People v. Ives CA2/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 24, 2022
DocketB304492
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Ives CA2/3 (People v. Ives CA2/3) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Ives CA2/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

Filed 2/24/22 P. v. Ives CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE, B304492

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. TA148467) v.

JOHN HAROLD IVES,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Allen J. Webster, Judge. Affirmed. Mark S. Givens, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Assistant Attorney General, Michael R. Johnsen and Theresa A. Patterson, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. —————————— A jury convicted John Harold Ives of sexually abusing his daughter over a period of several years. On appeal, Ives argues that the trial court’s admission of his statements made during a custodial interrogation violated Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 and the prosecutor committed reversible error in her closing argument when she misstated the law on sexual intercourse by telling the jury that a penis “hitting” a vagina, or the lips of vagina, is sexual intercourse and rape on a child. We affirm the judgment. BACKGROUND I. The sexual abuse Ives sexually abused his daughter over a period of five or six years when she was between the ages of five and 11 years old. The abuse occurred approximately one to three times per week or five times per month while daughter was in Ives’s care and mother was at work. When daughter was five to six years old, Ives would place his hands under daughter’s clothes and insert his fingers into her vagina and touch her chest. On other occasions, Ives would force daughter to kneel in front of him and touch his penis while he placed his hands in her pants and touched her vagina. Daughter said this caused pain and “felt like scratching.” Daughter would tell Ives to stop, but he refused. Ives also forced daughter to perform oral sex on him. When daughter was seven years old, Ives would put his fingers in daughter’s vagina and force her to touch his penis and perform oral sex. On one occasion, Ives forced daughter to kneel in front of him while he sat on the couch and perform oral sex on him until he ejaculated into her mouth. This made her gag and feel disgusted.

2 When daughter was eight years old, the sexual abuse escalated. While daughter was in bed, Ives would hold her legs up and try to insert his penis in her vagina. Because Ives’s penis would not fit, he moved it back and forth between the lips of daughter’s vagina. When daughter was nine or 10 years old, she was asleep in her mother’s bed when she was awakened by a flash of light and heard the clicking sound of a phone camera. Daughter noticed that the bed covers and her pants had been removed and that Ives was taking pictures of her while his fingers were in her vagina. In a separate incident, Ives asked daughter to watch television with him on the couch. Daughter sat down with Ives and he turned off the television and put his hand in her pants and put his fingers in her vagina. Ives told daughter not to tell anyone about what he did to her or bad things would happen to him. Daughter feared Ives and testified that, once when she was in elementary school, Ives held a meat cleaver against her neck and yelled at her. Other times, Ives hit daughter and told her that she was a “mistake” and she “should never have been born.” Daughter did not disclose the sexual abuse until she was 15 years old when she told her high school teacher. The teacher reported the sexual abuse to a school administrator, who notified the Department of Children and Family Services. II. Pretext text messages and phone calls Detective Tifani Stonich interviewed daughter at her school. Detective Stonich explained to daughter how sexual abuse investigations occur and proposed that daughter make a pretext call to Ives to see what he would say regarding the sexual abuse. Daughter did not feel comfortable calling Ives, but agreed

3 to send him a text message. She sent a text message to Ives, stating, “Because I want to fix us, but I am struggling with something that I can’t get off my mind. And you’re the only one I can talk to about it. I can’t stop thinking about when I was younger you had me touch you and when you would touch me.”1 Ives sent a text message to daughter that said, “That stuff is difficult to talk about, too, for me.” He then texted, “Wish it never happened. Try to forget about it. Make some mistakes. I’ve asked God to forgive me. I go to church now. Anyway, my break is over. I have to go now. Contact you at 4:30.” Daughter responded with, “I just want to hear you apologize for what you’ve done. The memories of making me give you oral sex and touching your penis and you touching my vagina and trying to have sex with me multiple times.” Ives texted back, “Please forgive me for the mistakes I made. I have no experience before you at being a dad.” Daughter responded, “I’m ready to forgive you once you tell me exactly what you are sorry for. I’m not crazy, dad. Those things did happen, didn’t they?” Ives responded, “I’m sorry.” Shortly thereafter, daughter made a pretext call to Ives. Detective Stonich was present during the call and the call was recorded. Ives made numerous incriminating statements during the call. “I[ves:] I’m sorry for touching you inappropriately. [¶] . . . [¶] “[Daughter:] . . . Did I lose my virginity to you?

1 ThePeople introduced screenshots of the text message exchanges and daughter read them to the jury.

4 “I[ves:] I [unintelligible] virgins. I never put—I never put that in there. [¶] . . . [¶] “[Daughter:] I remember you putting your penis in me. “I[ves:] No, it never went inside. [¶] . . . [¶] “[Daughter:] Okay. I remember it happening and you trying to. “I[ves:] Okay. I remember, too. But I’m sorry—[¶] . . . [¶] “I[ves:] I wish I never—I wish I could go back—turn back time and not do it. [¶] . . . [¶] “I[ves:] I was—I was an—I was an idiot for doing . . . “[Daughter:] Can you promise me that— “I[ves:] . . . Can I what? “[Daughter:] —me touching your penis and you[ ] having me touch you very inappropriately will never happen again? “I[ves:] Yes. I promise that will never happen again.” When daughter asked why Ives made her perform oral sex on him, Ives stated, “I was perverted. I was looking at a lot of porn at the time” and “I was crazy with porn.” Just before the call ended, Ives said, “I feel terrible for what I did to you.” III. Ives’s interview with detectives Detective Stonich and her partner, Detective Chris Waller, interviewed (and tape recorded) Ives the day following his arrest.2 Ives was in custody but not handcuffed; he was provided food and water. The detectives confronted Ives about the allegations that daughter had made against him. They told him they had read the text messages between him and daughter and that they were present during the pretext call. Ives stated, “I

2 An audio recording of the interview was played to the jury.

5 deeply—I deeply regret (phonetic) what has happened” and that he “screwed up.” When Detective Stonich told Ives that daughter claimed that the sexual abuse occurred from the time she was six to 11 years old, Ives said, “I don’t remember that long. [¶] . . . [¶] . . .

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Ives CA2/3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ives-ca23-calctapp-2022.