Beber v. State

887 So. 2d 1248, 2004 WL 2534277
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedNovember 10, 2004
DocketSC03-1765
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 887 So. 2d 1248 (Beber v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beber v. State, 887 So. 2d 1248, 2004 WL 2534277 (Fla. 2004).

Opinion

887 So.2d 1248 (2004)

Rick BEBER, Petitioner,
v.
STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. SC03-1765.

Supreme Court of Florida.

November 10, 2004.

*1249 James B. Gibson, Public Defender, Dee Ball and Nancy Ryan, Assistant Public Defender's, Seventh Judicial Circuit, Daytona Beach, FL, for Petitioner.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Robin A. Compton and Kellie A. Nielan, Assistant Attorney General's, Daytona Beach, FL, for Respondent.

QUINCE, J.

We have for review Beber v. State, 853 So.2d 576 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003), based on express and direct conflict with our decision in State v. Green, 667 So.2d 756 (Fla.1995), and State v. Moore, 485 So.2d 1279 (Fla.1986). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. For the reasons expressed below, we quash the decision of the district court in Beber.

Facts and Procedural History

Rick Beber was convicted of a number of sexual offenses involving a minor, including capital sexual battery. The victim was the six-year-old grandson of Beber's girlfriend. Beber was sentenced to consecutive sentences on all of the convictions, including two life sentences for the capital sexual battery convictions.

The sexual offenses came to light when the child's parents discovered a note in which the child avowed his love for a little girl and stated that he wanted to have sex with her. When the parents asked the child who had taught him this "stuff," the child revealed that he had learned about sex from Beber and that Beber had "touched his private." When the parents learned about this possible sexual molestation, they confronted Beber and the child's grandmother and called the police. The child was interviewed by a Child Protection Team (CPT) worker who had been specially trained to conduct forensic interviews with children. The interview was videotaped.

At the time of trial, the child victim was eight years old and available to testify at trial. In addition to presenting the child as a witness, the State intended to present the videotaped interview as substantive evidence under section 90.803(23)(a), Florida Statutes (2002).[1] The prosecution made *1250 the appropriate motions and the trial judge held a hearing on the matter. The child's mother and the CPT worker who conducted the interview testified at the hearing. The judge ruled that the videotape would be admitted and made the necessary findings to justify its admission.[2]

In the course of the videotape, the child told the interviewer that Beber had put the child's penis in Beber's mouth on two different occasions. At trial, while the child testified that Beber engaged in other improper sexual acts, the child did not testify that fellatio had occurred. On direct examination, the child testified that Beber had touched his penis with his hand, but stated that he did not know if Beber had touched him with anything other than his hand. On cross-examination, the child testified that Beber had not touched him with anything but his hand and stated that he was sure of this. See Beber, 853 So.2d at 578-79.

On appeal to the Fifth District Court of Appeal, Beber challenged the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions for sexual battery and for providing obscene material to a minor.[3] Beber argued that the videotaped testimony was legally insufficient to convict him of sexual battery, in *1251 light of the child's inconsistent testimony at trial which tended to refute the taped testimony. Beber cited to this Court's decisions in State v. Green, 667 So.2d 756 (Fla.1995), and State v. Moore, 485 So.2d 1279 (Fla.1986), for the proposition that prior inconsistent statements made by a witness who recants the statements at trial are insufficient as a matter of law to sustain guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal trial.

On appeal, the Fifth District characterized the child's in-court testimony as being in "direct conflict" with the videotape because the child stated on the videotape that fellatio had occurred but testified in court that Beber only touched him with his hands. Beber, 853 So.2d at 581.[4] While the Fifth District discussed this Court's decisions in Green and Moore, it concluded that this Court had "receded from Green and Moore" in Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services v. M.B., 701 So.2d 1155 (Fla.1997). Beber, 853 So.2d at 580. The Fifth District stated that in light of M.B."perhaps corroborating evidence is not required [to sustain a criminal conviction] where the reviewing court `has confidence' in the prior statement." Id. Under this standard, the Fifth District concluded that the child's out-of-court videotaped statement, which had been admitted pursuant to section 90.803(23), was

sufficient to sustain Beber's conviction of sexual battery, even though there is no true corroborating evidence other than the child's in court testimony that Beber perpetrated various other sexual crimes on him, and even though the child contradicted his videotaped statement in court, where the circumstances of the taped interview were surrounded with multiple safeguards of reliability, and nothing in this record objectively suggests a basis for this court to lack confidence in the criminal conviction.

Id. at 581.

Beber sought review by this Court on the basis of conflict with the decisions in Moore and Green. The Court accepted review and heard oral argument on the issue of whether Beber's capital sexual battery convictions could be sustained where the only evidence of fellatio was the child's hearsay statements which had been admitted under section 90.803(23).

Analysis

"[T]he Due Process Clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged." In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). Beber was charged with two counts of capital sexual battery upon a child less than twelve years of age, as provided in section 794.011(2)(a), Florida Statutes.[5] The information alleged that Beber committed this offense by "placing *1252 his mouth, tongue on or in union with the [child's] penis." The only evidence adduced at trial that Beber placed his mouth on the child's penis was the out-of-court statements that the child made during the videotaped interview. The child contradicted these statements in his in-court testimony, stating that Beber only touched his penis with his hand.

On direct examination at trial, the child was unresponsive, often answering the prosecutor's questions with "I don't know," or that he did not remember. When asked by the prosecutor what Beber touched the victim's "private" with, the child answered "his hand." When the prosecutor asked "Did he touch your private with his mouth in the [bathtub]," the defense objected to the question as leading and the trial judge sustained the objection. The prosecutor finally asked the child: "Did he ever touch your private with anything besides his hand?" The child replied: "I don't know." On cross-examination, defense counsel followed up on this line of questioning. When defense counsel asked what Beber had touched the child with, the child stated that he was sure that Beber never touched him with anything but his hands. The child also swore that this was true.

In

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Bluebook (online)
887 So. 2d 1248, 2004 WL 2534277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beber-v-state-fla-2004.