Little v. State

413 N.E.2d 639, 1980 Ind. App. LEXIS 1826
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 15, 1980
Docket2-1278A419
StatusPublished
Cited by80 cases

This text of 413 N.E.2d 639 (Little v. State) 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
Little v. State, 413 N.E.2d 639, 1980 Ind. App. LEXIS 1826 (Ind. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, Judge.

Defendant David Little appeals his conviction of statutory rape. 1 His Motion to *642 Correct Errors contained the following allegations of trial court error 2 :

1) Exclusion of evidence that the victim, L.K., made prior accusations of sexual misconduct against her which were apparently unfounded;
2) Admission of testimony of L.K.’s mother in that her testimony was hearsay and was cumulative and prejudicial because it was outside the scope of Patterson v. State (1975) 263 Ind. 55, 324 N.E.2d 482;
3) Admission of L.K.’s stepfather’s testimony regarding sexual acts committed against L.K. in that such testimony was “totem pole” hearsay and inadmissible for any purpose;
4) Admission of written statements of L.K. and her mother;
5) Denial of Defendant’s motion for a psychiatric examination of L.K. when evidence of instability available to the court was discovered during trial;
6) Admission of testimony of L.K. and her mother as rebuttal because it was cumulative and repetitious of the State’s case-in-chief;
7) Admission of evidence as rebuttal which should have been presented during the State’s case-in-chief;
8) Denial of Little’s motion for mistrial based on misconduct by the prosecutor during voir dire in suggesting to the jury that Defendant would make pre-emptory challenges;
9) Admission of the examining physician’s testimony in that it failed to prove or disprove any material fact directly or circumstantially;
10) Denial of Defendant’s motion for mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct in making unfounded references to Defendant’s “depraved sexual instincts” during the course of argument improperly made in the presence of the jury;
11) Denial of Little’s motion for mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct in initiating the warrantless arrest of two State’s witnesses and their subsequent release; 3
12) Denial of Defendant’s motion for mistrial due to the cumulative, inflammatory, prejudicial, and illegal misconduct of the prosecutor throughout the trial;
13) Denial of Little’s motion for discharge at the close of the State’s evidence;
14) Admission of an examining psychom-etrist’s testimony which was improper rebuttal, irrelevant, and immaterial;
15) Denial of Defendant’s motions to strike improperly admitted testimony; 4 and
16) Exclusion of testimony of a police officer regarding accusations made by L.K. 5

For the reasons discussed below, we affirm.

The evidence most favorable to the State indicates that L.K., who was fourteen years of age at the time, met Little on May 26, 1977 at a neighbor’s home. Later that afternoon Defendant followed L.K. into one of the bedrooms where she was trying to repair her clothing after rough-housing with certain neighbor children. Little then kissed L.K., touched her chest, and led her through the house into a room in the back of the garage. Defendant pushed L.K. onto a mattress, undressed her, performed cunnilingus and had sexual intercourse with her.

*643 Subsequently, L.K.’s mother became suspicious and, eventually on June 22, 1977, confronted L.K. L.K. told her mother what had happened. The next day L.K.’s mother took her to the police station to file a complaint and to the hospital for a physical examination.

I.

Little first alleges that the trial court erred in excluding evidence that L.K. had made apparently false accusations of sexual misconduct regarding others.

Generally, a witness may not be impeached by specific acts, but only by general reputation. Morris v. State (1977) 266 Ind. 473, 364 N.E.2d 132, cert. denied, 434 U.S. 972, 98 S.Ct. 526, 54 L.Ed.2d 462. An exception to the general rule has been made in some sex offense cases in which the specific act was a prior false allegation of conduct similar to that with which the defendant was charged. See Annot., 75 A.L. R.2d 508 (1961). This exception was indirectly recognized by the First District in Hall v. State (1st Dist.1978) Ind.App., 374 N.E.2d 62.

Hall involved a letter, allegedly written by the victim’s father and stepmother, which came into defense counsel’s possession the day of trial. The letter indicated that the victim had received psychiatric treatment for her sexual problems and her compulsion to lie. The letter also stated that she had falsely accused others of raping her. Defense counsel was denied a continuance to contact witnesses discovered as a result of the letter. The Court of Appeals determined that potential evidence of false accusations was not excluded by the Rape Shield Law 6 : “[A]ny testimony other than that dealing with the victim’s past sexual conduct should have been allowed. In this case, the essence of evidence suggested by the letter goes directly to the victim’s credibility, not her history of sexual conduct.” Id. at 65.

The focus is the falsity of the accusations. We believe that evidence of false accusations of similar sexual misconduct is admissible on the issue of the victim’s credibility. The allegations, however, must be demonstrably false. As stated in State v. Nab (1966) 245 Or. 454, 459, 421 P.2d 388, 391:

“It should be observed that the rule . . . does not permit the trial to stray from the central issue of the guilt or innocence of the defendant into a full-scale investigation of charges made by the prosecutrix against other persons. That would be intolerable. The rule is limited to the reception of evidence that the prosecutrix had admitted the falsity of the charges or they had been disproved.”

Admission of true accusations of sexual misconduct is prohibited by the Rape Shield Law because they would be evidence of the victim’s sexual conduct. To permit reception of evidence which may be true or false would allow circumvention of the Rape Shield Law.

In her statement to police, L.K. asserted that the adult male resident of the house where the incident occurred assisted Defendant in removing her clothes. In court she testified that the neighbor had not aided Little and that she had also lied to her mother in that regard.

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Bluebook (online)
413 N.E.2d 639, 1980 Ind. App. LEXIS 1826, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/little-v-state-indctapp-1980.