Beber v. State

853 So. 2d 576, 2003 WL 22056036
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 5, 2003
Docket5D02-2729
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 853 So. 2d 576 (Beber v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal 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, 853 So. 2d 576, 2003 WL 22056036 (Fla. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

853 So.2d 576 (2003)

Rick BEBER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 5D02-2729.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

September 5, 2003.

*577 James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Dee Ball, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Robin A. Compton, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

SHARP, W., J.

Beber appeals his convictions for two counts (Counts 1 and 4) of sexual battery (fellatio) of a minor,[1] two counts (Counts 2 and 5) of lewd or lascivious molestation (masturbating a minor),[2] one count (Count 3) of soliciting masturbation by a minor,[3] one count (Count 7) of lewd or lascivious exhibition (masturbation in the presence of a minor),[4] and one count (count 9) of providing obscene material to a minor (showing the minor an obscene magazine or photo).[5] Beber received life sentences for the sexual battery counts; 15 years in prison for one lewd and lascivious molestation count (lewd and lascivious exhibition) and the solicitation count; 30 years for the second lewd and lascivious molestation count; and 5 years for the providing obscene material count, all to be served consecutively. On appeal, he argues that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his convictions for sexual battery and providing obscene material to a minor. We agree in part, and reverse.

I. Sufficiency of Proof of Sexual Battery Counts.

The victim in this case was six years old when his parents discovered their son had possibly been sexually molested by Beber, his grandmother's live-in boyfriend, while he spent the night or weekends at their apartment. Immediately after discovering these claims, the victim's parents confronted *578 Beber and the grandmother and contacted the police. The child was interviewed by Gayna Hensen, an employee with the Wuesthoff Hospital Child Protection Team, who had been specially trained to do forensic interviews with children. The interview was taped. At the time of the trial, the victim was 8 years old, and he was available to testify.

The prosecution intended to have the video tape played for the jury, in addition to presenting the child as a state's witness. The prosecution made appropriate motions to have the tape admitted as substantive evidence, pursuant to section 90.803(23)(a), Florida Statutes. That section provides:

(23) Hearsay exception; statement of child victim.—
(a) Unless the source of information or the method or circumstances by which the statement is reported indicates a lack of trustworthiness, an out-of-court statement made by a child victim with a physical, mental, emotional, or developmental age of 11 or less describing any act of child abuse or neglect, any act of sexual abuse against a child, the offense of child abuse, the offense of aggravated child abuse, or any offense involving an unlawful sexual act, contact, intrusion, or penetration performed in the presence of, with, by, or on the declarant child, not otherwise admissible, is admissible in evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding if:
1. The court finds in a hearing conducted outside the presence of the jury that the time, content, and circumstances of the statement provide sufficient safeguards of reliability. In making its determination, the court may consider the mental and physical age and maturity of the child, the nature and duration of the abuse or offense, the relationship of the child to the offender, the reliability of the assertion, the reliability of the child victim, and any other factor deemed appropriate;.... (Emphasis added)

The trial judge held a hearing on this matter with due notice to Beber. At the hearing, the victim's mother and Hansen testified. The court ruled that the tape would be admitted at trial, and made sufficient findings to justify its admission: the two witnesses were credible sources of information, the methods of questioning the child were trustworthy, the language of the child was consistent with his age, there was no evidence he was coached, conditioned, or interviewed too many times, and the circumstances surrounding the videotaped interview offered sufficient safeguards of reliability to merit its admission and consideration as substantive evidence at the trial.

The defense does not question on appeal the correctness of the trial judge's findings pursuant to section 90.083(23), the procedure employed in determining the tape's admissibility, and the sufficiency of the testimony on which the court's findings are based. Rather the defense relies on the fact that the tape, alone, provided the sole basis for proof of the two counts of sexual battery. In the course of the tape, the child told his interviewer that Beber put the child's "private" (penis) in his mouth, two different times. However, at the trial, the child testified other improper sexual acts were done to him by Beber, and denied fellatio occurred.

At trial on direct examination, 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." The prosecutor began to ask "leading questions," for which he was warned by the trial judge. The prosecutor tried again by asking: "Did he touch you *579 in the bathtub with his mouth?" 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, the defense followed up this line of questioning. He also asked about what Beber touched the child with. The following exchange occurred:

Q. Did he touch you with his hands, right?
A. Yes.

Q. Anything else? He ever touch you with anything else?

A. No.
Q. Are you sure?
A. Yes.
Q. You swear?
A. Yes.
Q. Pinky finger?
A. Yes.
The defense also tried to impeach the child's trial testimony with various inconsistencies contained in a pretrial deposition of the child. The inconsistencies primarily involved details of where and when and how often the various molestations occurred, not that they did not occur. However, in the deposition, the child apparently also said Beber touched his "private" only with his hands.

The defense argues on appeal that because the child's testimony at trial was inconsistent with his testimony on the videotape and tended to refute it, the tape standing alone, provides a legally insufficient basis upon which to convict Beber of sexual battery. The defense cites State v. Moore, 485 So.2d 1279 (Fla.1986) and State v. Green, 667 So.2d 756 (Fla.1995), as controlling precedent for the concept that prior inconsistent statements made by witnesses who testify at trial but who recant the prior statements at trial, are insufficient as a matter of law to sustain guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal trial. In Moore, the inconsistent statements were admitted pursuant to section 90.801(2)(a),[6] a different hearsay exception than the one at issue here.

In Green,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Baugh v. State
961 So. 2d 198 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2007)
Valdes v. State
930 So. 2d 682 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2006)
Beber v. State
887 So. 2d 1248 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
853 So. 2d 576, 2003 WL 22056036, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beber-v-state-fladistctapp-2003.