Bruce Ryan v. State of Indiana

9 N.E.3d 663, 2014 WL 2498308, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 453
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 3, 2014
Docket49S02-1311-CR-734
StatusPublished
Cited by227 cases

This text of 9 N.E.3d 663 (Bruce Ryan v. State of Indiana) 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
Bruce Ryan v. State of Indiana, 9 N.E.3d 663, 2014 WL 2498308, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 453 (Ind. 2014).

Opinion

DICKSON, Chief Justice.

Following a jury trial, Bruce Ryan was convicted on two of three counts of Class C felony Sexual Misconduct with a Minor. 1 Appealing his convictions, the defendant argues that several statements made by the State during closing argument — statements to which he raised no objection at trial — constitute prosecutorial misconduct and that the cumulative effect of such misconduct rises to the level of fundamental error, warranting reversal of his convictions. The Court of Appeals agreed and reversed his convictions. Ryan v. State, 992 N.E.2d 776, 791 (Ind.Ct App.2013). We granted transfer, thereby vacating the opinion of the Court of Appeals, and we now affirm the trial court, concluding that some of the prosecutor’s conduct was improper, but because of the absence of any timely objection by the defendant, reversal is not warranted.

During the summer and fall of 2011, forty-three year old Bruce Ryan, an eighth-grade science teacher, engaged in a relationship with a fifteen year old freshman student (“FS”) at the school where the defendant taught. FS had known the defendant since she was eleven years old, had a “crush” on the defendant for several years, and had recently completed the defendant’s eighth-grade physics class. Dur *667 ing the summer of 2011, FS attended a science club with the defendant at the school — often the only student in attendance. At some point, the defendant and FS began sending private messages to each other every night using Google Plus, a social networking site. Initially, the purpose of their chats was to discuss the science club, but the content became more personal and intimate. By the end of the summer, the defendant and FS were hugging and kissing open-mouthed with their tongues in a storeroom in the back of the defendant’s classroom. During this time period, they both told each other that they loved and missed each other, and the defendant also gave FS presents. Late October 2001, FS’s parents discovered her online communications with the defendant and notified the school principal and subsequently the police. The State charged the defendant with three counts of Class C felony Sexual Misconduct with a Minor, alleging misconduct on various dates. 2

On appeal, the defendant challenges his convictions on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct, pointing to various remarks made by the deputy prosecutor during closing arguments. The defendant did not raise any objection to nor seek relief from the prosecutor’s remarks during trial, but to avoid procedural default he contends these remarks constituted fundamental error. On transfer, the State argues that fundamental error did not occur.

In reviewing a claim of prosecu-torial misconduct properly raised in the trial court, we determine (1) whether misconduct occurred, and if so, (2) “whether the misconduct, under all of the circumstances, placed the defendant in a position of grave peril to which he or she would not have been subjected” otherwise. Cooper v. State, 854 N.E.2d 831, 835 (Ind.2006), quoted in Castillo v. State, 974 N.E.2d 458, 468 (Ind.2012). A prosecutor has the duty to present a persuasive final argument and thus placing a defendant in grave peril, by itself, is not misconduct. Mahla v. State, 496 N.E.2d 568, 572 (Ind.1986). “Whether a prosecutor’s argument constitutes misconduct is measured by reference to case law and the Rules of Professional Conduct. The gravity of peril is measured by the probable persuasive effect of the misconduct on the jury’s decision rather than the degree of impropriety of the conduct.” Cooper, 854 N.E.2d at 835 (emphasis added) (citations omitted). To preserve a claim of prosecutorial misconduct, the defendant must — at the time the alleged misconduct occurs — request an admonishment to the jury, and if further relief is desired, move for a mistrial. Id.; see also Maldonado v. State, 265 Ind. 492, 498, 355 N.E.2d 843, 848 (1976).

Our standard of review is different where a claim of prosecutorial misconduct has been procedurally defaulted for failure to properly raise the claim in the trial court, that is, waived for failure to preserve the claim of error. Booher v. State, 773 N.E.2d 814, 817-18 (Ind.2002). 3 The defendant must establish not only the grounds for prosecutorial misconduct but *668 must also establish that the prosecutorial misconduct constituted fundamental error. Id. at 818. Fundamental error is an extremely narrow exception to the waiver rule where the defendant faces the heavy burden of showing that the alleged errors are so prejudicial to the defendant’s rights as to “make a fair trial impossible.” Benson v. State, 762 N.E.2d 748, 756 (Ind.2002), quoted in Castillo, 974 N.E.2d at 468 and Cooper, 854 N.E.2d at 835. In other words, to establish fundamental error, the defendant must show that, under the circumstances, the trial judge erred in not sua sponte raising the issue because alleged errors (a) “constitute clearly blatant violations of basic and elementary principles of due process” and (b) “present an undeniable and substantial potential for harm.” Id. The element of such harm is not established by the fact of ultimate conviction ., but rather “depends upon whether [the defendant’s] right to a fair trial was detrimentally affected by the denial of procedural opportunities for the ascertainment of truth to which he otherwise would have been entitled.” Townsend v. State, 632 N.E.2d 727, 730 (Ind.1994) (quoting Hart v. State, 578 N.E.2d 336, 338 (Ind.1991)). In evaluating the issue of fundamental error, our task in this case is to .look at the alleged misconduct in the context of all that happened and all relevant information given to the jury— including evidence admitted at trial, closing argument, and jury instructions — to determine whether the misconduct had such an undeniable and substantial effect on the jury’s decision that a fair trial was impossible. See Boesch v. State, 778 N.E.2d 1276, 1279 (Ind.2002); Townsend, 632 N.E.2d at 730; see, e.g., Castillo, 974 N.E.2d at 469 n. 11 (noting closing arguments are perceived as partisan advocacy).

We stress that “[a] finding of fundamental error essentially means that the trial judge erred ... by not acting when he or she should have.... ” Whiting v. State,

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Bluebook (online)
9 N.E.3d 663, 2014 WL 2498308, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 453, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bruce-ryan-v-state-of-indiana-ind-2014.