People v. Valentine

93 Cal. Rptr. 2d 587, 78 Cal. App. 4th 719
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 14, 2000
DocketB109409
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 93 Cal. Rptr. 2d 587 (People v. Valentine) 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. Valentine, 93 Cal. Rptr. 2d 587, 78 Cal. App. 4th 719 (Cal. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

93 Cal.Rptr.2d 587 (2000)
78 Cal.App.4th 719

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
Randy Alan VALENTINE, Defendant and Appellant.

No. B109409.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Seven.

February 28, 2000.
As Modified March 15, 2000.
As Modified on Denial of Rehearing March 29, 2000.
Review Granted June 14, 2000.

*588 The Law Offices of Dennis A. Fischer, by Dennis A. Fischer, Los Angeles, and John L. Ryan, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Carol Wendelin Pollack, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Linda C. Johnson, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Michael J. Wise, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

*589 JOHNSON, Acting P.J.

Appellant, Randy Alan Valentine (Valentine) was convicted following jury trial of twenty-one counts[1] of sex offenses against two young victims, N. C. and V. R. Valentine was thereafter sentenced to a total term of 81 years and four months in state prison and given a $15,000 fine. This appeal followed and raises the issue whether threatened "hardship" remains a form of "duress" justifying convictions for forcible oral copulation and forcible penetration by a foreign object. We conclude it does not and reverse the convictions for those offenses.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Both of the victims, N. C. and V. R., attended eighth grade during the 1990-91 school year at Samuel Gompers Middle School. Appellant was the girls' English teacher that year. Both girls spent a lot of time "hanging out" with appellant in his classroom during the school year. Appellant began physically molesting N. C. before Christmas 1990 and in March 1991. The sexual nature of the molestation increased from rubbing, hugging and kissing to the fondling of N. C.'s breasts by the end of the school term.

That summer, appellant arranged a special summer session class solely for N. C. and V. R., ostensibly to prepare the girls for high school. During the session the sexual molestation continued both on and off campus.

A. V. is both the mother of N. C. and the wife of appellant. At the time her daughter attended Gompers, A. V. was a teacher's assistant at the school. She and appellant began dating the summer between N. C.'s eighth and ninth grades. As a result of the relationship with N. C.'s mother, appellant was a frequent visitor at their family apartment.

The molestation of N. C. continued and indeed escalated to the point appellant was digitally penetrating her vagina during the summer of 1991 while he dated her mother. In approximately October 1991, appellant moved into the family apartment. The molestation continued and soon included oral copulation, despite N. C.'s repeated requests appellant stop.

N. C. testified she did not report the incidents to anyone due to her fear her younger brothers would lose a father figure and her mother would lose a boyfriend. Additionally N. C. expressed concern her mother would blame her and send her to live with her father in Mexico, if the molestation was discovered. During the years of molestation, appellant would tell N. C. he loved her and wanted to marry her. Instead, appellant married N. C.'s mother in December 1993. But even after the marriage the situation continued. Appellant, now her stepfather, frequently sexually molested N. C. throughout her high school years.

In April 1995, the family moved for financial reasons to appellant's condominium in La Habra, where they all lived together until August or September, 1995. It was then N. C. moved out to attend college. Within one week of her departure, appellant ordered his wife, A. V., and her two sons out of the condominium. It was only then N. C. informed her mother of the long history of sexual molestation she had endured.

V. R. had been similarly victimized by appellant during her eighth grade school year. Like N. C, she had spent a lot of time with appellant alone in his classroom with the door closed. During this time, *590 appellant had fondled her breasts, kissed her and promised to marry her someday. He told her not to tell anyone about their relationship. This conduct continued through the special summer session tutorial appellant had arranged for V. R. and N. C. It was then V. R. reported the incidents of abuse to her mother. But the two of them opted not to report the situation to anyone and instead tried to put the situation behind them.

Appellant was charged and convicted of 21 counts of sexual abuse. However, all but 9 years and four months of his 81-year-4-month sentence is attributable to 12 of those counts, involving forcible oral copulation and forcible digital penetration of N. C. It is those counts which are the primary subject of this appeal.

DISCUSSION

Appellant contends the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the meaning of the term "menace" and in defining the term "duress." While we find the defendant waived any error in the trial court's failure to adequately define "menace," we conclude the trial court erred by including threatened "hardship" as a form of duress. Since we find this instructional error, as compounded by the prosecutor's argument, was prejudicial, we must reverse the forcible digital penetration and forcible oral copulation convictions which account for 72 years of the 81-year-4-month sentence imposed on appellant.

I. THE TRIAL COURT'S FAILURE TO DEFINE THE TERM "MENACE" CONSTITUTED "INVITED ERROR."

Initially we examine the record to determine whether appellant requested modification of the instructions given at trial. When a court gives instructions to a jury on a particular point at the request of the defense, the doctrine of invited error is activated to prevent the individual charged from gaining a reversal on appeal because of the erroneous instructions. (People v. Wickersham (1982) 32 Cal.3d 307, 185 Cal. Rptr. 436, 650 P.2d 311.)

Here appellant concedes his trial counsel urged the court to give an instruction including "menace." This was done on the court's assumption that menace is a word of common understanding. Defense offered nothing further. Clearly to allow appellant the chance to object now would be to fly in the face of the well settled rule, "... defendant is not entitled to remain mute at trial and scream foul on appeal for the court's failure to expand, modify, and refine standardized jury instructions." (People v. Daya (1994) 29 Cal.App.4th 697, 714, 34 Cal.Rptr.2d 884.)

II. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ITS INSTRUCTION DEFINING "DURESS" AS INCLUDING THREATENED "HARDSHIP" AND THIS ERROR WAS PREJUDICIAL IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THIS CASE.

Appellant contends the element of duress underlying his convictions under counts 2-11, 13 and 16 were improperly based on the threat of hardship to the victim and her family. Appellant further contends that as to those counts, he was improperly sentenced to full, separate and consecutive terms in prison based on a faulty definition of duress. We agree with appellant insofar as we find the trial court erred in its instruction on duress and thus appellant may have been convicted on the basis of threatened "hardship." We do not reach the sentencing issue since we reverse all 12 of the above counts.

Appellant was charged and convicted in counts 3 through 10 of eight separate instances of foreign object penetration (Pen. Code, § 289, subd. (a))[2]

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93 Cal. Rptr. 2d 587, 78 Cal. App. 4th 719, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-valentine-calctapp-2000.