Kasey Shannon Calvery v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 29, 2024
Docket03-23-00755-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Kasey Shannon Calvery v. the State of Texas (Kasey Shannon Calvery v. the State of Texas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kasey Shannon Calvery v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-23-00755-CR

Kasey Shannon Calvery, Appellant

v.

The State of Texas, Appellee

FROM THE 27TH DISTRICT COURT OF LAMPASAS COUNTY NO. 10873, THE HONORABLE JOHN GAUNTT, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

A jury found Kasey Shannon Calvery guilty of continuous sexual assault of a

child and assessed punishment at twenty-five years in prison. See Tex. Penal Code §§ 12.22,

21.02. Calvery contends (1) that the trial court improperly commented on the weight of the

evidence by calling the complainant “JV1”—an abbreviation of “Juvenile Victim 1” in the jury

charge—and (2) that the State failed to prove his identity at trial. We will affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND

Calvery was indicted for continuous sexual abuse of his stepdaughter, Alice 1

more than a decade after the alleged abuse occurred. The indictment referred to Alice as “JV1,”

a pseudonym used by an investigating officer because she was a juvenile when the offenses were

alleged to have occurred. Three witnesses testified at trial: Alice, her mother (Mother), and

1 Alice is a pseudonym for the complaining witness. Texas Ranger Justin Duck, the investigating officer. In addition to Alice’s allegations against

Calvery, the testimony concerned custody arrangements for Mother and Calvery’s sons because

Calvery alleged that the allegations were fabricated to support a custody dispute.

Mother testified that she had two children—four-year-old Alice and a one-year-

old son—when she began a relationship with Calvery in 2001. Mother and Calvery had a son in

2002 (Bill) and another son in November 2005 (Carl).

Alice asked family members to leave the courtroom before her testimony. She

said she did not feel comfortable saying some of her testimony in front of them or anybody.

Alice testified that Calvery sexually abused her beginning when her youngest brother was born

(while Mother was in the hospital) until she was about twelve years old. She testified that from

2007 until around 2010 Calvery came into her room in Lampasas at about 11 p.m. or midnight

on multiple occasions. She would wake up while being undressed. He used his fingers or mouth

to penetrate her vagina. He would undress them both, then put her on top of him and move her

body on top of his, sometimes touching her vagina with his penis. Other times, he would touch

her mouth with his penis. Alice testified that he would whisper to her to move her hips on top of

his. Alice testified that she would pretend to be asleep and agreed she may have told Ranger

Duck that she kept her eyes closed. She said that sometimes he would ask her if she wanted him

to stop; she would say “yes,” and he would stop in the moment but did not stop the acts. She

testified that these incidents sometimes occurred once a week and that other times there were

weeks in between. She estimated that about seventy-five incidents occurred.

Alice testified that she recalled no daytime inappropriate behavior, that there was

no written evidence of the incidents, and that Calvery never specifically told her not to

tell anyone.

2 Alice testified that she did not report the incidents because she was afraid that she

would be in trouble, that no one would believe her, that her mother would be upset, and that if

her report caused a divorce that her mother would not be able to support them financially. She

said that when she was in third grade she mentioned hypothetically to a friend the possibility of a

stepfather acting like a boyfriend or kissing his stepdaughter, and the friend said it would be

weird, sparking Alice’s fears of being disbelieved or embarrassed. Alice testified that she did

not tell anyone after the divorce for many of the same reasons and because she feared Mother

would be angry that she had not said anything. She acknowledged being around Calvery and

speaking with him after the divorce a few times at her brothers’ sporting events, their custody

exchanges, and a few of her son’s sporting events.

Mother testified that Calvery moved to another city and in 2014 married a woman

with a daughter.

In 2018, when Alice was twenty-one years old and living with her husband and

child, she went to a waterpark with her siblings and extended family. Mother answered a phone

call from Calvery on Bill’s phone. Mother testified that Calvery was upset because his current

stepdaughter had accused Bill of “inappropriate behavior.” Mother testified that when Alice

heard the accusations, she “kind of lost it” and was crying and upset and “kept saying she didn’t

want [Bill] getting in trouble for something that [Calvery] did.” Alice got on the phone with

Calvery and, she testified,

I told him that if he had done something to his stepdaughter and was blaming it on [Bill], that he wouldn’t be getting away with it. And I told him that I did suspect that he had done something to his stepdaughter and was somehow putting that blame on [Bill] because I knew what had happened to me.”

3 Alice said she did not at that time discuss with Mother details of Calvery’s actions.

After her outburst at the waterpark, Alice began going to therapy. She testified

that she did not go to the police because she was trying to process the situation. She testified that

she had thought she would never tell anybody about the incidents and, because it came out as

quickly and unexpectedly as it did, she had to process the fact that she was going to have to deal

with it. She said that at one point she spoke to Child Protective Services investigators because

they interviewed her after speaking to Bill and Carl, but she was not sure what they

were investigating.

Alice testified that she came forward in 2020 because she was afraid that

Calvery—then a high school teacher—would continue to abuse young women. Alice testified

that she had not been concerned in 2013 about how a potential report would affect her brothers

but was very concerned in 2020 about negatively affecting them. She said that Bill called her in

2020 to tell her that she was ruining his life, Calvery’s life, and Carl’s life. She said she was hurt

by the choices Bill had made regarding their relationship but that she and Carl maintained a close

and good relationship. She testified that she did not talk about the incidents with Carl because

she did not want to strain their relationships. She testified that the suggestion that she and

Mother invented the accusations because of a custody issue was “laughable” and meritless

because the experience had been so painful. She said she had nothing to gain from testifying

except that she wanted to prevent Calvery from harming another person.

Alice testified that she had only one interview with Ranger Duck. He contacted

her for additional information like therapists’ notes, but did not interview her other than a

37-minute recorded interview that seemed longer to her.

4 Mother testified that the family moved to Lampasas in May 2006. Alice had her

own room in every house they lived in. At one of the houses, the parents’ room was on the

opposite side of the house from the kids’ rooms. Mother testified that in the years of 2007 to

2010 she normally was asleep by 10 p.m. and that she was not a light sleeper. Mother testified

that Calvery was very affectionate toward Alice, wanted her to sit with him and watch television,

and never punished her.

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