Bissett on the head, causing him to roll off of her. DeLuca quickly put on as many clothes as she could and climbed out of the front driver’s side door. Petitioner testified that she did not have her gun with her and did not believe she hit Bissett hard enough to kill him. DeLuca ran away from the van to a gas station on Broadway. There, she called her husband and asked him to pick her up. Realizing after she hung up that she had inadvertently given him the wrong address, and afraid that Bissett might chase her, petitioner decided to walk back to her car. DeLuca immediately headed for home but stopped when she passed Travelina driving by in her ear. By this time, Travelina had learned that DeLuca had not returned home the night before and was out looking for her. They waved to each other, pulled over, and Travelina climbed into DeLuea’s car. DeLu-ca then told Travelina that she had been raped, but pleaded with Travelina not to discuss what happened with anyone. She just felt lucky to be alive and wanted to go find her husband. When Travelina asked her why she did not kill her rapist, DeLuca told her she did not have her gun. Leaving Travelina, petitioner continued her drive home. As she turned into her driveway, Mr. De-Luca pulled in right behind her and asked her where she had been. DeLuca apologized to her husband for giving him the wrong address. Noticing that the console of her car was twisted, he asked if everything was alright. She told him there had been a problem earlier, but that everything was alright now, an answer she claims he accepted because their “relationship was based on trust.” DeLuca testified that she initially tried to forget what happened to her. She did not want to talk about the rape and just kept thinking how lucky she was that the ordeal was over and she was still alive and walking. After getting out of her clothes and showering, DeLuca tried to take a nap. However, even though she had been awake for over twenty-four hours, she was too disturbed to fall asleep. She decided to go into the living room where she spoke with her husband. DeLuca said she tried to appear “as normal as I possibly could be” during the conversation. When Mr. DeLuca asked her where she had been, she told him about the after-hours bar, which petitioner claims he “understood readily,” since he knew she liked to play cards. It was not until Mr. DeLuca drove their housekeeper home, however, that DeLuca began to break down. She started crying and shaking violently. While she was still alone in the house, she took another shower to calm down and relax. However, this attempt at therapy did not work and she continued to weep uncontrollably. When her husband returned, he was shocked to see his normally stoic wife “go[ing] to pieces.” Mr. DeLuca immediately tried to comfort his wife and questioned her about what happened. Petitioner testified that she tried to hold back, but eventually broke down and told him about the abduction and rape. She felt nauseated and was in pain. Fearing venereal disease, she told her husband that she needed to go to the hospital. Before leaving, she went to her bedroom and got her gun because she “felt so vulnerable” and wanted protection. Mr. DeLuca wanted to report the rape, but she told him she did not want to talk to anybody. DeLuca testified that she felt embarrassed about reporting the rape to the police, because, as a former police officer from the Bronx, she was afraid someone she knew might find out. Mr. DeLuca persisted, however, and even offered to report the incident himself if his wife could tell him where it took place. DeLuca told her husband that she did not know the names of the streets where it happened, but agreed to show him where she was raped so that he could report it. On the way to the hospital, DeLuca directed her husband to the site of the rape. As they neared the scene, DeLuca was shocked when her husband pointed out that Bissett’s van was still there. DeLuca testified that she wanted to leave, but her husband parked the car, got out, and walked towards the van, heading around a puddle toward the driver’s side door. Afraid to be left alone, DeLuca followed, instinctively reverting to police procedures — drawing her pistol and going to the other side of the van. As her husband opened the front driver’s side door, DeLuca opened the front passenger door and they peered into the van together, although, at first, they saw no one. Mr. DeLuca told his wife that the van was probably stolen, but there might be fingerprints that they could use to track down her assailant. Suddenly, her husband, who was standing on the driver’s side running board, yelled, “There he is. Get out of there, you son of a bitch!” DeLuca testified that she then saw Bissett lunge from the back of the van, up and between the two front seats. He shoved Mr. DeLuca away with his left arm, knocking him off the running board and out of DeLu-ca’s field of vision. DeLuca, who was standing in a position to protect her gun, called out “Don’t move.” Bissett ignored DeLuca’s warning and pounced at her, yelling, “Bitch, this time you’re dead. I’m going to kill you.” He grabbed her left arm and started pulling her into the van. Because she was caught off balance, DeLuca testified that she feared Bissett would get her gun and kill both her husband and herself. Although she cannot recall how many shots she fired, she remembered that she shot more than once and fired as rapidly as she could at his upper body and head. Hearing the gunfire, Mr. DeLuca ran around the van, calling out to his wife, “My God, I thought you were shot.” DeLuca testified that she does not know how her husband navigated the puddle because she could not see him when he was behind the van. Seeing his wife “visibly upset” and shaking uncontrollably, Mr. DeLuca took the gun from her hand, climbed up to peer into the van, shut the passenger door, and walked her back to their car. The DeLucas immediately drove home where her husband called the police. B. Other Evidence Available To the Defense In preparation for trial, Patten gathered additional evidence in order to strengthen DeLuca’s credibility and provide corroboration for her version of the events of September 21-22, 1982. 1. Peter DeLuca' and Karyn Travelina’s Testimony Patten was aware that both Peter DeLuca and Karyn Travelina were eyewitnesses to the events petitioner described to him and both were available to verify her testimony. Mr. DeLuca, like his wife, met with Patten and GaNun immediately after the shooting and told them of his involvement in the sequence of events leading up to Bissett’s death. Karyn Travelina would have been able to testify about the encounter with the three men in the after-hours club and her discussion with DeLuca when she' ran into her on her way home. Throughout the pretrial period, Mr. DeLu-' ca expressed his desire to testifyinhis wife’s defense. In furtherance of that desire, Mr. DeLuca provided counsel with notes summarizing his recollection of the events. A review of those notes indicates that, at trial, Mr. DeLuca could have testified about: (1) his wife’s telephone calls in the early afternoon of September 22, 1982; (2) her complaint of rape later that afternoon and her fragile emotional and physical state at the time; (3) their trip to the area where the van was parked as well as their unexpected encounter with Bissett; and (4) the early evening time of the shooting, which was contrary to the prosecution’s theory. Shortly after her arrest, he was diagnosed as having cancer, and the trial date was adjourned several times because his medical condition made his ability to testify questionable. Ultimately, Mr. DeLuca had the nerve endings in his back severed, so that he would be able to testify without suffering too much pain. 2.Medical and Physical Evidence Patten was also aware that Dr. Guidetti, the physician at North Central Bronx Hospital who examined DeLuca the night she reported the rape to the police, as well as her attending nurse, were available to testify that DeLuca was in severe pain and suffered vaginal redness and bleeding. In addition, photographs, taken on September 24, 1982, which showed bruising on DeLuea’s body were available to defense counsel. On the day the photographs were taken, DeLuca was examined by Dr. William Clyne, her family physician. Dr. Clyne signed an affidavit stating that he specifically remembered several large bruises and several smaller bruises on various areas of DeLu-ca’s body, particularly her breasts and thighs and that he did not believe these injuries to be self-inflicted. 3. Character Evidence Many acquaintances of petitioner made it known to Patten that they were willing to testify to DeLuea’s good character and reputation in the community for truth and honesty. Among these prospective witnesses were police officials, former teachers, and members of the Franciscan religious order where DeLuca had trained. 4. Prior Similar Conduct by Bissett To support DeLuea’s claims that Bissett, Barrett, and Murphy had threatened her with tales of past “sexual exploits they had had with other women — gang bangs,” both Patten and DeLuca investigated Bissett’s past. That investigation led them to a woman named Elizabeth Kochovos (“Kochovos”) who told them she would be willing to testify at petitioner’s trial. After reading of Bissett’s death, Kochovos called her local precinct to report that, two years earlier, Bissett had abducted and attempted to assault her. Kochovos explained that she did not pursue her claim against Bissett, because his mother, Helen Bissett, called Koehovos’s mother and pleaded with her not to press charges. The defense learned of this report, and later obtained a statement from Kochovos. In her statement, Ms. Kochovos described how Bissett became enraged and would not let her leave his car. According to Kochovos, Bissett beat her, tore her shirt and underwear, and threatened to take her “to visit some friends.” 5. Rape Trauma Syndrome Evidence Concerned with his client’s apparent lack of an immediate outcry, Patten also sought out evidence on Rape Trauma Syndrome, the symptoms exhibited by victims following a rape. During this search, he was put in contact with Flora Colao, an expert in the field and founder of the St. Vincent’s Hospital Rape Crisis Center. In preparation for trial, DeLuca met with Colao on several occasions. Colao was expected to testify at trial that rape victims often do not “cry out” to the first person they see following a rape, and initially try to resume their normal activities with no mention of the assault. 6. Evidence Concerning DeLuca’s Sexual Orientation Finally, petitioner stated at the hearing before Magistrate Judge Roberts that she was a homosexual and did not have a traditional sexual relationship with her husband. Although Patten does not recall being told this by DeLuea, he does remember having explicit discussions with her about her sexuality. Patten testified that he was aware that DeLuea was not interested in “traditional” heterosexual relations with men and that her only intimate heterosexual contact had occurred when she was abused by an older man when she was eight or nine years old. He also believed that his client’s marriage to Peter DeLuea was more akin to a father/daughter relationship, and characterized it in those terms when speaking to Dr. Daniel Schwartz concerning petitioner. III. The Evidence Presented At Trial A. The Prosecution’s Case The State’s case at trial was built entirely on circumstantial evidence. Largely through the testimony of Murphy and Barrett, as well as the testimony of the after-hours club’s blackjack dealer, Bissett’s mother, the Bronx Park Motel’s clerk and manager, a paint store owner, and the police officers and city officials investigating this case, the prosecution attempted to portray DeLuea as a loose woman, who had gone on a “partying spree,” had “hit on” Bissett, and after satisfying her sexual desires, had murdered him in cold blood. As the prosecutor put it in his closing argument: Strange combination, isn’t it? Bissett and Sheila Ryan DeLuea — 42 year old married woman, 28 year old single man. A probationary fireman who had three months to go until he became full fledged as a fireman in the New York City Fire Department as opposed to the fifteen year veteran cop who had left her husband when he went home after the bar and she went out for more fun and more partying. She got what she wanted. What did Bissett want with a 42 year old heavyset blonde woman when he’s got his girlfriend? What does she want with a 28 year old good-looking fireman? I leave that to you to consider. Both Barrett, a 22 year-old part-time hou-sepainter, and Murphy, a New York City Emergency Medical Services Paramedic, testified that they spent the night of September 22 with their friend Robert Bissett. They both stated that DeLuea and Travelina entered the after-hours club shortly after they had arrived there in the early morning hours of September 22. Although neither Barrett nor Murphy knew DeLuea or Travelina, Bis-sett struck up a conversation with them and spoke with DeLuea at the club’s blackjack table, while Barrett and Murphy continued to talk at the bar. According to the testimony of Barrett, Murphy, and Michael Bellotee (“Bellotee”), the club’s blackjack dealer, the group left the after-hours club together at approximately 6:30 a.m. As petitioner was walking out, Bellotee noticed that Travelina seemed upset and heard DeLuea tell one of the three men, “that he shouldn’t have called her girlfriend a dyke.” The young men laughed it off and then exited. When they emerged from the after-hours club, Barrett and Murphy testified, they walked directly across the street to Bissett’s van, while he remained behind to speak to the women. After a few minutes, Bissett crossed to the van and let his friends in, telling them to wait there until he returned. Bissett then climbed into the back of DeLu-ca’s blue Cadillac and drove away with the two women. Although neither Barrett nor Murphy made any mention of DeLuea re-entering the club once the group had left, according to Bellotee and Robert Safian, the club owner, DeLuea returned within five or ten minutes of leaving the bar to use the ladies room. When she came out of the bathroom, she stopped at Belloise’s blackjack table where Arthur Fuhst and a customer named Diane were still playing. After either Fuhst or Diane said something to petitioner, Belloise testified that he heard her say, “I’m an ex-cop and these guys better not fuck with me because I’ll kill them.” Petitioner then went back outside. According to Barrett and Murphy’s testimony, DeLuca and Bissett returned approximately twenty minutes to a half-hour later without Travelina. DeLuca pulled her Cadillac alongside the van and Bissett, who was now in the front passenger seat, told Barrett and Murphy to get into the car. For about fifteen minutes, the four just sat there parked by the van, passing around some “sparkling wine” which DeLuca and Bissett had been drinking. Leaving the van parked by the after-hours club, DeLuca and the three men began driving around. Barrett and Murphy claimed that petitioner and Bissett “seemed to sort of hit it off,” and they were “sort of left out of the conversation.” As they were being driven around, both Barrett and Murphy dozed off. At one point, Barrett awoke and Bissett gave him money to buy beer in a superette on Fordham Road. At 8:30 a.m., Helen Bissett testified, she was awakened when she heard her son and a woman enter the house. Mrs. Bissett testified that she could not see them, but heard them speaking softly in the entrance foyer. When Bissett came into his mother’s bedroom, she asked him who the unseen visitor was. Her son told her that the woman had to go to the bathroom and that he was then going to take her home. Before leaving, Bissett asked his mother for some money to buy paint, and she gave her son a blank check. Bissett then kissed his mother goodbye and left the house. According to the testimony of William Lipton, the owner of the Blue Store, Bissett stopped by the store sometime between 7:00 and 9:00 on the morning of September 22. Bissett cashed the blank check his mother had given him and used some of the money to pay for an outstanding bill. During the transaction, Bissett had a brief “friendly” chat with Lipton, and, according to Lipton, did not appear to be drunk or “high.” Barrett and Murphy testified that the group continued to drive around the Bronx while drinking more beer and smoking marijuana until they reached the Bronx Park Motel, located on Fordham Road and Croto-na Avenue. Bissett told the motel clerk that he needed a room with a waterbed for a “short stay” and asked for an x-rated movie. When asked to pay, the hotel clerk testified, Bissett flashed his fireman’s badge. At first, only Barrett and Murphy went into the hotel room. They testified that they started to watch the porn film and continued to drink beer. After approximately fifteen or twenty minutes, Bissett came to the door and asked the other two men to leave the room. Barrett and Murphy immediately picked up then-beer and left. Claiming that they became bored and angry because they wanted to go home and were left standing in the parking lot, Murphy and Barrett testified that they began to bang on the door, yelling “let’s go” to Bissett. Then Murphy kicked in the window. When Bissett came to the window, looking a “little angry,” the two took their beer and left on foot. Neither Barrett nor Murphy had ever seen DeLuca with a gun during the time they were with her that morning. Both the motel clerk and manager verified that Bissett had rented the room at 10:00 a.m., and that there was a disturbance about a half hour later. The motel manager, who had observed Murphy kicking in the room’s window, ordered his clerk to call the room and tell its occupants to leave, or he would call the police. The motel clerk called Bis-sett and told him to come to the office for a refund. In response to this call, DeLuca and Bissett left the motel room and got into her car. Although the motel clerk had taken the refund money from the drawer, Bissett never returned to claim it. Sometime between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m., a team of workers from the New York City Department of Water Supply arrived at the service road adjacent to the Major Deegan Expressway. One of their trucks descended a “ramp” into a gully-like, relatively desolate area. Near the bottom of the ramp, about twenty-five feet away from where they parked the truck, the workers saw Bissett’s van and noticed that it was moving around and bouncing up and down. On the van’s door was a sign that read, “Don’t laugh, your daughter might be in here” and the crew joked that, “somebody was getting laid in the van.” Stanley Berman, one of the workers, testified that the front of the van was up on a two-inch curb. Both doors were closed. Berman stated that the van was surrounded by a large puddle of water. A Department of Sanitation front-end loader was also in the area of the van between 1:30 and 2:00 that afternoon. Basil Meóla, the operator of the front-end loader, testified that he saw Bissett’s van parked “half in and half out” of a large puddle of water. Meóla noticed that both front doors were closed, but that the back window was slightly open. Like the water supply workers, he noticed that the van was bouncing up and down. At about 2:00 p.m., one of the water department workers, who was still sitting in his truck, looked up and briefly noticed a tired looking woman matching DeLuca’s appearance (heavyset with’ dark blond hair) stumbling up the ramp. The woman staggered past the two other crew members who had gone to the top of the ramp to do some work. Neither the water department workers, nor Meóla heard any gunshots. In addition, none of the water department employees who saw the woman leave noticed a gun in her hands. At trial, the workers were unable to identify the woman as DeLuca. Ann O’Byrne (“O’Byrne”), an exchange student from Ireland who spent the summer of 1982 in the United States, testified that she worked one day a week as a house cleaner for the DeLucas. On the morning of September 22, O’Byrne met Travelina at Pauline’s where she reluctantly accepted Travelina’s offer to drive her to the DeLuca home, even though Travelina appeared drunk. When the two arrived, Mr. DeLuca told O’Byrne that his wife was not yet awake. After Travelina left, Mr. DeLuca confided in O’Byrne that his wife had not yet returned home from the night before. Sometime around 1:00 p.m., the telephone rang. When Mr. DeLuca answered it, O’Byrne heard him say, “What’s wrong with you now?” O’Byrne did not listen to the rest of Mr. DeLuca’s conversation, but when he hung up he told her that “he was going out looking for Sheila.” At approximately 1:30 p.m., O’Byrne received a telephone call from Mr. DeLuca “to see [whether] Sheila [had] called or come home yet.” O’Byrne informed him that she had not heard from her, to which Mr. DeLu-ea replied, “If she calls or comes home, tell her I’m on my way back.” He arrived home five minutes later and told O’Byrne that he’d been “everywhere looking for Sheila, down by 207th Street by the Mobil gas station.” Mr. DeLuca again drove off in search of his wife. O’Byrne saw DeLuca pull into the driveway in her car sometime around 2:20 p.m. Almost immediately thereafter, Mr. DeLuca pulled up in his tan Ford. O’Byrne noticed that “[t]hey stayed talking in the garden for a few minutes.” Then petitioner entered the house alone and immediately went to her bedroom where she undressed and put on a bathrobe. After getting out of her clothes, DeLuca emerged from her bedroom and told O’Byrne to go downstairs and clean the basement. From the basement, O’Byrne heard the De-Lucas, who were in the living room above, speaking in high-pitched tones. After finishing her cleaning around 3:45, O’Byrne returned to the living room, where she sat between the DeLucas on the couch and drank coffee. O’Byrne noticed that Mr. De-Luca “wasn’t his usual self at all” and that he “didn’t say much.” She also noticed that he was still wearing the same clothing that he had worn earlier in the afternoon, and that there were no water or mud stains on his pant legs. They all spoke briefly about gambling in Atlantic City, where O’Byrne was planning to go with her aunt that Friday. After suggesting that his wife take a look at an article he had been reading about “an after hours gambling place,” Mr. DeLuca drove O’Byrne home sometime around 4:30 p.m. The police officers who investigated the case testified to receiving a series of calls from Mr. DeLuca between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., in which Mr. DeLuca reported the body left in the van and Mrs. DeLuca’s rape. Sgt. Eberhardt recounted the account of rape that petitioner had conveyed to him that night. The officers who first arrived at the crime scene testified that they found Bissett’s van still parked in a pool of water, where it had been observed earlier in the day by the Water Supply crew. The driver’s side door was open and the windows of both doors were down. Looking inside the van, the police found Bissett’s fully clothed body, slumped face down between the two front seats, appearing as if he had been coming from the rear of the van when he was killed. According to the police report, blood was found “splattered in the front area of the van.” Two partially deformed bullets were recovered from the interior of the van, one in the rear section and the other under Bissett’s head. Ballistics tests, entered into evidence, established that the bullets had come from DeLuca’s off-duty revolver. Three bottles of Riunite wine were also recovered from the back of the van. Dr. Beverly Leffers, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, testified that the autopsy she performed on Bissett revealed four close “in and out” bullet wounds, caused by four separate bullets. Each entry wound was on the right side of the head. One bullet had entered “towards the front of the head between the eye and the ear” and “traveled leftwards and backwards and exited from the back of the head.” The other three bullets entered above and behind Bissett’s right ear, traveled straight across his head, and exited near his left ear. She also testified that gunpowder was found in Bissett’s wounds, indicating that the shots were fired from a distance of twelve to eighteen inches. Evidence of cocaine use was also discovered in Bissett’s body. Finally, Dr. Leffers confirmed that a “very small bruise was found on the back of Bis-sett’s head, consistent with his being struck with a bottle.” Unfortunately, the precise time of his death could not be determined because Bissett’s body had been refrigerated to prevent decomposition and this altered the progression of signs that appear after death. Dr. Robert Shaler, the Director of Serology for the Medical Examiner’s Office, testified that serology tests he performed revealed that Bissett had engaged in both vaginal and oral sex some time before his death. Tests on DeLuca’s tom underpants showed that they contained seminal fluid from a man with type O blood, Bissett’s blood type. B. The Defense Case At the close of the State’s case, defense counsel unsuccessfully sought to call Flora Colao, petitioner’s expert witness on rape trauma syndrome. Patten wanted Colao to testify in order to rebut the prosecution’s theory that DeLuca fabricated her rape claim in order to hide her guilt. However, Justice Lawrence Tonetti, the trial judge, denied the request. Confident that the prosecution was wrong about the time the shooting occurred, and that the State had not completely refuted the possibility that Peter DeLuca had killed Bis-sett, the defense rested, presenting no evidence to the jury. On April 18,1984, the jury found petitioner guilty of Murder in the Second Degree, in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25(1). De-Luca is currently incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, serving a sentence of twenty years to life. Peter DeLuca died shortly after his wife was sentenced. IV. Post-Conviction Proceedings On May 15, 1984, petitioner moved to set aside her verdict pursuant to N.Y.Crim. Proc.L. § 330.30. The motion was denied on May 18, 1984, and petitioner was sentenced as set forth above. Petitioner’s conviction was affirmed by the Appellate Division without opinion on April 11, 1985. People v. DeLuca, 110 A.D.2d 1091, 488 N.Y.S.2d 529 (1st Dep’t 1985). Subsequently, DeLuca’s application for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals was denied. People v. DeLuca, 65 N.Y.2d 978, 494 N.Y.S.2d 1047, 484 N.E.2d 677 (1985) and certiorari was denied on February 24, 1986. DeLuca v. New York, 475 U.S. 1012, 106 S.Ct. 1189, 89 L.Ed.2d 305 (1986). On May 3, 1989, DeLuca moved to vacate her conviction pursuant to N.Y.Crim.Proc.L. § 440.10, raising, for the first time, a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and publicly admitting, for the first time, that it was she who shot and killed Bissett. The § 440 motion was denied on August 24, 1989. On December 12, 1989, the Appellate Division, First Department, denied petitioner’s application for leave to appeal the denial of her § 440 motion. On June 13, 1990, DeLuca filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner claimed, as she did in her § 440 motion, that she had been denied effective assistance of counsel by various errors of her trial attorney which deprived her of the right to make critical decisions in her case, including the decision whether to testify and present her account of rape to the jury. DeLuca also argued that the trial court’s refusal to allow the rape trauma syndrome expert to testify had deprived her of her right to present a defense. This Court referred the matter to Magistrate Judge Roberts on January 24,1991 and an evidentiary hearing was held on July 21, 22, 23 and 29, 1992. As noted above, on December 21, 1993, Magistrate Judge Roberts issued her Report recommending that the petition be denied. The Report found that the performance of petitioner’s counsel had not been constitutionally deficient, and that the refusal to allow rape trauma syndrome evidence had not deprived petitioner of any constitutional rights. Petitioner has filed objections with the Court, in which she argues that the magistrate judge’s factual findings overlooked critical portions of the record and that her legal recommendations are not supported by the facts in this case or the law. She urges that the petition be granted and that this Court order a new trial. DISCUSSION I. Standards for Reviewing a Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation When timely objection has been made to a portion or portions of a magistrate judge’s report, the district judge must “make a de novo determination ... of any portion of the magistrate’s disposition to which specific written objection has been made.” Rule 72(b), Fed.R.Civ.P. See also, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). In addition, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1) affords the district court broad latitude in considering a magistrate judge’s recommendation, even if no party objects to it. Grassia v. Scully, 892 F.2d 16, 19 (2d Cir.1989). The judge may then accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the magistrate judge’s proposed findings and recommendations. However, the district court’s obligation to make a de novo determination of properly contested portions of a magistrate judge’s report does not require the judge to conduct a de novo hearing on the matter. United States v. Raddatz, 447 U.S. 667, 676, 100 S.Ct. 2406, 2412, 66 L.Ed.2d 424 (1980). It is sufficient that the district court “arrive at its own, independent conclusion about those portions of the [magistrate judge’s] report to which objection is made.” Hernandez v. Estelle, 711 F.2d 619, 620 (6th Cir.1983). II. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel In Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2065, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the Supreme Court established a two pronged test for analyzing ineffective assistance of counsel claims. First, petitioner must show that her counsel’s conduct was objectively unreasonable. Second, she must demonstrate that her counsel’s deficient performance prejudiced her defense. In other words, she must prove that “there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. This is no light burden. In order to prevail on her claim, DeLuca must overcome the “strong presumption that [her] counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance.” Id. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065. Lest reviewing courts inflexibly apply this standard, the Supreme Court emphasized that the goal of the effective assistance guarantee of the Sixth Amendment is to ensure fundamental fairness. Most important, in adjudicating a claim of actual ineffectiveness of counsel, a court should keep in mind that the principles we have stated do not establish mechanical rules. Although those principles should guide the process of decision, the ultimate focus of inquiry must be on the fundamental fairness of the proceeding whose result is being challenged. In every case the court should be concerned with whether, despite the strong presumption of reliability, the result of the particular proceeding is unreliable because of a breakdown in the adversarial process that our system counts on to produce just results. Id. at 696, 104 S.Ct. at 2069. Recognizing that “[t]here are countless ways to provide effective assistance in any given case,” the Supreme Court did not attempt to specifically define the types of professional conduct that constitute “adequate assistance.” Id. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065. Rather, Strickland instructs examining courts to judge each claim individually by looking to the legal profession’s “prevailing norms of practice” in order to determine whether, under the particular circumstances present, the attorney’s actions constitute reasonable assistance. This does not mean that Strickland gives no explicit guidance. Some duties, the Court noted, are so basic as to be obvious. For instance, all counsel representing criminal defendants have a “duty to advocate the[ir] defendant’s cause and the more particular duties to consult with the defendant on important decisions and to keep the defendant informed of important developments in the course of the prosecution.” Id. at 688, 104 S.Ct. at 2065. It must be remembered, however, that, regardless of the behavior of counsel, the focus of any reviewing court’s analysis must be on the fairness of the trial itself. It is not “the purpose of the effective assistance guarantee of the Sixth Amendment ... to improve the quality of legal representation, although that is a goal of considerable importance to the legal system.... The object of an ineffectiveness claim is not to grade counsel’s performance.” Id. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065. Thus, even if counsel’s behavior manifests a total lack of concern for his client and clearly falls far below acceptable professional norms, his client’s ineffectiveness claim will fail if she suffered no prejudice from her attorney’s behavior. In fact, under Strickland, the reviewing court need not even consider counsel’s behavior, if it first determines that no prejudice was suffered by the defendant. “If it is easier to dispose of an ineffectiveness claim on the ground of lack of sufficient prejudice, which we expect will often be so, that course should be followed.” Id. at 697, 104 S.Ct. at 2069. By the same token, even if the most well-intentioned lawyer earnestly pursues a strategy that he believes to be in the best interest of his client, an ineffective assistance of counsel claim will lie if that strategy is objectively unreasonable under professional norms, and as a result, his client suffers prejudice. Such was the case in John Patten’s representation of Sheila Ryan DeLuca during her murder trial in the Supreme Court of New York, Bronx County. It is clear from his testimony at the evi-dentiary hearing that Patten believed and continues to believe in DeLuca’s innocence. Driven by that belief, the record reveals that he zealously attempted to secure his client’s acquittal. However, when representing a client, zeal can prove to be a liability if it eclipses the concerns and wishes of the defendant and leads to the stubborn pursuit of an objectively unreasonable strategy. If the pursuit of the objectively unreasonable strategy leads counsel to breach his duty to make a “thorough investigation of [the] law and facts relevant to plausible options,” and to inform and consult with his client about important decisions, then counsel has failed to render effective assistance. Id. at 690-91, 104 S.Ct. at 2066. According to Patten’s testimony, he believed that there were two possible defense theories from the very beginning. First, he could argue that the State failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Second, he could claim that DeLuca acted in self-defense. Ultimately, he decided to pursue the former strategy. In so doing, Patten seriously overestimated the effectiveness of the reasonable doubt defense, and likewise, grossly underestimated the strength of the State’s case against his client. As a result, the jury was given no theory — other than the State’s — to consider in evaluating the strong circumstantial evidence implicating DeLuca. DeLuca contends in this habeas petition that her counsel’s erroneous reliance on the strength of his “whodunit” defense deprived her of her right to present a “factually compelling, and legally viable defense that likely would have resulted in an outright acquittal or, at worst, a manslaughter conviction.” Specifically, she argues that Patten failed to explain the possibility of pursuing an extreme emotional disturbance (“EED”) defense, and likewise, failed to advise her that she had the ultimate right to decide whether or not she would testify on her own behalf. This Court is well aware that it must “judge the reasonableness of counsel’s challenged conduct on the facts of the particular case, viewed as of the time of counsel’s conduct.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690, 104 S.Ct. at 2066. Mindful that it must make every effort to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, this Court nonetheless finds that counsel’s failure to adequately consider and inform his client of an important defense option in the face of the prosecution’s damning evidence resulted in a “breakdown in the adversarial process that our system counts on to produce just results.” Id. at 696, 104 S.Ct. at 2069. It is not hindsight that allows this Court to conclude that Patten’s failure to understand the significance of the EED defense was tantamount to deficient assistance, it is common sense. A. Extreme Emotional Disturbance At the hearing before Magistrate Judge Roberts, Patten testified that, although he could not recall her reaction to the suggestion, he had discussed the EED defense with DeLuca. He was certain of this fact because in order to discuss the murder charge she faced, he had to read New York State’s murder statute. Since the EED defense is listed in the statute under Subdivision 1, he had to tell her it existed. While sure that they discussed the EED defense, Patten stated “[wjhether she understood me or not, I don’t know.” When asked by Magistrate Judge Roberts what ultimately caused him to abandon this defense option, Patten answered that it was because DeLuca had an “absolute aversion to meeting with psychiatrists.” According to DeLuca’s testimony, Patten discussed a possible insanity defense which he referred to as “EEP” or “EDP.” Patten illustrated how this potential defense would work by recounting the story of a police officer who had shot a young boy. He told DeLuca that the officer successfully asserted the defense and as a result, he was institutionalized for less than a year. Since petitioner did not consider herself to be “crazy,” she told Patten that she would not consent to any type of insanity defense. In her view, there was no way “that anyone could deem me insane.” In her Report, Magistrate Judge Roberts resolved this apparent conflict between the accounts of Patten and DeLuca by crediting Patten’s testimony and rejecting DeLuca’s assertion that she was not informed of the EED defense, as she now understands it, prior to trial. The Report concluded that Patten did not pursue the EED defense because “the successful assertion of the [EED] defense is difficult, if not impossible, without [psychiatric evidence] and petitioner refused to meet with a psychiatrist.” After reviewing the entire record de novo, this Court agrees with petitioner’s assertion that the Report’s findings are contrary to the weight of the evidence, presented. Although this Court believes that Patten made some reference to the EED defense in his early discussions with his client, it is not convinced that he adequately explained the option to DeLuca, nor is it persuaded that he, himself, completely understood the defense. Furthermore, the Court does not accept Patten’s purported rationale for failing to pursue the option of an EED defense, especially when the facts of this case so obviously demanded it. Much of the testimony at the hearing suggests that Patten never fully comprehended the usefulness of the EED defense. When asked by the magistrate judge whether it was he or DeLuca that had ultimately made the decision not to pursue an EED defense, Patten replied, “I don’t believe we ever decided to present it at all, Judge. We were going with the — either no defense, or the defense of justification.” After initially discussing the possible defenses with DeLuca, Patten testified that he consulted with Dr. Daniel Schwartz, a psychiatrist, “to explore what was the state of [DeLuca’s] mind at the moment that trigger was pulled.” Presumably, it was with Dr. Schwartz that Patten explored the psychiatric defenses available to DeLuca. However, the notes Dr. Schwartz took during his consultation with Patten make no mention of an EED defense. Rather, they focus once again on what Patten appears to have determined were the only viable defenses. Page five of Dr. Patten’s notes state: 2 possible defenses: 1) no proof beyond a reasonable doubt 2) self-defense On the final page of his notes, Dr. Schwartz wrote “psychiatric issue — would it be unreasonable for her to believe he was lunging at her and she had to defend herself.” This documentary evidence strongly suggests that Patten was not actively investigating the EED defense at the time he consulted with Dr. Schwartz and seriously undermines the Report’s finding that Patten’s only reason for deciding not to pursue the EED defense was that DeLuca refused to meet with Dr. Schwartz. In addition, DeLuea's version of events is buttressed by the testimony of other witnesses at the hearing who were privy to attorney-client conversations between Patten and De-Luca. Frank GaNun, Patten’s law partner, testified that after hearing DeLuca’s account of the rape and shooting, he and Patten had several discussions about potential defenses. However, GaNun had no recollection of any discussions concerning an EED defense and he testified that he did not believe that he was ever a participant in such discussions. Nor did Ellen Yaroshefsky, a lawyer specializing in battered women’s self-defense cases, who met with Patten and petitioner in late 1982 or early 1983 to discuss possible defense strategies. Yaroshefsky testified that the EED defense was never mentioned during that meeting. Flora Colao, who had met with Patten several times prior to trial, both with and without DeLuca present, testified that Patten never discussed the EED defense strategy. If he had, she was certain that she would have recognized it since the EED defense had been used in a case on which she had recently consulted. Of course, none of this testimony, on its own, is dispositive in determining whether or not Patten fulfilled his duty “to consult with the defendant on important decisions and to keep the defendant informed of important developments in the course of the prosecution,” or his duty to make a “thorough investigation of [the] law and facts relevant to plausible options.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688, 690, 104 S.Ct. at 2065, 2066. Patten could have fully researched the EED defense and discussed it privately with DeLuca. Nonetheless, the absence of any mention of the EED defense in the presence of others involved in the preparation of DeLuca’s trial defense must militate in favor of crediting her version of events and cast doubt on the accuracy of Patten’s recollection. This Court is also not persuaded by the magistrate judge’s conclusion that Patten’s reason for failing to pursue the EED defense was DeLuca’s “absolute aversion to going to psychiatrists” and her refusal “to meet with Dr. Schwartz or, for that matter, any psychiatrist.” As Magistrate Judge Roberts correctly stated, psychiatric testimony, although often helpful, is not legally necessary to establish the EED defense in New York State. People v. Moye, 66 N.Y.2d 887, 498 N.Y.S.2d 767, 769, 489 N.E.2d 736 (1985). Thus, even if Patten’s factual allegations were true, it would not necessarily excuse him from failing to pursue this option. More troublesome, however, is that Patten’s claim that DeLuca had an “absolute aversion” to psychiatrists is contrary to other evidence in the record. For instance, DeLu-ca met willingly with Colao, a therapist whose interaction with petitioner was comparable to any session with a psychiatrist. Furthermore, DeLuca testified that she underwent psychiatric treatment when she was first incarcerated at Riker’s Island. Viewed in its entirety, the evidence suggests that DeLuca was “absolutely adverse” to an insanity defense, not to psychiatrists. According to petitioner’s testimony, she told her attorney, “if you want me to talk to a psychiatrist, I’ll talk to a psychiatrist.” If Patten wished her to visit Dr. Schwartz in order to prepare an EED defense, the Court believes DeLuca would have done so willingly. In rejecting DeLuca’s assertion that Patten led her to believe that EED was a type of insanity defense, the magistrate judge found that “[i]n light of petitioner’s training and experience as a police officer, her claims that she did not understand the difference between an EED defense and an