Mirowitz v. State

449 S.W.2d 475, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1168
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 17, 1969
Docket42368
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 449 S.W.2d 475 (Mirowitz v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mirowitz v. State, 449 S.W.2d 475, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1168 (Tex. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

DOUGLAS, Judge.

The offense is aggravated assault by an adult male upon a female; the punishment was assessed at a fine of $1,000 and confinement in jail for two years.

The sufficiency of the evidence is challenged. The prosecutrix testified that she was twenty-one years of age and a college student. She had been employed as an undercover agent by John Irvin, an investigator of the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners. She saw in the Dallas directory where Jack Mirowitz was advertised, among other things, as a Ph.D. and clinical psychologist dealing with marriage counseling, hypnosis, self-hypnosis, speed reading and emotional problems. After making an appointment, she went to the office in the Preston Shopping Center where the receptionist introduced the appellant as Dr. Mir-owitz.

The prosecutrix pretended to have a headache. Mirowitz took her into another room where he requested that she get in the reclining chair, and he then asked who had treated her before and how she decided to choose him. She told him she picked the largest advertisement in the yellow pages and called for the appointment. When he asked if she had unusual dreams, she replied that there had been one recurring nightmare where some natives in Africa had captured her mother and would not release her. He then asked why she hated her mother.

His prescribed treatment for the headache was self-hypnosis. After some fifteen or twenty minutes of this treatment, he asked, among other things, if she ever had intercourse. She testified that her answer was not the truth, but she told him that she had intercourse once with a man who she thought she loved, became pregnant and had an abortion. When the first visit was concluded, she paid the receptionist $25.00, made another appointment and left.

Some thirteen days later, she went to his office and told him that his suggested elevator method of self-hypnosis had not helped. Again he had her get in the fully reclined chair and started another form of hypnosis or treatment. He got real close to her and after about ten minutes asked, if she did not get hot and desire sex sometimes. He asked her to imagine that she was someone else and that she was looking in a mirror and saw herself in blue lace pants and bra, and then to imagine herself undressed.

During their conversation, she had told appellant that Kenny was the name of her boyfriend. He told her to think of him as if he were Kenny and to respond in the way she would respond to Kenny. Appellant acted as though he thought she was under hypnosis and told her to think ahead for *477 six months and of him as Kenny and they would be married and on their honeymoon in a cabin in the mountains. He then asked her to make love and she refused; he assured her it was all right because they were legally married.

In the meantime, appellant was getting more excited and she was scared. He asked her to kiss him, telling her that they were married, but she refused. He tried to kiss her and did, and at the same time put his hand on her breast. She tried to push him away from her, but this was difficult in the reclining chair. He forcefully kissed her again and shoved his hand completely under her panties. She then scratched him and told him to stop, and he then let her up. His hands were shaking and he appeared to be very excited and nervous. He led her into another room and told her to stay there until he returned, and he would teach her how to make love and enjoy it. As soon as she heard his office door close, she ran out another door to the parking lot where John Irvin was waiting. She testified that she was upset.

John Irvin testified that he hired the prosecutrix to ascertain if appellant was violating the Medical Practice Act. He had waited for her at the parking lot, and on the day of, and after, the second appointment, she came out of the building running. She was white, shaking, appeared to have tears in her eyes and was quite nervous for some fifteen or twenty minutes.

Appellant testified that he was fifty-two years of age and that he was a clinical psychologist. According to his testimony the prosecutrix brought up the subject of sex; that he did not kiss her, touch her breast or put his hand up her dress or under her panties. He testified that she had left his office after she had gone through a dream sequence about her headaches and went into the other room, and she never paid him for the second visit.

On cross-examination appellant testified that he had a Ph.D. in psychology from Burton College and Seminary in Colorado where he attended in 1958 through 1960. Upon further cross-examination, he testified that the school was not accredited, and that he had neither received a bachelor’s degree nor a master’s degree from an accredited school in the United States.

He later testified that the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis required an M.D., D.D.S., or Ph.D. or the equivalent from an accredited school for membership and they had accepted him on the basis of his experience.

In the first ground of error, complaint is made because the prosecuting attorney asked appellant on cross-examination if he were not a fraud. After being asked about an institute on hypnosis and a psychotherapy clinic that he had organized in 1958, appellant stated that the organization no longer existed. Then the following transpired:

“Q. (Mr. Tokoly, Assistant District Attorney) Isn’t it a fact, sir, you are not a clinical psychologist at all, isn’t it a fact you are a fraud?
“A. No — ”

Appellant’s counsel started to object and appellant stated: “ — it is not.” The objection was that he was being tried for aggravated assault, male upon a female. After the court ascertained that the objection was to the word “fraud” he instructed the jury not to consider the word “fraud” for any purpose. A motion for mistrial was overruled.

Appellant argues that the question asked was somewhat like injecting extraneous offenses into the case. In the present case there was no attempt to inject extraneous offenses. The fact that the prosecutor had just interrogated appellant about his degrees and his qualifications as a clinical psychologist would indicate that the reference was to appellant’s qualifications.

This Court seldom reverses cases solely because of a question propounded to the defendant as a witness. To cause reversal the question must be obviously harm *478 ful to the defendant. Sensabaugh v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 426 S.W.2d 224, and Mounts v. State, 148 Tex.Cr.R. 177, 185 S.W.2d 731. See Smith v. State, 141 Tex.Cr.R. 387, 148 S.W.2d 844, and Palmer v. State, 134 Tex.Cr.R. 390, 115 S.W.2d 641.

In light of the answer by appellant that he was not a fraud and the ruling of the court to disregard the question, it cannot be concluded that the asking of the question was reversible error.

The first ground of error is overruled.

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Bluebook (online)
449 S.W.2d 475, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mirowitz-v-state-texcrimapp-1969.