Joshua C. Johnson v. State of Indiana

CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 24, 2012
Docket02A03-1203-CR-130
StatusUnpublished

This text of Joshua C. Johnson v. State of Indiana (Joshua C. Johnson 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
Joshua C. Johnson v. State of Indiana, (Ind. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited FILED before any court except for the Oct 24 2012, 8:49 am purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or the CLERK of the supreme court,

law of the case. court of appeals and tax court

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE:

JOHN C. BOHDAN GREGORY F. ZOELLER Deputy Public Defender Attorney General of Indiana Fort Wayne, Indiana KARL M. SCHARNBERG Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

JOSHUA C. JOHNSON, ) ) Appellant-Defendant, ) ) vs. ) No. 02A03-1203-CR-130 ) STATE OF INDIANA, ) ) Appellee-Plaintiff. )

APPEAL FROM THE ALLEN SUPERIOR COURT The Honorable John F. Surbeck, Judge Cause No. 02D06-1109-FA-57

October 24, 2012

MEMORANDUM DECISION - NOT FOR PUBLICATION

ROBB, Chief Judge Case Summary and Issues

A jury convicted Joshua Johnson of five counts of child molesting, three as Class

A felonies and two as Class C felonies; one count of child exploitation, a Class C felony;

and one count of possession of child pornography and two counts of dissemination of

matter harmful to minors, all Class D felonies. Johnson was sentenced to an aggregate of

fifty-eight and one-half years in prison. Johnson appeals, raising two issues for our

review, which we expand and restate as four: 1) whether the trial court abused its

discretion by allowing Nurse Robison to testify as to what A.H. told her during a sexual

assault examination; 2) whether the trial court abused its discretion by allowing Nurse

Robison to state the statistical likelihood of a young victim exhibiting no physical injuries

after being sexually assaulted; 3) whether the trial court abused its discretion by deeming

as inadmissible proffered testimony concerning Johnson’s wife’s prior viewing of child

pornography; and 4) whether Johnson’s sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of

his offenses and his character. Concluding the trial court did not abuse its discretion

regarding the challenged evidentiary decisions, and Johnson’s sentence is not

inappropriate, we affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

Johnson was married to Lela Johnson, with one daughter of the marriage and one

daughter, A.H., of Lela’s from a different relationship. In August 2011, Lela began a

new job that required her to work from 3:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. While Johnson and Lela

were both working, Johnson’s cousin, Jennifer Boisvert, would babysit the two girls. On

August 25, 2011, Johnson picked up the girls around 10:30 p.m. from his cousin’s home

and took them back to their apartment. On August 26, 2011, Johnson was spending time 2 with Shawn Boisvert, his second cousin, playing video games. Johnson and Shawn

recorded the video games to an SD card from Johnson’s cell phone to later upload to the

Internet. After they finished, they inserted the SD card into Johnson’s computer. A

video began to play, and Shawn saw A.H. masturbating an erect penis. He recognized

the room A.H. was in as Johnson’s living room. He also noted the date stamp on the

video was August 25, 2011, at 11:30 p.m. While testifying, Shawn stated he knew the

penis to be Johnson’s because, even though Johnson’s face was not on the video, Johnson

had previously shown Shawn videos on his phone of Johnson and Lela having sex.

Shawn was sixteen years old at the time. After approximately fifteen to twenty seconds,

Johnson shut off the video, and the two did not discuss it.

Shawn reported what he had seen to the Department of Child Services (“DCS”).

When interviewed by Luna Dejesus of DCS, A.H. told Dejesus that Johnson sexually

abused her. After the interview, A.H. saw Nurse Sharon Robison for a sexual assault

examination. Nurse Robison testified about the examination at trial. Prior to such

testimony, she stated she received a health care technician degree and a nursing degree;

she worked for the Fort Wayne Sexual Assault Treatment Center for the twelve years

preceding trial; at the time of trial she was the Chief Administrative Officer for the

Center and a sexual assault nurse; for the first eight years that she worked at the Center

she was primarily a pediatric assistant and would attend all forensic exams of children

with the sexual assault nurses; in 2008, she attended a seventy-two hour adult and

adolescent sexual abuse examination training course, a forty-two and one half hour

classroom course for pediatric sexual abuse, and a fifty-hour clinical course; she

participated in a preceptorship with the Chief Nursing Officer at the Center for six 3 months; and she is certified by the International Association of Forensic Nurses to

conduct sexual assault examinations on adults, adolescents, and children. Nurse Robison

stated she participated in over eight-hundred sexual assault examinations as a pediatric

assistant, and four-hundred and fifty-two as the primary nurse.

Nurse Robison testified that her first step during a sexual assault examination is to

take a “patient history,” wherein she finds out “what’s been going on” in order to

diagnose the patient and develop a treatment plan. Transcript at 233. In addition to

diagnosing and developing a treatment plan for physical symptoms of abuse, Nurse

Robison stated it is important to discover if the patient is at risk for a post traumatic

response, and that if the patient is, she refers them for counseling. In regards to A.H.’s

examination, Nurse Robison testified:

What she had stated to me was, she said him, and I clarified who him was, and she said Josh. So she said him’s [sic] pee pee, it hurted. He hurted my gina last night. She said that him’s [sic] mouth was on my boobs, he put him’s [sic] mouth on my mouth and she actually pointed to her mouth. Him [sic] put his mouth on my poop hole and she stated him’s [sic] put his pee pee in my mouth, I drank his milk out of his peanuts, it tasted nasty. She also stated that him’s [sic] put his pee pee in my butt, I cried, it hurted. She said he showed me naked video and he had me do this to his pee pee, and she actually cupped her hand and went like this.

Id. at 236. In addition to this testimony, the State offered into evidence the medical

report filled out by Nurse Robison during her examination. Johnson objected to the

admissibility of both Nurse Robison’s testimony and the report as including hearsay:

statements of A.H. made to Nurse Robison. The trial court overruled his objections.

After testifying that she did not discover any injuries to A.H.’s genitalia or anus,

the State asked Nurse Robison if she knew how frequently children from ages zero to

thirteen exhibit injuries in sexual assault cases. Defense counsel objected based on 4 hearsay and the State inadequately laying the foundation for an expert witness, and the

trial court overruled the objection. Nurse Robison then stated that “[t]he latest research

shows that 95% of female children who disclose penetration have no injury.” Id. at 241.

Ultimately, the record does not reflect that Nurse Robison ordered any further medical

treatment after her examination of A.H., but her report states that she was “strongly

encouraging counseling.” State’s Exhibit 3 at 6.

A.H., who was five years old at the time of trial, also testified. A.H. stated that

Johnson’s “peanuts” went inside her “gina” and “butt,” and his “peanuts” touched her

“boobies.” Tr.

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