Scoggan v. State

736 S.W.2d 239, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 8155
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 28, 1987
Docket13-86-424-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 736 S.W.2d 239 (Scoggan 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
Scoggan v. State, 736 S.W.2d 239, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 8155 (Tex. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

A jury found appellant guilty of sexually assaulting a child and the trial court assessed punishment at six years imprisonment, probated for eight years, and a fine of $2,500.00

Appellant raises twenty-five points of error challenging the validity of a search warrant, the scope of the search, the admission of certain evidence seized in the search, and the sufficiency of the evidence. We find the evidence sufficient to sustain the conviction, but find that the seizure and admission of evidence not specifically described in the search warrant violates the Code of Criminal Procedure and therefore, requires a reversal and a new trial.

First, we must address the sufficiency of the evidence even though we reverse the conviction on another point, because if the evidence is insufficient, appel *241 lant is entitled to an acquittal. Selman v. State, 663 S.W.2d 838 (Tex.Crim.App.1984).

Appellant, a high school music instructor, was indicted for engaging in sexual intercourse with SS, who was fifteen years old when the first act of sexual intercourse occurred. She testified that starting in January 1984 and continuing for approximately sixteen months, she and appellant engaged in between 200 and 300 acts of intercourse. The minor’s testimony establishes all elements of the offense.

Appellant’s challenge to the sufficiency is grounded in the defense of promiscuity. It is a defense to the offense alleged if the child was, at the time of the offense, fourteen years of age or older and had prior to the time of the offense engaged promiscuously in sexual activity. Tex.Penal Code § 22.011(d)(1) (Vernon Supp.1987).

SS testified that prior to January 1984 she had engaged in sexual intercourse with two boys. She described one of the boys as her “first serious boyfriend.” She had sexual intercourse with him in December 1983. In the summer of 1983, SS engaged in sexual intercourse with another boy whom she did not “date” but had had a crush on since the third grade. In February 1983, SS and another boy took off their clothes. The two did not engage in sexual intercourse, but SS touched his sexual organ and he touched her breasts.

There is no evidence that SS had engaged in sexual relations with anyone other than the above boys prior to January 1984. Appellant relies on Orrnand, v. State, 697 S.W.2d 772 (Tex.App. — Corpus Christi 1985, no pet.), wherein we held that the defendant was entitled to an acquittal where he had established the defense of promiscuity as a matter of law. There we noted that the word “promiscuity” does not signify an isolated incident of sexual relations with one particular person, but denotes an indiscriminate grant of physical favors to persons of the opposite sex without any requirement of love. Orrnand, 697 S.W.2d at 773. In the present case, SS engaged in sexual intercourse with two boys before the offense. The circumstances surrounding the relationships show that the sexual acts were not “indiscriminate.” Her admissions of having engaged in sexual activity with these two boys do not establish her promiscuity as a matter of law. There was sufficient evidence from which the jury could have found that SS was not promiscuous. Appellant’s first point of error is overruled.

In his second point of error, appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction because SS failed to inform any person of the alleged offense within six months after the date on which it allegedly occurred.

At the time of the offense and trial, article 38.07 Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. provided, in part:

A conviction under ... Section 22.011 ... is supportable on the uncorroborated testimony of the victim of the sexual offense if the victim informed any person other than the defendant of the alleged offense within six months after the date on which the offense is alleged to have occurred. The requirement that the victim inform another person of an alleged offense does not apply if the victim was younger than fourteen years of age at the time of the alleged offense.

The issue here is whether an offense committed against SS (who was 15 years old) must be supported by evidence corroborating the victim’s testimony.

Appellant recognizes that a similar issue was resolved adversely to him in Hernandez v. State, 651 S.W.2d 746 (Tex.Crim.App.1983). In that case, the Court of Criminal Appeals found that art. 38.07 did not apply to victims under the age of seventeen who had not previously engaged in promiscuous sexual or deviate sexual intercourse, and did not apply to those victims under fourteen years of age regardless of prior promiscuous sexual conduct. Appellant argues, however, that Hernandez, is not applicable to this case because art. 38.07 was amended following the Hernandez decision. The language added to the section was that “the requirement that the victim inform another person of an alleged offense does not apply if the victim was *242 younger than fourteen years of age at the time of the alleged offense.”

The State argues that the amendment codified Hernandez as it applied to those victims under the age of fourteen, but remained silent as to those victims above fourteen but under seventeen years of age.

Prior to amendment, art. 38.07 (Acts 1975, 64th Leg., p. 479, ch. 203, § 6) allowed a conviction on the uncorroborated testimony of the victim if the victim cried out within six months. The text of art. 38.07 did not limit the outcry requirement to a certain category of cases. The Court of Criminal Appeals, however, determined that the outcry requirement of art. 38.07 applied only to those cases where corroboration had been required in the past. No corroboration had been required where the victim was between 14 and 17 and not promiscuous. The amendment does not require corroboration where none was needed in the past, but only codifies the holding in Hernandez. Accordingly, appellant’s conviction is supportable on SS’s own testimony even though she informed no one of the alleged offense, which allegedly occurred in January 1984, until May 1985. See Hill v. State, 663 S.W.2d 457 (Tex.Crim.App. 1984). We find that the evidence is sufficient to sustain the conviction. Appellant’s second point of error is overruled.

Appellant’s remaining points of error concern the sufficiency of the affidavit supporting the search warrant, the scope of the search, and the admissibility of evidence seized during the search of his apartment. Appellant complains that the search warrant was issued on an affidavit not supported by probable cause.

The affiant, Corpus Christi Police Officer Hugo Stimmler, stated the following facts in support of his request for a search warrant:

a.

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Bluebook (online)
736 S.W.2d 239, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 8155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scoggan-v-state-texapp-1987.