People v. Cecunjanin

67 A.D.3d 1072, 889 N.Y.S.2d 691
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided November 5, 2009·Published·Cited by 16 cases

Opinion

Peters, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Franklin County (Richards, J.), rendered August 4, 2008, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of attempted sexual abuse in the first degree and unlawful imprisonment in the second degree.

The victim, accompanied by Lisa Yando and Angela King, visited a night club owned by defendant in the Village of Malone, Franklin County. They arrived around midnight but Yando soon left them. The victim, King and one of King’s friends, Melissa Martin, remained at the club into the early morning hours of the following day. After socializing with others and dancing, the victim, who had previously come to know defendant in the course of her employment, sat for some time in a corner of the bar with him and three of his family members. During that time, the victim became increasingly intoxicated, eventually reaching a point where she was observed to be having difficulty keeping herself upright. Defendant then allegedly began trying to kiss the victim and place his hands up her shirt. Shortly thereafter, defendant allegedly escorted the victim into an adjacent storage room and shut the door. Concerned over this, King called Yando who, in turn, summoned the victim’s parents. According to the victim, while in the storage room, defendant continued in his attempts to place his hand under her shirt and kiss her, and also tried to persuade her to go with him to an upper floor of the building. Although the victim tried to leave the storage room on more than one occasion, defendant prevented her from doing so. When the victim’s parents arrived, her father [1074] retrieved the victim from the storage room and walked her outside, where the police were waiting.

Defendant was thereafter indicted for attempted sexual abuse in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment in the second degree and forcible touching. Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of attempted sexual abuse in the first degree and unlawful imprisonment in the second degree.* He was thereafter sentenced to terms of incarceration of one year on the attempted sexual abuse count and 180 days on the unlawful imprisonment count. He now appeals.

Defendant first challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction of attempted sexual abuse in the first degree, arguing that the People presented no evidence by which the jury could have inferred that the victim was physically helpless. In order to establish the crime of attempted sexual abuse in the first degree, the People were required to show that defendant attempted to subject the victim to sexual contact at a time when she was “incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless” (Penal Law § 130.65 [2]; see Penal Law § 110.00). A person is considered to be “physically helpless” when he or she “is unconscious or for any other reason is physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act” (Penal Law § 130.00 [7]).

Here, the People proffered extensive evidence of the victim’s state of inebriation, including proof that her blood alcohol content was found to be .267% shortly after the incident, as well as testimony from the victim, King and Martin regarding the victim’s physical condition. According to King, when she returned with Martin from the outdoor patio, she observed the victim slouched over in her seat with “her head down . . . just kind of lifeless just sitting there” with defendant’s hand under her shirt. Similarly, Martin testified that the victim was “bobbing her head” and “slouched over” in her stool when defendant had his hand on the victim’s inner thighs. Although the victim recalled placing her arms together over her chest at one point in order to prevent defendant from succeeding in putting his hands up her shirt, she also testified that things were “pretty blurry” after that and the next thing she remembers was hearing a door slam shut after defendant pulled her in a room. Defendant asserts that the victim’s recollection is inconsistent with Martin’s and King’s observations of the victim’s [1075] condition. However, the fact that the victim was able to resist defendant’s advancements at one point in time does not mean that she retained this ability throughout the entire incident. Indeed, “[t]he state of the victim’s physical helplessness at any given moment is largely a question of fact” for the jury (People v Teicher, 52 NY2d 638, 649 [1981]). Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the People (see People v Contes, 60 NY2d 620, 621 [1983]; People v Collins, 56 AD3d 809, 810 [2008], Zu denied 11 NY3d 923 [2009]), there was a valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences from which the jury could conclude that the victim was physically helpless when defendant attempted to subject her to sexual contact (see People v Teicher, 52 NY2d at 646; People v Thomas, 21 AD3d 643, 645 [2005], lv denied 6 NY3d 759 [2005]; People v Himmel, 252 AD2d 273, 276 [1999], lv denied 93 NY2d 899 [1999]; see also People v Ferrer, 250 AD2d 860, 861 [1998], lvs denied 92 NY2d 879 [1998], 93 NY2d 852 [1999]).

We. next turn to defendant’s contention that his convictions were against the weight of the evidence. At trial, defendant testified that he never touched the victim on the breasts, thighs or in any other inappropriate manner. He also proffered the testimony of several bar patrons and the bouncer working that night, all of whom stated that they did not observe defendant inappropriately touch the victim or try to pull her into the back room, although many of these witnesses conceded that they were not paying much attention. One of the bartenders working that evening testified that she originally discovered the victim alone in the storage room opening a cooler and that after she alerted defendant to the victim’s presence, he entered the storage room and told the victim that she had to leave. Defendant stated that he was never alone in the storage room with the victim and both he and this bartender testified as to his unsuccessful attempts to remove the victim from the room.

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People v. Cecunjanin, 67 A.D.3d 1072, 889 N.Y.S.2d 691 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2009).

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