Reed v. State

48 S.W.3d 856, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 3630, 2001 WL 586744
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 1, 2001
Docket06-99-00169-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 48 S.W.3d 856 (Reed v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reed v. State, 48 S.W.3d 856, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 3630, 2001 WL 586744 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

OPINION

ROSS, Justice.

Jerrell S. Reed, Jr. appeals his conviction on a plea of guilty to the charge of indecency with a child. In the same proceeding, Reed also pled guilty to three other indecency with a child offenses and one aggravated sexual assault of a child offense. These five offenses involved five different victims. Reed has also filed appeals from the other three indecency with a child convictions and from the aggravated sexual assault conviction. We address each of those appeals by a separate opinion.

Although not the typical procedure, Reed first pled guilty before the trial court with the understanding that if after presenting evidence before the bench, he was unsatisfied with the sentences the trial court assessed, he would have the opportunity to withdraw his pleas and request a jury trial. In addition, Reed agreed to have the trial court take into account in its punishment assessment three additional uncharged indecency with a child offenses and one additional uncharged aggravated sexual assault of a child offense. See Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 12.45(a) (Vernon 1994).

After hearing evidence, the trial court assessed Reed’s punishment at three twenty-year sentences and one ten-year sentence for the indecency with a child offenses, and a thirty-year sentence for the aggravated sexual assault of a child offense. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

Reed then withdrew his pleas. A jury was selected, and Reed pled guilty before the jury. After hearing evidence, the jury refused Reed’s request to be placed on community supervision. It assessed his punishment at three ten-year sentences and one five-year sentence for the indecency with a child offenses, and a twenty-three-year sentence for the aggravated sexual assault of a child offense. The trial court ordered that his sentences run concurrently.

Reed contends the trial court erred in excluding evidence regarding (1) the use of required polygraph tests as a condition of community supervision and (2) the results of a polygraph test he took. At the trial before the bench, Reed offered the testimony of Kirk Meehan, the director of a polygraph testing company. The substance of Meehan’s testimony was that he is trained and certified to administer polygraph tests; that he has performed approximately 2,000 polygraph tests on sex offenders; that he has performed court-ordered polygraph tests as part of an of[858]*858fender’s community supervision for the purpose of determining whether the offender has violated a condition of that supervision; and that if the trial court placed Reed on community supervision, he could successfully test Reed to determine if he violated any condition of that supervision.

Meehan also testified that he gave Reed a polygraph test and specifically asked him if he had committed an offense against any child that had not been alleged by the State in these proceedings. Meehan testified that in his professional opinion, Reed was being truthful when he responded that he had not.

Also at the trial before the bench, Reed offered the testimony of Liles Arnold, a licensed professional sex offender treatment provider who has been treating sex offenders for ten years. He testified he met with Reed four separate times over a two-month period. He testified that based on his assessments, he believed that Reed fits the profile of a sex offender who could comply with the conditions of community supervision. Specifically, he testified that if the trial court placed Reed on community supervision, it would need to put him on an intensive supervision program, including long-term court-ordered therapy, restrictions on his access to minors, and regular polygraph tests to monitor his compliance with the conditions of his supervision.

Prior to the trial before the jury, the State presented a motion in limine regarding evidence of polygraph tests. The trial court granted the State’s motion. At the close of testimony, Reed offered Meehan’s and Arnold’s testimonies from the trial before the bench as an offer of proof. The trial court took judicial notice of that testimony, but reaffirmed its ruling excluding the evidence.

Initially, it is important to note that Reed is complaining about the exclusion of polygraph evidence at the trial before the jury. This evidence was before the trial court at the trial before the bench, but was excluded from the jury. Reed’s offers of proof were largely the testimonies of Mee-han and Arnold at the trial before the bench, but he also made an additional offer of proof when Arnold testified at the trial before the jury.

Reed first contends the trial court erred in excluding Meehan’s testimony that Reed answered truthfully when he responded, as part of a polygraph test, that he had not committed offenses against children other than those alleged by the State at trial. The contention is without merit. The existence and results of a polygraph test are inadmissible for all purposes, even if the state and the defendant agree and stipulate to use the results of the polygraph test at trial. Tennard v. State, 802 S.W.2d 678, 683 (Tex.Crim.App.1990); Nethery v. State, 692 S.W.2d 686, 700 (Tex.Crim.App.1986); Fernandez v. State, 564 S.W.2d 771, 773 (Tex.Crim.App. [Panel Op.] 1978). Here, the State objected to the admission of the results of the polygraph test and the trial court acted properly in excluding the evidence.

Reed also contends the trial court should have admitted Meehan’s and Arnold’s testimonies regarding the use of required polygraph tests as a condition of community supervision for sex offenders. Trial courts sometimes require sex offenders to submit to polygraph tests as a condition of community supervision, see Greer v. State, 999 S.W.2d 484, 486 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1999, pet. ref'd), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 877, 121 S.Ct. 185, 148 L.Ed.2d 128 (2000); Marcum v. State, 983 S.W.2d 762, 766 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1998, pet. refd), and such requirements have been upheld. Ex parte Ren-[859]*859fro, 999 S.W.2d 557, 561 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1999, orig. proceeding [leave denied] ). However, the specific question of whether a jury can be informed about the possible use of such a condition has not been addressed in Texas.

Reed argues the jury was informed about numerous possible conditions of community supervision and that, in fairness, it should have been informed of the possible condition of required polygraph tests. Reed presented testimony from Daniel Christian, a Wood County community supervision officer, regarding the possible conditions of community supervision outlined in Tex.Code Crim.PROC.Ann. art. 42.12, § 11 (Vernon Supp.2001). Further, in Reed’s offer of proof, Meehan and Arnold testified that courts often require sex offenders to submit to polygraph tests as a condition of community supervision. Finally, on cross-examination and redirect examination of Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
48 S.W.3d 856, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 3630, 2001 WL 586744, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reed-v-state-texapp-2001.