Charles D. Howard v. State of Indiana

32 N.E.3d 1187, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 410, 2015 WL 2445910
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 22, 2015
Docket14A04-1406-CR-286
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 32 N.E.3d 1187 (Charles D. Howard v. State of Indiana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Charles D. Howard v. State of Indiana, 32 N.E.3d 1187, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 410, 2015 WL 2445910 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

PYLE, Judge.

Statement of the Case

[1] Charles Howard (“Howard”) appeals his convictions, following a jury trial, for two counts of Class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement, 1 Class B misdemeanor harassment, 2 Class B misdemean- or public intoxication, 3 and Class B misdemeanor disorderly conduct. 4

[2] Howard makes three disjointed arguments on appeal under a general issue of due process. First, he mainly argues that we should reverse and dismiss his convictions for resisting law enforcement and public intoxication because the trial court never ruled on part of his motion to suppress/dismiss. Second, he argues that any evidence obtained after his arrest should have been excluded because the police did not give him a Miranda warning upon his arrest. Third, he contends that the trial court should have dismissed all charges against him pursuant to Criminal Rule 4.

[3] We conclude that Howard’s arguments are either waived or otherwise without merit because: (1) the trial court issued a ruling on his motion to suppress/dismiss, and Howard did not object to the admission of evidence at trial; (2) the State did not introduce or seek to admit into evidence any of Howard’s post-arrest statements; and (3) Howard did not file a motion for discharge under Criminal Rule 4 or object to the trial court’s setting of any of his trial dates. Accordingly, we affirm his convictions.

[4] Affirmed.

Issue

[5] Whether the various arguments Howard attempts to raise on appeal are either waived or otherwise without merit..

Facts

[6] On June 17, 2011, Howard and his then wife, Tamela Howard (“Tammy”), lived on Main Street in Washington, Indiana just down the street from the American Legion where Tammy worked. That day, Tammy and Howard got into an argument, and she and the children went to stay at her older son’s house.

*1189 [7] Late that evening, Tammy went into the American Legion to cash a check and was noticeably upset. While there, Tammy told her co-worker, Angie Gottman (“Gottman”), who was bartending that night, that she and Howard had been in an argument. About five to ten minutes after Tammy left, which was around 12:30 a.m. on June 18, Howard phoned that American Legion looking for her, and Gottman answered the phone. Gottman recognized Howard’s voice, and the caller ID on the phone showed Howard’s name and phone number. Gottman informed Howard that Tammy had been there but had just left. Howard told Gottman to tell Tammy that he was going to shut off her phone, and Gottman repeated that Tammy was not there. Gottman noticed that Howard “sounded intoxicated and upset.” (Tr. 78).

[8] Howard hung up but continued to call Gottman back multiple times over the next twenty or so minutes. Gottman repeatedly told him that she did not know where Tammy was and to stop calling. Howard told Gottman, “you are a bitch ... don’t mess with me” and “don’t fuck with me, I’ll fuck with you.” (Tr. 88, 90). After the third or fourth call, Gottman told Howard that she was going to call the police. Howard called Gottman back “taunting” her and asking her where the police were. (Tr. 90). Gottman told him that “if [he] just quit calling [her] this w[ould] stop[,]” but “[h]e kept calling” and sometimes he would hang up when she answered. (Tr. 90). As soon as Gottman hung up the phone, Howard called again. Howard made more than about fifteen calls including hang ups.

[9] At 12:48 a.m., Gottman called police to report that she was getting harassing phone calls from Howard, and Washington Police Officers Buck Seger (“Officer Seger”), Kyle Babrick (“Officer Babrick”), Greg Dietsch (“Sergeant Dietsch”), and Officer Kevin Buckley (“Officer Buckley”) were dispatched to the American Legion. When the officers arrived, Gottman, with a cordless telephone in hand, was standing outside of the American Legion building. As Gottman was telling the officers about Howard’s conduct, Howard phoned her again. Gottman showed the officers her phone, which had caller ID, and told them that it was Howard calling her again. At the same time, Gottman pointed down the street toward Howard’s house and said, “there he is right now.” (Tr. 119). The officers saw a “male figure” standing on the sidewalk near a parked vehicle, and they “noticed that there was a glow of a cell phone” near his face. (Tr. 119).

[10] After Gottman pointed down the street and identified Howard as the man who was making the harassing phone calls, Officers Seger and Babrick, both in uniform, walked up the street to approach him. Officer Seger saw that Howard was “[i]n the same spot right in front of the vehicle on the sidewalk there[,]” which was a “public sidewalk” on a “public streetf.]” (Tr. 122). As the officers got closer to Howard, he “turned away” from them and “t[ook] off running[.]” (Tr. 121,122). The officers repeatedly yelled, “stop police,” but Howard continued to run away from them. (Tr. 122, 123). Officer Seger caught up to Howard outside of his house on a porch near his side door. The officer grabbed Howard’s arm, told him to stop and come with the officer to talk, but Howard refused, tried to pull away from the officer, and said he was going inside. Officer Seger continued to grab hold of Howard, who then went inside the house and pulled the officer inside with him.

[11] Once inside the house, Officer Seger “couldn’t tell if [Howard] had ... *1190 any weapons” and “tr[ied] to get him to turn around.” (Tr. 126). Howard kept “warding off [the officer’s] attempts to gain control of him.” -(Tr. 127). Officer Babrick followed Howard and Officer Seger into the house, and “there was a brief struggle of [the officers] attempting to gain control of [Howard’s] arms to place him into handcuffs.” v(Tr. 1.27). As they turned Howard around, Officer Seger smelled a “[p]retty heavy odor of alcoholic beverage” on Howard’s breath and noticed that his speech was slurred and that his eyes were “blood shot and somewhat glossy.” (Tr. 128).

[12] Howard cursed and continued to struggle with the officers as they attempted to lead him out of the house to a police car. As they had Howard at the door of the house, he was “irate and combative[,]” and Sergeant Dietsch had to help them escort Howard down to the car. (Tr. 205). Even at the car, Howard struggled with the officers, and one of them had to go inside the car and “physically pull him into the police car.” (Tr. 131). Howard was then “cursing and being belligerent in the backseat of the vehicle.” (Tr. 132).

[13] After Officers Seger and Babrick transported Howard to the jail, Sergeant Dietsch waited at Howard’s house until Tammy got there. The sergeant explained to Tammy how Howard had been calling Gottman. “After speaking with her about the details of the night, she volunteered [Howard’s cell] phone and the contents inside of it to [Sergeant Dietsch.]” (Tr. 262). The sergeant took the cell phone to the police station, took photos of various screens from the cell phone, and later returned it to Tammy.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
32 N.E.3d 1187, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 410, 2015 WL 2445910, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/charles-d-howard-v-state-of-indiana-indctapp-2015.