Chavies v. Commonwealth

374 S.W.3d 313, 2012 WL 3632015, 2012 Ky. LEXIS 118
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 23, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-SC-000140-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 374 S.W.3d 313 (Chavies v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chavies v. Commonwealth, 374 S.W.3d 313, 2012 WL 3632015, 2012 Ky. LEXIS 118 (Ky. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Jeffery Wayne Chavies appeals from his conviction of eight counts of first-degree sodomy, one count of use of a minor in a sexual performance, and one count of first-degree sexual abuse, for which he received a total sentence of 70 years’ imprisonment. Because the Commonwealth’s introduction of an egregious amount of inadmissible character evidence combined with improper bolstering of the alleged victims’ testimony rises to the level of palpable error in this case, we must reverse and remand for a new trial.

In 1998 or 1999, Appellant began a relationship with Susanna Brooks, who lived in Ohio. Brooks had three children from a previous relationship, daughters L.B. and A.B., and a son, T.B. In 1999, Appellant, Brooks, and the children moved to Knox County, Kentucky. Brooks and Appellant subsequently had two children together, daughters M. and M.C.1 The charges in this case stem from allegations that Appellant sexually abused L.B. and A.B.

L.B. initially made allegations against Appellant around Halloween of 2008 when she was 16 years old. Brooks had forbidden L.B. to go to a Halloween party that L.B. wanted to attend. L.B. went to the party anyway, leaving a note for Brooks saying that she went because she wanted to get away from Appellant because he was molesting her. Brooks confronted A.B. (who was at home) with L.B.’s allegation, and A.B. told her that Appellant was abusing her too. Brooks called Appellant, who was out with his friend Charles “Charlie Pete” Barton. Appellant denied the allegations and said he was coming home. A.B. recanted when she heard that Appellant was coming home. L.B. recanted the next day when she came home from the party. L.B. told Brooks that she was sorry and that she had made up the story because she wanted to go to the party.

On August 14, 2009, L.B. told her high school music teacher, Eddie Campbell, that Appellant was sexually abusing her. Campbell immediately took L.B. to the guidance counselor’s office, and law enforcement was contacted. L.B. and A.B. were interviewed by social worker Ewell Daniels and Knox County Sheriffs Deputy John Whitehead. A.B. initially denied that Appellant had ever abused her. However, after Deputy Whitehead told A.B. he could tell she was lying, A.B. said she, too, had been abused. Appellant was interviewed by Daniels and Whitehead as well, and [315]*315denied the allegations. Appellant was ultimately charged with ten counts of first-degree sodomy (three as to L.B. and seven as to A.B.), ten counts of first-degree sexual abuse (three as to L.B. and seven as to A.B.), and one count of using a minor in a sexual performance (L.B.). The indictment alleged the incidents took place during a time period from January 2004 through December 2008 as to L.B. (when she would have been 12 to 16 years old), and from January 2003 through August 2009 as to A.B. (when she would have been 12 to 17 years old). At trial, the indictment was amended to reflect L.B.’s testimony that she was abused in 2009 as well.

L.B. was eighteen years old at the time of trial. She testified that Appellant began abusing her when she was eleven or twelve years old. The first incident occurred after Appellant had come into her room and asked her to “check his hair.” L.B. testified that Appellant worked at a sawmill at the time, and would sometimes make her check his hair for bugs and dander. On this occasion, Appellant told her she smelled and to change clothes. The next day, he told her that he had watched her change clothes and “wanted to see more.” L.B. claimed that after this, at times he would make her undress, and then throw something and ask her to pick it up while he watched. L.B. testified that Appellant started touching her sexually when she was about fourteen or fifteen years old. She described the first incident of touching as Appellant putting his hand down her pants. L.B. testified that Appellant subsequently began putting his tongue in her vagina. Appellant told her that if she did not keep letting him do these things he would kill her mother.

L.B.’s testimony regarding when and how often the abuse occurred was at times vague and unsure. She agreed with the prosecutor, however, that she was abused during 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. L.B. testified that, although the family lived in a single-wide trailer during this time,2 her siblings and mother were unaware of the abuse because it happened when her mother was at work, and/or when everyone else was outside, or asleep. L.B. estimated the total number of times she was abused as “too many to count.”

L.B. admitted that she had initially told social services that she had made Appellant stop abusing her when she was about fifteen or sixteen. She testified that this was not true and that the incidents just happened less often after she accused him of abuse in October 2008. L.B. admitted that she told the Children’s Advocacy Center interviewer that Appellant had abused her a total of only five or six times. L.B. testified that she had said this because she has a hard time confiding in strangers. L.B. testified that she was telling the truth now (at trial) because she had to. L.B. admitted that she had been grounded from a school trip to Dollywood at the time she made the accusations on August 14, 2009, that Appellant was removed from the home that day, and that she got to go on the trip. L.B. testified, however, that she had decided to tell at that time because Appellant had given her a deadline that she had to let him touch her that day or she would watch her mother die. L.B. testified that she recanted her Halloween 2008 accusation because she was afraid of Appellant.

A.B. was nineteen years old at the time of trial. A.B. testified that at first Appellant would put his head in her lap and ask her to “pick his hair.” She testified that, looking back, she realized he had been “smelling” her for sexual gratification. Appellant subsequently began calling her [316]*316to his bedroom, where he would put his tongue on her vagina. Eventually, he began making her put her mouth on his penis. He threatened that he would kill her mother if she told. A.B. testified that she believed him because she had once seen him pull a knife on someone he believed had stolen from him. A.B. was unsure of the total number of times the abuse happened, but agreed with the prosecutor that it happened more than fifty times. A.B. said that she recanted her Halloween 2008 accusation because she was afraid Appellant would hurt her and her mother.

A.B. acknowledged that when she was interviewed by social services and Deputy Whitehead on August 14, 2009, she initially said nothing had happened to her, and that only after Whitehead told her he could tell she was lying did she say she had been abused. A.B. admitted that she “very much [has] problems with [her] memory,” and acknowledged that L.B. helped “jog [her] memory a lot” about how old she was and what grade she was in when the abuse happened.

The defense theory was that L.B. and A.B. did not like Appellant because he was strict, and had fabricated the allegations in order to get him out of the house. Appellant testified in his own defense and denied all of the allegations. He testified that around the time L.B. made the Halloween 2008 allegation, she was angry at him for threatening to rip the “nutsacks” off of her boyfriend and another boy if they came on his property again. He testified that when L.B. made the August 2009 allegation, he had just grounded her from going on a school trip to Dollywood as punishment for having brought a cat into the house after he told her not to.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
374 S.W.3d 313, 2012 WL 3632015, 2012 Ky. LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chavies-v-commonwealth-ky-2012.