People v. Flanagan

342 N.W.2d 609, 129 Mich. App. 786
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 24, 1983
DocketDocket 63251
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 342 N.W.2d 609 (People v. Flanagan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Flanagan, 342 N.W.2d 609, 129 Mich. App. 786 (Mich. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

V. J. Brennan, P. J.

After a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, MCL 750.520b; MSA 28.788(2). Defendant was sentenced to three concurrent 10- to 20-year prison terms and appeals as of right.

The complainants, both 13 years old at the time the offenses occurred, testified at trial that on May 23, 1981, as they were walking to Ortonville, a tan station wagon passed them several times. Finally, the car turned around and stopped next to the girls. The girls approached the car because they believed the driver needed directions. However, when they stood next to the car and poked their heads in the window, defendant slid over to the passenger side of the vehicle and displayed a knife which he held to the throat of one of the girls. He then ordered the girls into the car and they complied.

Defendant then drove the girls to a more secluded area where he lit a pipe filled with marijuana and, according to the girls, forced them to smoke it. Both testified that they smoked the marijuana offered, but did not inhale it. Defendant then offered one-half ounce of marijuana to one of the girls if she would perform fellatio on him. When she refused, he forced her to perform fellatio on him. He next forced the other girl to perform fellatio in the same manner. When she became ill as a result, he again forced the first one to perform fellatio and also forced her twice to have intercourse with him.

The girls stated that, throughout this series of [790]*790events, the knife, which they described as a lock-blade knife with a brown wooden handle with gold trim, a printed name on the handle that began with the letter "P”, and a pointed, three- to four-inch blade, was, at various times during the assaults, in defendant’s right hand while his arm was around their necks, on the seat next to him to his left, in his left hand and clenched in his teeth during the incidents of intercourse.

Prior to their successful escape, there was at least one unsuccessful escape attempt by one of the girls. At some time during the second act of intercourse, a struggle ensued between the three people in the vehicle, and the girls managed to escape. The girls testified that they hit and kicked defendant in their efforts to escape from the vehicle. They ran from the vehicle through an open field where they hid in a swamp until they heard defendant’s car drive away. After they heard his car drive away, they fled to a nearby home where they called the police and the father of one of the girls.

Defendant’s version of the events differed significantly from the girls’ version. According to defendant, the girls flagged him down and asked for a ride into Ortonville. When they got into the car, they noted his marijuana pipe in the ashtray and asked if he had any marijuana.

Defendant testified that he told the girls he had some marijuana. He then drove to a more secluded spot to roll a "joint” for them to smoke with him because the pipe screen in his pipe was clogged. When they arrived at the secluded spot, because he had no papers with which to roll a joint, he cleaned the pipe screen and the three ultimately smoked two bowls of marijuana from the pipe. He denied that he forced the girls to smoke the marijuana.

[791]*791He testified that one of the girls asked him if he would trade some of his marijuana for a speed pill. When he declined, she asked him to give her some marijuana. Upon defendant’s continued refusal to supply the girls with marijuana, one girl told the defendant that she was not 15 as she stated earlier, but only 13 years old, and if he refused to give her marijuana, she would tell the police that he had raped her. Defendant further testified that he became angry and pushed the girls from his car. Initially, his dog chased the girls, but returned to the car when he called him.

On cross-examination, the prosecutor questioned defendant about marital problems that he had around the time the sexual assaults occurred. The prosecutor then questioned him about his subsequent divorce, to which defense counsel objected on the grounds of relevance. The prosecutor argued that it was probative of "whether or not the normal sexual desires in a male would have to be satisfied”. The trial court overruled defense counsel’s objection and allowed the question. He denied that he had marital problems prior to the alleged assaults. According to his testimony, the problems originated on the day his wife found out about the alleged assaults.

In an effort to establish the complainants’ version of the events as the correct one, the prosecutor introduced medical evidence which tended to corroborate their story. Both Susan Jones and Dr. Hayden, the nurse and examining physician who treated the girls at Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital shortly after the alleged assaults, testified that one of the girls suffered two small vaginal tears consistent with sexual intercourse and that there was a small amount of bloody discharge.

Nurse Jones described the girls as upset, ex[792]*792tremely dirty, and disheveled at the time she examined them. Sheryl Martin, whom the girls approached for help after they escaped from Mr. Flanagan’s vehicle, testified that the two girls were crying when they arrived at her house. Trooper Harry C. Delodder, who transported the girls to the hospital, testified that they were upset and crying when he first saw them.

Defendant’s first claim is that the prosecutor’s cross-examination of the defendant about his divorce and the satisfaction of his sexual needs, over defense counsel’s objection, amounted to prejudicial error.

On cross-examination of defendant, the prosecutor questioned the defendant about whether he had marital problems at the time of the sexual assaults. Defendant denied that there were problems. When the prosecutor questioned him about his subsequent divorce, defense counsel objected on the grounds of relevance. The prosecutor then argued that the defendant’s marital problems were relevant to show motive since defendant may not have had his "normal” male sexual desires satisfied prior to the assaults.

The trial court overruled the objection and defendant was again asked whether his marital problems began prior to the sexual assaults. Defendant replied that his problems began on the date of the assaults.

"Relevant evidence is 'evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact of consequence more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence’. MRE 401. Relevant evidence is generally admissible; irrelevant evidence is not. MRE 402. Even if relevant, a trial court may choose to exclude evidence on the ground of prejudice, confusion, or waste of time. MRE 403. The admissibility of evidence is a question [793]*793that rests in the trial court’s discretion and the exercise of the court’s discretion will not be overturned unless there has been a clear abuse of that discretion. People v Strickland, 78 Mich App 40, 54; 259 NW2d 232 (1977).” People v O’Brien, 113 Mich App 183, 203; 317 NW2d 570 (1982).

See People v Howard, 391 Mich 597, 603; 218 NW2d 20 (1974).

The defendant in the case at bar contends that the prosecutor should not have been permitted to question him about his marital status at the time of the alleged assaults. We agree. The prosecutor argued that defendant’s ability to fulfill his "normal” male sexual desires was probative of his motive to rape the complainants.

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Bluebook (online)
342 N.W.2d 609, 129 Mich. App. 786, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-flanagan-michctapp-1983.