Com. v. Morris, M.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 27, 2023
Docket1267 MDA 2022
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Morris, M. (Com. v. Morris, M.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Com. v. Morris, M., (Pa. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

J-S12039-23

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT OP 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : MANUEL MORRIS : : Appellant : No. 1267 MDA 2022

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered August 3, 2022 In the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-22-CR-0006137-2019

BEFORE: KUNSELMAN, J., McCAFFERY, J., and COLINS, J.*

MEMORANDUM BY COLINS, J.: FILED JULY 27, 2023

Appellant, Manuel Morris, appeals from his aggregate judgment of

sentence of two to four years’ imprisonment followed by one year of probation,

which was imposed after a jury convicted him of two counts of indecent assault

and one count of harassment by lewd, lascivious, or obscene language.1 For

the reasons set forth below, we affirm Appellant’s indecent assault

convictions, but vacate his harassment conviction.

On November 14, 2019, Appellant, a counselor at a Gaudenzia inpatient

drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, was charged with indecent assault for

incidents of unwanted physical contact with two women who were being

____________________________________________

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

1 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 3126(a)(1) and 2709(a)(4), respectively. J-S12039-23

treated at the facility (Victim 1 and Victim 2) and was charged with

harassment for inappropriate conversations with a third female patient (Victim

3). The charges were tried to a jury on April 6 and 7, 2022. Six witnesses

testified for the Commonwealth, the three victims, Gaudenzia’s division

director, the victims’ counselor at the facility, and the investigating police

officer. Appellant testified in his own defense.

The Gaudenzia division director testified that Victim 1 was at the facility

from October 16 to November 13, 2019, that Victim 2 was at the facility from

October 20 to November 14, 2019, and that Victim 3 was at the facility from

October 10 to November 14, 2019. N.T. Trial at 56-58. He testified that

Appellant, who was wheelchair bound, was a counselor at the facility at this

time, but was not the counselor assigned to Victim 1, Victim 2, or Victim 3.

Id. at 41-43, 61-62. The division director testified that Gaudenzia did not

permit counselors to hug or show affection to patients while they were in

treatment and permitted them only to briefly hug a patient when the patient

was leaving the facility after treatment was complete or if the patient came

back to visit after treatment. Id. at 36-37. He also testified that at the time

that the victims were at the facility, Gaudenzia did not allow patients to drink

caffeinated coffee and generally limited their phone calls to their families to

one 10-minute call per week. Id. at 44-49, 78-79. The division director

testified that on November 6, 2019, the victims’ counselor and Victim 2

reported inappropriate touching by Appellant. Id. at 58-62.

-2- J-S12039-23

Victim 1 testified that Appellant invited her to his office to drink coffee

and that she went to his office to have coffee five or six times. N.T. Trial at

199-200. She testified that the door was closed when she was in Appellant’s

office, that she talked with Appellant about her personal life as she would with

a counselor, and that nothing happened that made her uncomfortable in any

of the visits until her last time in his office. Id. at 200-03, 220. Victim 1

testified that the last time that she went to Appellant’s office, shortly before

November 6, 2019, she became upset for reasons unrelated to Appellant and

Appellant asked her if she wanted a hug. Id. at 205-07, 221. Victim 1

testified that she said yes and that when she leaned down to Appellant’s

wheelchair to hug him, Appellant tried to kiss her and kissed her on the neck

when she turned her face away. Id. at 206-08. Victim 1 testified that she

tried to pull away and that Appellant pulled her closer, grabbed her rear end,

tried to put his hand in her pants, and sucked on her stomach below her shirt.

Id. at 206-09. She testified that she told Appellant to stop, that he did not

stop, and that she was able to pull away and walked out of his office. Id. at

207-10. Victim 1 identified photographs taken by the police of the mark on

her stomach from Appellant’s sucking. Id. at 213-15.

On cross-examination, Victim 1 testified that Appellant messaged her

on Facebook messenger. N.T. Trial at 219. After Victim 1 provided a

screenshot of her Facebook message to the Commonwealth, the

Commonwealth recalled her to the stand. Over Appellant’s objection, Victim

-3- J-S12039-23

1 identified as the message that she received from Appellant a Facebook

message with no identifying information as to the sender dated November 14,

2019 and consisting solely of a waving hand, and that screenshot was

admitted in evidence. Id. at 284-92, 294. Victim 1 testified that at the time

that she saw the message after leaving treatment in November 2019,

Appellant’s picture appeared as the profile picture that accompanied the

message. Id. at 289-90, 293-94.

Victim 2 testified that Appellant invited her to his office to make extra

phone calls to her family and drink coffee. N.T. Trial at 159-60. She testified

that the first time that she went to his office, the door was open and nothing

improper occurred. Id. at 160-63. Victim 2 testified that the second time

that she was in Appellant’s office, the door was closed and Appellant cupped

his hand on her rear end while she was talking to her husband on the phone.

Id. at 164-67. Victim 2 testified that she pushed his hand away and he then

put his hand under the waistband of her sweatpants and pulled her down on

him and tried to kiss her. Id. at 166-70. She testified that she covered the

phone receiver and told him stop and that she ended the phone call, stood up,

and walked out the door. Id. at 166, 168-70. Victim 2 testified that after she

hung up the phone, she told Appellant that he could be fired for this and that

Appellant responded, “okay, married woman.” Id. at 170-71.

Victim 3 testified that while she was at the Gaudenzia facility, Appellant

approached her while she was painting, asked her to paint a tattoo, and told

-4- J-S12039-23

her that he wanted to get her personal information before she left so that he

could bring her back and put that tattoo on her. N.T. Trial at 130-33. Victim

3 also testified that one day when she was sitting at a picnic table during her

free time, Appellant said to her “hey, sexy” and asked her about her romantic

relationships. Id. at 134. She testified that this conversation went on for 20

minutes to half an hour and that she believed that she made Appellant aware

that she was uncomfortable with the conversation. Id. at 144. Victim 3

further testified that later, on a day when she was upset, Appellant invited her

to his office, that when she came to his office, he got close to her and asked

her what was wrong, and that when she would not tell him, he said, “now, if

we were at the club this is what I would do next” and tried to put his arm

around her waist. Id. at 136-37. Victim 3 testified that she had never told

Appellant that it was okay for him to touch her and that she was upset and

stood up and walked out of his office, tripping over his wheelchair as she went

to the door. Id. at 137-40, 147.

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