Bryan Baum v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided August 20, 2014·No. 05-12-01456-CR·Published

Opinion

Affirmed and Opinion Filed August 20, 2014

S In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-12-01455-CR

No. 05-12-01456-CR

BRYAN BAUM, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 382nd Judicial District Court Rockwall County, Texas

Trial Court Cause Nos. 2-12-213 & 2-12-214

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Moseley, Bridges, and Evans Opinion by Justice Bridges On the Court’s own motion, we withdraw our opinion and vacate our judgments of

February 25, 2014. The following is now the opinion of the Court.

Appellant Bryan Michael Baum appeals from his convictions for retaliation (05-12-

01455-CR) and harassment of a public servant (05-12-01456-CR). In five issues, appellant contends: (1) he did not have the requisite mental state to be found guilty of either of the offenses alleged and the jury should have been instructed as such; (2) the trial court erred in admitting State’s Exhibit 2, a medical questionnaire, over his objections; (3) he was denied due process and exculpatory evidence by police destruction of the video of events constituting the offense of harassment of a public servant; (4) the evidence was legally insufficient to support the conviction

for harassment of a public servant; and (5) the evidence was legally insufficient to support the conviction for retaliation. We affirm.

Background

On the night of February 4, 2012, a private security company that worked at the Harbor on Lake Ray Hubbard called 911, indicating there was a parked vehicle that had two occupants inside with the car alarm repeatedly sounding on the vehicle. Officer Benton Brumit of the Rockwall Police Department testified he was dispatched to the Harbor and first met with the security company to get a better description of the vehicle and to determine its location. He then drove his marked patrol car to a parking spot in front of the En Fuego cigar shop.

Officer Brumit exited his vehicle and approached the suspect vehicle. He observed two people inside, a male on the driver’s side and a female on the passenger side. The male was appellant and the female was his girlfriend, Denise.1 Denise was “kind of hunkered down in the floorboard” between the dash and the passenger seat and appeared to be asleep.

Officer Brumit observed appellant attempting to insert his keys into the ignition of the vehicle and knocked on the driver’s side window. Appellant rolled down the window after a couple of seconds. Officer Brumit then illuminated his flashlight and started talking to appellant. He called for officer assistance. Officer Philip Young, Officer Stephen Nagy and Sergeant Ray Fitzwater acted as cover officers for Officer Brumit.

When the other officers arrived, Officer Brumit asked appellant to step out of his car.

Officer Brumit noticed that appellant’s speech was “very slurred, almost mumble like.” Officer Brumit further testified appellant had very red and bloodshot eyes with a glassy look about them and that he could smell the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from the car and appellant. From these factors, Officer Brumit believed appellant was intoxicated.

1 At the time of trial, appellant had been married to Denise for three or four months.

Officer Brumit asked appellant for identification and was given an ID card, which had the name of Bryan Michael Baum and his date of birth. At that point, Officer Brumit placed appellant under arrest for public intoxication and placed handcuffs on appellant to lock his arms together behind his body. After patting him down, Officer Brumit placed appellant into the backseat of his patrol car.

Our review of the dash cam video shows that Officer Brumit then returned to the car to ask Denise some questions. When he asked Denise what appellant had to drink that night, she indicated two margaritas and a glass of wine.2 While Officer Brumit was conducting the horizontal gaze nystagmus test on Denise,3 the other officers heard a loud noise and observed appellant had leaned over in the vehicle and was kicking at the metal grate that separated the inside of the car from the actual window. The officers then got appellant out of the car and placed a hobble around his legs.

Officer Brumit then left the scene to transfer appellant to the jail. Officer Brumit testified that, during the trip, appellant “became very agitated, became very angry, began using foul language, cursing at [him], saying specific things to [him], things in a manner that some people don’t normally–[he] would say don’t normally hear on a day-to-day basis.” For example, while en-route the jail, appellant called Officer Brumit a “punk-assed cunt and bitch” and made the following remarks to Officer Brumit:

•“I’ll kill your ass in 30 seconds.”

• “I’m gonna kill you, bitch.”

• “I’m gonna kill you because you’re doing this to me for no reason.”

• “I’m gonna kill you.”

2 Denise indicated she had two glasses of wine.

3 The record reflects Denise was cited for public intoxication and was transferred to jail by another officer.

• “I’m gonna kill you in your sleep if my old lady’s in that car.”

Officer Brumit drove his car into the sally port area connected to the main building of the jail. Officer Chris Judge of the Rockwall County Sheriff’s Office testified he was one of the detention officers that came out in the sally port to Officer Brumit’s car to help bring appellant into the jail. Officer Brumit testified that, while at the jail, appellant continued to curse, yell and was hostile toward the other officers.

Officer Jacob Ruiz, another detention officer, was called into the sally port that night to assist with a “combative inmate.” Officer Ruiz had prepared for appellant’s arrival by getting the restraint chair ready. Officer Ruiz testified appellant’s speech was slurred at times and he “was threatening everybody that he was gonna kill [them], that [they] were gonna be the last person that he saw because [] he was gonna kill [them].” Officer Ruiz further testified appellant stated: “I’m going to F-ing kill you. You SOBs.” Officer Ruiz explained it was obvious appellant was impaired.

Officer Judge testified, “[W]e had to physically lift [appellant] up out of the squad [car]

because he refused to come out.” Appellant was placed in a restraint chair that kept him in one position. Officer Brumit explained that, while the detention officers were pulling appellant into the jail in the chair, appellant “actually spit on two detention officers.” Officer Judge stated he observed as appellant reared his head back and brought his head forward to spit. Officer Judge explained he “stopped in [his] tracks” and took a step back. When he did, the spit hit his shoulder and then bounced over and hit the officer behind him, Officer Ruiz.

Officer Ruiz recalled that appellant’s spit hit Officer Judge in the shoulder and hit him in the head. Officer Ruiz explained he saw the spit come out of appellant’s mouth and felt like it was intentional because of the way he cleared his throat in order to spit. Officer Judge then put a

spit mask on appellant. After placing it on his head, appellant tried to spit a couple of times, but was unsuccessful.

A Rockwall County grand jury indicted appellant for the offenses of retaliation and harassment of a public servant. The trial court called both cases to trial, and the jury returned a guilty verdict in both. During the punishment phase of trial, the State presented its notice of intent to seek enhancement due to a prior conviction. Appellant received a prior final conviction for the felony offense of assault on a public servant. The trial court ruled the prior conviction was applicable to both causes. In addition to his prior conviction for assault on a public servant, appellant was also previously convicted of the offenses of evading arrest, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, to wit: cocaine, and driving while his license was suspended. In the cases before us, punishment was assessed at 20 years’ imprisonment for each offense to run concurrently.

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