Bryant v. State

115 P.3d 1249, 2005 WL 1540576
CourtCourt of Appeals of Alaska
DecidedJune 24, 2005
DocketA-8375
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 115 P.3d 1249 (Bryant v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bryant v. State, 115 P.3d 1249, 2005 WL 1540576 (Ala. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

OPINION

STEWART, Judge.

Everett E. Bryant was convicted of one count of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor.1 After the jury returned its verdict, Bryant moved for a new trial on several grounds, including claims that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel. The superior court denied Bryant’s motion. Bryant appeals the ruling on the motion for a new trial and several evidentiary rulings during trial.

We uphold the court’s evidentiary rulings. We must remand the case to the superior court for additional findings regarding Bryant’s claim of ineffective assistance.

Background, Facts and Proceedings

Bryant’s first trial ended in a mistrial because the jury failed to reach a verdict. The jury at Bryant’s retrial found Bryant guilty of first-degree sexual abusé of A.M., a five-year-old girl whose family had resided with Bryant. After the verdict, Bryant obtained another attorney, and the new attorney moved for a new trial on several grounds, including claims that Bryant’s trial counsel had provided ineffective assistance. Superi- or Court Judge Thomas M. Jahnke dismissed several of Bryant’s claims of ineffective assistance on the pleadings, but ruled that an evidentiary hearing was necessary to resolve the remaining claims.

Judge Jahnke retired before the evidentia-ry hearing and Superior Court Judge Larry C. Zervos was assigned to the case. Judge Zervos declined to reconsider most of the claims that Judge Jahnke had already dismissed. Judge Zervos rejected Bryant’s remaining claims and denied the motion for a new trial.

Did the superior court err in denying Bryant’s motion to present evidence that the victim’s mother had previously made false claims of sexual abuse?

Before the first trial, Bryant moved to admit character evidence under Alaska Evidence Rule 404(a)(2). Specifically, Bryant offered testimony that A.M.’s mother, Nancy Wickline, had previously accused other men of sexually abusing the victim.

Judge Jahnke took Bryant’s motion under advisement “awaiting proof’ of the alleged false reports to be presented outside the jury’s presence. Judge Jahnke returned to the issue several times awaiting Bryant’s presentation. At one of these hearings during Bryant’s first trial, Judge Jahnke advised Bryant that he had offered “only ... some still relatively vague descriptions of the evidence” and that Bryant needed to make a more specific presentation before Judge Jahnke could rule on the issue.

The next time the court considered the issue during the first trial, Bryant explained that he wanted to explore several allegations [1252]*1252at trial: (1) that A.M.’s sister, C.W., had accused her stepfather of sexually abusing her; (2) that Wickline had once accused a former boyfriend’s two sons of abusing A.M.; and (3) that Wickline had told CW.’s stepfather that men in Virginia, Alabama, and Arkansas had abused C.W. Bryant claimed that the stepfather would testify that he had not abused CW. and that Wickline had recanted her allegations that her former boyfriend’s sons had abused A.M. Bryant also stated that he would like to call Wickline’s former boyfriend, but that he could not locate him.

However, Bryant did not present any testimony from either the stepfather or Wick-line’s former boyfriend in support of his request. Bryant stated that the stepfather was out of state “fishing” and could not be contacted. Bryant also stated that the stepfather had not signed and returned an affidavit that had been sent to him several weeks previously. Wickline’s former boyfriend had also refused to sign an affidavit that had been sent to him at a previous address.

Judge Jahnke observed that Bryant had not met his burden for several reasons. First, Judge Jahnke pointed out that the evidence would be offered to impeach the credibility of the victim’s mother, not the victim. Second, he stated that the connection between the accusations against Bryant and the earlier accusations was not “readily apparent.” Finally, he ruled that the reports of abuse that Bryant sought to use at trial had not been proven false in a manner that was “more or less unequivocal.”

Before the retrial that began over three months after the mistrial, Judge Jahnke told the parties that unless there was additional evidence or additional authority he should consider, the rulings from the first trial would apply. Bryant did not present additional evidence or offer additional authority regarding his request to admit evidence of false claims.

On appeal, Bryant argues that Judge Jahnke applied the wrong standard in ruling that Bryant could not introduce evidence relating to Wickline’s alleged history of falsely reporting that A.M. had been sexually abused. Specifically, Bryant claims that Judge Jahnke should have applied the preponderance of the evidence standard to determine whether Bryant could present evidence that Wickline had made prior false allegations of abuse.

We review a trial court’s evidentia-ry rulings for an abuse of discretion.2 A trial court abuses its discretion only when its decision is “clearly untenable or unreasonable.”3

In Covington v. State,4 we ruled that a defendant in a sexual assault case may introduce evidence that the alleged victim has made prior false accusations if the defendant establishes the falsity of the prior accusations.5 In Morgan v. State,6 we clarified Covington by holding that a defendant must prove the falsity of a prior false accusation of sexual assault by the preponderance of the evidence.7

Here, Bryant’s argument fails for several reasons. First, although Morgan permits a trial judge to admit evidence of prior false accusations made by an alleged victim in a sexual assault case, Bryant did not offer pri- or false accusations by the victim. Instead, Bryant wanted the court to admit purportedly false accusations made by the victim’s mother, Wickline.

We have noted that in a sexual assault prosecution an alleged sexual assault victim’s prior false accusation of sexual assault has a special relevance. This relevance removes such evidence from the normal ban on attacking a witness’s general character for honesty through the use of specific instances of dishonesty.8 But we have not ruled that the same special relevance applies to prior false accusations of a witness other than the al[1253]*1253leged victim, and Bryant has not cited any authority for this proposition.

More importantly, even if evidence of Wickline’s alleged prior false reports were admissible, Bryant, presented no evidence supporting his request even though Judge Jahnke clearly indicated his willingness to hear such evidence out of the jury’s presence. Moreover, Bryant could not actually present the witnesses he claimed would testify that Wickline had made prior false accusations. These witnesses were apparently unwilling to testify voluntarily or impossible to locate and serve with a subpoena. Therefore, the only support Bryant offered was Bryant’s attorney’s offer of proof. That is insufficient to satisfy Bryant’s burden of establishing, by the preponderance of the evidence, that Wickline had made prior false allegations of abuse. Accordingly, we reject Bryant’s argument.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
115 P.3d 1249, 2005 WL 1540576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bryant-v-state-alaskactapp-2005.