State v. Andres C.

208 Conn. App. 825
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedNovember 30, 2021
DocketAC43081
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 208 Conn. App. 825 (State v. Andres C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Andres C., 208 Conn. App. 825 (Colo. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

*********************************************** The “officially released” date that appears near the be- ginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be pub- lished in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the be- ginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the “officially released” date appearing in the opinion.

All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecticut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the advance release version of an opinion and the latest version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Connecticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest version is to be considered authoritative.

The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publica- tions, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. *********************************************** STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. ANDRES C.* (AC 43081) Moll, Alexander and DiPentima, Js.**

Syllabus

Convicted of the crimes of sexual assault in the third degree and risk of injury to a child, the defendant appealed to this court. The defendant’s conviction stemmed from his sexual abuse of the minor victim, his niece. Before trial, the court granted the state’s motion to allow the introduction of uncharged misconduct evidence, specifically, evidence regarding the defendant’s sexual abuse of the victim’s cousin, D. At trial, the victim testified, inter alia, that she maintained certain journals, which related to her abuse, and the court declined to allow the defendant access to the journals. The prosecutors assigned the task of reviewing the journals for exculpatory material, which were handwritten in Spanish, to a bilin- gual investigator in their office. The court indicated that it would conduct an in camera review of any materials that might be exculpatory, and defense counsel did not challenge this procedure. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court improperly admitted uncharged misconduct evidence. a. This court declined to review the defendant’s claim that the trial court erred in permitting the state to present uncharged misconduct evidence regarding the sexual abuse of D to show his propensity for such acts, because the court ultimately admitted this evidence for a limited purpose, namely, as an explanation for the victim’s delayed disclosure of the abuse, and not to establish the defendant’s propensity to commit such acts. b. The trial court properly denied the defendant’s motion to strike the testimony regarding the uncharged misconduct evidence after the prose- cutors declined to call D as a witness: the evidence was admitted only for the purpose of explaining the victim’s delay in disclosing her own sexual abuse by the defendant, the evidence did not have only minimal probative value as the victim testified that she delayed disclosing her abuse after she learned of the defendant’s abuse of D and observed the subsequent shunning of D and D’s mother by her family, and her testi- mony was not cumulative of expert testimony presented on delayed disclosure; moreover, contrary to the defendant’s claim, the trial judge, as the finder of fact, was not prejudiced after hearing of the defendant’s sexual abuse of D and was not unable to limit consideration of this evidence to the sole purpose for which it had been admitted, the defen- dant having failed to point to anything in the record to overcome the presumption that the court, as the trier of fact, considered only properly admitted evidence when it rendered its decision. 2. The defendant’s claim that his right to a fair trial was violated by prosecu- torial impropriety was unavailing: although the prosecutor erred in her consideration of what was necessary for uncharged misconduct to be admitted into evidence, the defendant neither demonstrated the lack of a good faith basis by the prosecutor nor showed that his right to a fair trial was violated, the defendant failed to establish a lack of a good faith basis with respect to the prosecutor’s attempt to admit the defen- dant’s guilty plea relating to the case involving D.C. pursuant to North Carolina v. Alford (400 U.S. 25), and the prosecutor’s efforts to admit constancy testimony did not raise to the level of impropriety. 3. The trial court properly denied the defendant access to the victim’s jour- nals. a. The defendant’s claim that he was entitled to review the victim’s journals because she had reviewed them prior to her testimony was unavailing: the court considered the private nature of the journals, that the victim reviewed only a few pages of the journals before testifying, and that the state had been reviewing the journals for exculpatory mate- rial, and, thus, its decision was neither so arbitrary as to vitiate logic nor based on improper or irrelevant factors. b. The defendant waived the claim that he was entitled to the contents of the victim’s journals because they constituted a statement pursuant to the rules of practice (§§ 40-13A and 40-15 (1)): defense counsel agreed to the procedure to be used in the review of, and the potential disclosure of, the contents of the journals, specifically, the prosecutors’ review of the journals for exculpatory material and to the court’s in camera review of any exculpatory material, and, having agreed to this procedure before the trial court, the defense cannot now challenge that procedure. 4. The defendant could not prevail on his unpreserved claim that his rights under Brady v. Maryland (373 U.S. 83) were violated, which was based on his claim that the prosecutors were required to personally review the victim’s journals for exculpatory information and that this task could not have been delegated to a nonlawyer member of their office: although, ultimately, the obligation for complying with Brady rests with the prose- cutor, it does not follow that the personal review of items such as the victim’s journals by a prosecutor is constitutionally required. Argued March 1—officially released November 30, 2021

Procedural History

Substitute information charging the defendant with the crimes of sexual assault in the third degree, sexual assault in the fourth degree, and risk of injury to a child, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of New Haven and tried to the court, Alander, J.; judgment of guilty of sexual assault in the third degree and risk of injury to a child, from which the defendant appealed to this court. Affirmed. Richard Emanuel, for the appellant (defendant). Matthew A. Weiner, assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Patrick J. Griffin, state’s attorney, and Mary A. SanAngelo and Brian K. Sibley, Sr., senior assistant state’s attorneys, for the appellee (state). Opinion

ALEXANDER, J. The defendant, Andres C., appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a court trial, of sexual assault in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-72a (a) (1) and risk of injury to a child in violation of General Statutes § 53-21 (a) (2). On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the court improperly admitted uncharged misconduct evidence, (2) his right to a fair trial was violated by prosecutorial impropriety, (3) the court improperly denied him access to the victim’s journals, and (4) his rights under Brady v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
208 Conn. App. 825, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-andres-c-connappct-2021.