Brown v. State

385 N.E.2d 1148, 270 Ind. 399, 1979 Ind. LEXIS 566
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 5, 1979
Docket1277S821
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 385 N.E.2d 1148 (Brown v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. State, 385 N.E.2d 1148, 270 Ind. 399, 1979 Ind. LEXIS 566 (Ind. 1979).

Opinions

PIVARNIK, Justice.

Following a jury trial in the Madison Superior Court, appellant Brown was found guilty of theft, two counts of sodomy and of being an habitual criminal. On August 2, 1977, Brown was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The evidence presented at trial revealed that during the summer of 1976, two ten year old boys, T.G. and D.F., became acquainted with appellant. The boys testified that during this time, appellant performed sodomy on each of them about five or six times. The boys said they agreed to these unnatural acts because appellant threatened them and gave them things such as a rifle and a stolen 10-speed bicycle. The evidence further showed that appellant had induced at least one other minor to enter into illicit relationships by offering him a bicycle. It was also shown that appellant had been convicted and imprisoned for vehicle taking in 1940, for armed robbery in 1951, for grand larceny in 1959 and for escaping from prison in 1965.

Appellant presents four issues for our review concerning: (1) the denial of appellant’s Motion for Mistrial; (2) the joinder of the theft count to the counts charging sod[1150]*1150omy; (3) the giving of two preliminary instructions after the trial had begun, and; (4) whether appellant was prejudiced by the late filing of the count charging him with being an habitual criminal and whether there was sufficient evidence to support a conviction on that count.

I.

Appellant first argues for reversal based upon the trial court’s denial of his Motion for Mistrial. This motion was made after it was discovered, midway through trial, that appellant’s trial counsel had previously served as deputy prosecutor in which capacity he had signed two or three of the informations charging appellant with the offenses in the instant case. Before denying the motion, the trial judge held a hearing outside the presence of the jurors in which both appellant and the defense attorney testified. Appellant’s testimony, in pertinent part, was as follows:

“Direct Examination
By: James m. Nave, Attorney for Defendant
Q. And, Ralph, I have informed you, have I not, of the fact that I was, excuse me, in the prosecutor’s office at the time that these charges were brought against you?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And I informed you, in fact, that I even participated in bringing these charges against you.
A. Yes sir.
Q. Okay. And I told you that the fact that I was in the prosecutor’s office at the time the charges were brought and the fact that I am now representing you as your attorney in defense against the action creates a conflict of interest, have I not?
A. That’s right.
Q. And I’ve also told you that you have a right, if you choose to exercise it, to demand that I not represent you and demand that the Court appoint you another attorney to represent you in these matters, have I not?
A. That is. right.
Q. Ralph, is it your wish to have me to continue to represent you in light of those facts or to have the Court appoint someone else who does not have a conflict.
A. I would like the Court to appoint somebody else that doesn’t have no conflict.
QUESTIONS BY COURT
Q. Do you feel as though Mr. Nave, Mr. Brown, has represented you well in this case?
A. Well, being as since he’s been in the prosecutor’s office there would be some conflict of interest and—
Q. No, no, you’re going to have to answer my question. Do you think that he’s represented you well?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Has he worked in your best interest?
A. Very diligently.
Q. Has he cooperated with you?
A. Yes. Yes sir.
Q. Do you feel as though you cannot get a fair trial?
A. Not as long as there is conflict of interest. No.
Q. What’s the conflict of interest?
A. Being since he’s told me that he worked in the prosecutor’s office,— helped prepare the papers against me.
Q. So you feel your rights have been prejudiced by that fact?
A. Yes.”

Defense counsel, Mr. Nave, was then questioned by the court as follows:

“Q. When you were with the prosecuting attorney’s office and you were somehow involved in this case do you remember what your involvement was?
A. No sir, to honestly state I don’t remember my involvement. I do have a vague recollection of Ralph Brown’s name, but I don’t know what I did involving the prosecutor’s office.
[1151]*1151Q. Do you remember reading any supplements in this case from — that were prepared by police officers or investigators?
A. No sir, I don’t remember reading any supplements, however I do know that as a practice in the prosecutor’s office before a deputy was supposed to sign an information on authorizing them to bring on the charge he was supposed to have read the supplements. And I made it a practice to do that, read supplements before I would sign information.
Q. But, you do not remember that procedure in this case?
A. No sir, there was so many cases until I can’t recall it.”

After receiving the above testimony, the trial court denied appellant’s mistrial motion with the following ruling:

“JUDGE: The Court’s going to find that the defendant is not prejudiced by the fact that Mr. Nave represents him in this case and is not going to continue the case or dismiss or overrule Mr. Nave as the defense attorney. We will proceed.”

Appellant does not contend that his trial counsel was ineffective or that he suffered any actual prejudice because of Mr. Nave’s handling of his case. Rather, it is argued that the appearance of impropriety raised by defense counsel’s technical conflict of interest required the granting of appellant’s motion for mistrial. In support of his position, appellant relies upon Glasser v. United States, (1942) 315 U.S. 60, 70 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 and Tokash v. State, (1953) 232 Ind. 668, 115 N.E.2d 745. We think these cases are readily distinguishable. In Glas-ser, the United States Supreme Court found a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel where a defense attorney simultaneously represented two co-defendants with divergent interests. In Tokash, we ordered a new trial for a defendant whose pauper counsel had served as judge pro tempore in various stages of the proceedings against the defendant both before and after trial.

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Brown v. State
385 N.E.2d 1148 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
385 N.E.2d 1148, 270 Ind. 399, 1979 Ind. LEXIS 566, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-state-ind-1979.