Richard R. Mcdade v. State of Florida

154 So. 3d 292, 39 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 752, 2014 Fla. LEXIS 3681, 2014 WL 6977944
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedDecember 11, 2014
DocketSC13-1248
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 154 So. 3d 292 (Richard R. Mcdade v. State of Florida) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richard R. Mcdade v. State of Florida, 154 So. 3d 292, 39 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 752, 2014 Fla. LEXIS 3681, 2014 WL 6977944 (Fla. 2014).

Opinion

CANADY, J.

In this case, we consider a certified question of great public importance concerning the application of the prohibition under chapter 934, Florida Statutes (2010), on intercepting certain oral communications. Specifically, we consider whether the prohibition applies to recordings of solicitation and confirmation of child sexual abuse when the recordings were surreptitiously made by the child in the bedroom of the accused.

In McDade v. State, 114 So.3d 465, 467 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013), the Second District Court of Appeal rejected McDade’s argument that two recordings of conversations he had in his bedroom with his stepdaughter should have been suppressed under chapter 934’s statutory exclusionary rule. The court also rejected McDade’s argument that testimony of the stepdaughter’s boyfriend recounting statements of the stepdaughter that McDade had raped her should have been excluded as hearsay. Regarding the recorded conversations, the Second District held “that the narrow factual circumstances of this case do not fall within the statutory proscription of chapter 934.” ' Id. at 469. The Second District concluded that the boyfriend’s testimony was non-hearsay because the statements made by the stepdaughter “were introduced to show why the boyfriend encouraged the victim to make the recordings,” not for the truth of the matter asserted. Id. at 468-69.

The Second District certified the following question as one of great public importance:

DOES A RECORDING OF SOLICITATION AND CONFIRMATION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MADE BY THE MINOR CHILD VICTIM FALL WITHIN THE PROSCRIPTION OF *294 CHAPTER 934, FLORIDA STATUTES (2010)?

Id. at 471. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. In line with the analysis we adopt, we rephrase the certified question as follows:

DOES A RECORDING OF SOLICITATION AND CONFIRMATION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE SURREPTITIOUSLY MADE BY THE CHILD VICTIM IN THE ACCUSED’S BEDROOM FALL WITHIN THE PROSCRIPTION OF CHAPTER 934, FLORIDA STATUTES (2010)?

For the reasons we explain, we answer the rephrased certified question in the affirmative. We also conclude that the Second District erred regarding the boyfriend’s testimony concerning statements made by the stepdaughter. We quash the Second District’s decision.

I. BACKGROUND

McDade was arrested and charged with various sex crimes after his then sixteen-year-old stepdaughter reported that he had been sexually abusing her.since she was ten years old. Prior to McDade’s arrest, his stepdaughter recorded two conversations with McDade. The stepdaughter provided these recordings to law enforcement, and McDade was arrested that same day. Prior to trial, McDade moved to suppress the recording’s under chapter 934, Florida Statutes. The trial court denied McDade’s motion, and the case proceeded to a jury trial. The recordings were introduced at trial over McDade’s objection.

At trial, the State presented the testimony of McDade’s stepdaughter, her boyfriend, and multiple law enforcement officers. The State did not introduce any forensic evidence. In defense, McDade testified on his own behalf, and he presented the testimony of his wife and his treating physician. The Second District summarized the facts as follows:

The victim in this case was born in Mexico in 1994. In 2001, she and her mother moved to Florida. Though their immigration status was a matter of dispute during the trial, the victim testified that she believed that they were illegally in the country. In 2005, the mother ■ married McDade, who was approximately sixty years of age at the time. The mother testified that the couple never had a sexual relationship because they both had health issues. Indeed, McDade and the mother both testified that he suffered from erectile dysfunction. However, the victim alleged that he sexually abused her over a period of years, threatening that she and her mother would be returned to Mexico if she reported what he was doing.
McDade operated an ice cream truck, and the victim’s mother worked as a janitor. During the period of time when the alleged abuse occurred, the victim was typically home alone with McDade for several hours in the afternoon each school day. She testified that on one such afternoon McDade instructed her to come into his bedroom and told her to take off her clothes. He covered her face with a blanket and he penetrated her with both his finger and his penis. She was ten years old at the time. McDade allegedly continued to engage in this conduct weekly until April 2011, when she was sixteen.
Over the years, the victim claimed that she reported this abuse to several people, including her mother, a doctor, and two ministers at her church. Her mother admitted that her daughter reported this abuse to her and that she took her daughter to a doctor. The mother adamantly did not believe her daughter. When pressed about her ac *295 cusations, the victim recanted on more than one occasion. Perhaps because of her retractions, no one reported her claims even though any person who has reasonable cause to suspect child abuse must report it. See § 39.201, Fla. Stat. (2012). She explained that she retracted her claims due to the fear of being sent to Mexico.
In October 2010, the victim started going out with a boy. Her mother and McDade did not like the boyfriend, and this created conflict within the family. In an effort to prevent her from sneaking out of the house, her mother and McDade made her sleep in a closet near their bedroom. She told her boyfriend that McDade was raping her, and he encouraged her to gather proof of the abuse. He loaned her his MP3 player to use as a recording device. In April 2011, with the MP3 player hidden in her shirt, she approached McDade in his bedroom on two occasions when they were alone after school. She was essentially conducting her own investigation, hoping to prompt McDade into making incriminating statements that she could secretly record as evidence of abuse.
The recordings supported the victim’s testimony that McDade would regularly ask her to have sex with him after school. On both occasions, though he did not use sexually explicit language, he appeared to be asking her to have sex with him. He pressured her by suggesting that if she did not have sex with him he would get physically sick. McDade also indicated he was doing her a favor by not telling her mother that they were having sex because if the mother knew she would take the victim back to Mexico.

Id. at 467-68.

The jury convicted McDade on two counts of sexual battery on a child younger than twelve, two counts of sexual activity •with a child by a person in a position of familial or custodial authority, and one count of solicitation of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of familial or custodial authority.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 So. 3d 292, 39 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 752, 2014 Fla. LEXIS 3681, 2014 WL 6977944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richard-r-mcdade-v-state-of-florida-fla-2014.