State v. Alfaro

128 So. 3d 515, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 39, 2013 WL 5850745, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2200
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 30, 2013
DocketNo. 13-KA-39
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 128 So. 3d 515 (State v. Alfaro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Alfaro, 128 So. 3d 515, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 39, 2013 WL 5850745, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2200 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

JUDE G. GRAVOIS, Judge.

1 ..¡Defendant, Jose Alfaro, has appealed his convictions of aggravated rape (Count 1) and molestation of a juvenile (Count 2). For the reasons that follow, we affirm defendant’s convictions on Counts 1 and 2, affirm defendant’s sentence on Count 1, vacate defendant’s sentence on Count 2, and remand the matter with instructions.

FACTS

At trial, Officer Sydney Gonzales testified that while employed as a school resource officer at Gretna Middle School on January 20, 2011, he was approached by a student, K.F.,1 the victim in this case, who asked to speak with him. As K.F. spoke with the officer that morning, “she kept getting upset and very emotional, crying to where she couldn’t breathe.” Eventually she told Officer Gonzales that she was not ready to talk yet, so he sent her back to class. Later that morning, K.F. returned to the officer and informed him that she was ready to talk. Officer Gonzales, along with Assistant Principal Alisa Roy, met with K.F. in his office, [4where she “once again broke down real hysterical, trying to get it out.” Finally, K.F. informed Officer Gonzales and Ms. Roy that when she was around eight years old, her step-father started touching her.2 This behavior stopped for a few years, then it started again, at which point her step-father began engaging in sexual intercourse with her. As K.F. made this revelation, she was crying to the extent that Officer Gonzales and Ms. Roy “had to actually take breaks and get some water to calm her down because [they] couldn’t understand some of the things she was saying.” When asked by Ms. Roy why she waited until that day to divulge the abuse, K.F. explained that it was difficult for her to have relationships with boys while she was having sex with her step-father.

After meeting with K.F., Officer Gonzales contacted Detective Richard Russ of the Gretna Police Department and informed him that a student claimed that she had been raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Detective Russ proceeded to the school where he met with K.F., along with Detective Trice Lear, Officer Gonzales, Assistant Principal Roy, and the school counselor, Linda Molaison. During this meeting, K.F. repeated the same allegations of abuse. Following this meeting, Detective Russ obtained a warrant for defendant’s arrest, which was executed later that day when defendant was taken into custody at the family home located in Gretna. Detective Russ then contacted K.F.’s mother, N.F., and informed her that her boyfriend had been arrested pursuant to allegations that he had raped K.F.

Kay Ulrich Evans of the Department of Children and Family Services was contact[520]*520ed with reference to these allegations on January 20, 2011. She proceeded to Gret-na Middle School where she met with K.F., who she described as “emotional.” K.F. disclosed the sexual abuse to Ms. Evans, after which Ms. Evans accompanied K.F. home as part of her investigation. While at K.F.’s home, K.F. |fifurther informed Ms. Evans that defendant had taken pictures of her with his cellular phone.

Upon receiving information that defendant’s cellular phone may contain photographic evidence, Detective Russ proceeded to KF.’s home, where he encountered K.F. and her mother. N.F. voluntarily relinquished defendant’s phone to the detective. Detective Russ then obtained a search warrant to search the contents of the phone.

Detective Louis Ratcliff of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office, who was accepted by the court as an expert in the field of cell phone forensics, testified that he examined defendant’s cell phone. Several photographs, in addition to other data, were recovered from the phone, which Detective Ratcliff compiled in a report.3 Several of the photographs included images of a vagina, hand, and penis. Detective Ratcliff testified that these images were not downloaded to the phone from the Internet, were not texted to the phone, and were not e-mailed to the phone; rather, these images were captured by the camera on the phone.

On January 27, 2011, one week after K.F. reported the abuse, Staci Lanza of the Children’s Advocacy Center (the “CAC”) interviewed K.F.4 In the interview, K.F. stated that when she was about six, seven, or eight years old, on more than one occasion, as she laid in her mother and step-father’s bed with her step-father, he placed his hand in K.F.’s underwear and penetrated K.F.’s vagina with his fingers. Then, beginning around when K.F. was ten or eleven years old, on more than one occasion, defendant called K.F. to his bedroom. He would then lock the door. He would talk to her about school and her social life before asking to examine her vagina. Behind the locked door, while K.F. laid on the bed, defendant | figave her a pillow or sheet to cover her face as he stood in front of her and examined her vagina, cleaning it with “baby wipes.” These “check-ups” became more overtly sexual, as defendant penetrated K.F.’s vagina with his fingers. As he did this, he explained that he was using his fingers to assess the cleanliness of her vagina. Eventually, defendant inserted his penis into K.F.’s vagina with the protection of a condom.5

K.F. also revealed that when she was 13 or 14 years old, on more than one occasion, defendant licked her vagina. In another incident towards the end of 2010, defendant used his cellular phone to photograph her vagina and his penis entering her vagina. K.F. stated that the last incident occurred when she was 14 years old. At the time, she had a boyfriend and was ill with a virus, which prompted defendant to suspect K.F. was pregnant. With this suspicion, he told K.F. that he needed to examine her vagina. After examining her, defendant took out a condom and proceeded to insert his penis into her vagina.

[521]*521Detective Russ testified that on March 2, 2011, he accompanied K.F. and N.F. to the Audrey Hepburn Care Center for a forensic medical examination of K.F. However, K.F. refused to undergo the examination and recanted her previous allegations, asserting that she had lied and fabricated the allegations. K.F. and N.F. then left the Audrey Hepburn Care Center without the detective’s knowledge. Detective Russ went out into the parking lot to look for them; they then drove up and rolled their window down. Detective Russ told K.F. that he believed her initial allegations and would continue to fight for her. N.F. then drove off. K.F. and N.F. ceased cooperating in the investigation, and Detective Russ never spoke to them again.

17Poctor Jamie Jackson of the Audrey Hepburn Care Center, who was accepted by the court as an expert in the field of child abuse pediatrics, testified that he met with K.F. on March 2, 2011. K.F. refused to offer a description of the incident and refused to undergo a physical examination. As a result, Dr. Jackson was unable to fully evaluate K.F. Dr. Jackson testified that most children do not report abuse for one to five years after the abuse and that research indicates that anywhere from four to thirty percent of children recant reports of abuse. Of those recanted reports, in sixty to ninety percent of the cases, the abuse is confirmed. He explained that children recant for a variety of reasons, including fear and threats. Also child victims may recant after seeing “the consequences or reactions of the people around them.”

At trial, the State called K.F.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
128 So. 3d 515, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 39, 2013 WL 5850745, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alfaro-lactapp-2013.