Commonwealth v. Starkus

867 N.E.2d 811, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 326, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 671
CourtMassachusetts Appeals Court
DecidedJune 13, 2007
DocketNo. 06-P-295
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 867 N.E.2d 811 (Commonwealth v. Starkus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Appeals Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Starkus, 867 N.E.2d 811, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 326, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 671 (Mass. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

Graham, J.

After a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant, David Starkus, was found to be a sexually dangerous person and committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center at Bridgewater (MTCB) for between one day and life. On appeal, Starkus argues that (1) the police reports pertaining to a 1978 offense should not have been admitted in evidence, nor should either qualified examiner have referred to the information contained therein; (2) the judge erred in excluding a report from a defense expert; (3) the evidence was insufficient to prove that the defendant suffers from a mental abnormality; (4) the victim’s statements to the qualified examiners during the trial should not have been admitted in evidence; (5) a psychiatric or psychological report should have been excluded because it contained hearsay; and (6) the judge improperly instructed the jury on an element of the offense.

Procedural background. In 1990, Starkus was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of fourteen, and two counts of rape of a child under the age of sixteen. In April of 1991, he withdrew his pleas of not guilty and pleaded guilty to all charges. For the rape convictions, he was sentenced to two concurrent State prison terms of from five and one-half to ten years. For the indecent assault and battery convictions, he received a sentence of from six to ten years, three years suspended, to run on and after the sentences for rape.

In December of 1999, shortly before Starkus’s release from prison, the Commonwealth petitioned to have him committed as a sexually dangerous person pursuant to G. L. c. 123A, § 12(b).1 A judge of the Superior Court found probable cause and corn-[328]*328mitted Starkus for examination in accordance with the statute. A jury trial ensued pursuant to G. L. c. 123A, § 14(a),2 after which he was found to be a sexually dangerous person and committed to the MTCB for the period of one day to life.

Facts. The jury could have found the following facts. Starkus, bom in 1947, had a history of sexual misbehavior dating back to 1978. On December 9, 1978, Starkus, thirty-one years old and married, invited two fourteen year old girls, Karen and Jane (pseudonyms), into his trailer home while his wife was not there. Starkus plied both girls with alcohol and engaged them in conversation about sexual matters. While Jane was using the telephone, Starkus took Karen, who was drunk, into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. He kissed her and undressed her. He began to rape Karen orally, at which point she attempted to get away and made excuses to leave. Starkus digitally penetrated her, placed his penis in her mouth, and then raped her vaginally with his penis. He also told Karen that if she screamed he would kill her. Starkus left the bedroom and told Jane to come into the bedroom because he was going to make her a “non-virgin.” The girls left and reported the rape immediately to Karen’s father.

Starkus was arrested and a police investigation ensued. During the investigation, police spoke with two other girls, ages eleven and thirteen. Both girls told police that they had visited Starkus’s trailer after school on about ten occasions, while his wife was away. During the visits, the conversations centered on sex and Starkus offered the girls alcohol, showed them pornographic books and magazines, and told them dirty jokes. He tickled them and played “truth or dare,” during which he kissed one of them. One visit took place on the same date as the rape, and during that visit Starkus gave one of the girls a book entitled “Little Cora’s Sex Diary,” by Sally Irwin, which the girl gave to police.

The only charge brought as a result of Starkus’s misconduct [329]*329was one count of rape of a child related to the assault upon the fourteen year old victim. Starkus pleaded guilty to so much of the indictment as alleged assault and battery. He was sentenced to two years in the house of correction and placed in psychotherapy as a condition of parole. The psychiatrist who treated Starkus, one Martin J. Pildis, described him as “a man handicapped in his ability to cope in time of emotional stress” and as a man who suffers from “periodic episodic drinking.” Pildis recommended continued therapy. As the result of his conviction, Starkus was also discharged from the United States Air Force on November 16, 1979.

By 1987, Starkus was forty years old and living in Woburn with his third wife and his stepdaughter, who was bom in 1980. The governing offenses took place between 1987 and 1989. The pertinent facts were established through police reports, the transcript of the 1991 plea hearing, Starkus’s statements provided during his incarceration, and trial testimony. Starting in 1987, Starkus stated that he began to invite his stepdaughter, the victim, to wrestle with him in his bed because he believed she enjoyed it. The victim’s mother worked during the day and Starkus worked a night shift, leaving Starkus and the girl alone after school. While wrestling, Starkus stated that he would move the victim’s clothes around to see her body, and he would also expose himself. When he called her to his bedroom, he would be lying on the bed, naked or with his bathrobe open and nothing on under it. He would tell her that he wanted to wrestle and start by doing “raspberries” on her stomach, and would then proceed to suck on her chest.

The victim told police that she knew wrestling meant that she would be sexually assaulted. She said that Starkus would stick his hands down her pants to touch her vagina, and would make her touch his erect penis. He also raped her vaginally with his penis.

His stepdaughter first revealed the assaults to her grandmother in the summer of 1989. She told her grandmother that “it’s been happening for a long time.” The victim’s grandmother reported to police that the victim had been home alone with Starkus, after school, for at least a year. The victim testified as a voir dire witness in the case at bar and stated that the abuse [330]*330began at the end of second grade, in about 1988, and ended when she told her grandmother in the summer of 1989, before fourth grade.

Starkus was indicted on one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of fourteen and two counts of rape of a child under the age of sixteen, each count alleging that the acts occurred on divers dates between September 1, 1987, and September 1, 1989. Starkus pleaded guilty to all charges, but denied that the offenses spanned two years. The prosecutor stated that if the case were to go to trial, the Commonwealth anticipated being able to show that the assaults began when the victim was in second grade and continued through third grade. Starkus admitted committing repeated assaults, but claimed that the crimes occurred entirely within a two-week to one-month period. The judge accepted the plea and sentenced Starkus to a State prison on each rape charge and suspended the State prison sentence on each of the four indecent assault and battery charges.

While in prison, Starkus participated in parts of several treatment programs. He twice completed the first three phases of a sexual offender treatment program, but when he was promoted to the fourth level, where the participants are no longer permitted to deny their involvement in the offense, Starkus dropped out.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
867 N.E.2d 811, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 326, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-starkus-massappct-2007.