State v. Bourque

33 So. 3d 1092, 9 La.App. 3 Cir. 1092, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 503, 2010 WL 1328967
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 7, 2010
Docket09-1092
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 33 So. 3d 1092 (State v. Bourque) 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. Bourque, 33 So. 3d 1092, 9 La.App. 3 Cir. 1092, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 503, 2010 WL 1328967 (La. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

SAUNDERS, Judge.

| j Herein, the Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence on the charge of sexual battery pursuant to La. R.S. 14:43.1. For the following reasons, we affirm both the conviction and sentence.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY:

Defendant, Wendell Bourque, was charged on October 15, 2004, by a bill of information with one count of sexual battery, a violation of La. R.S. 14:43.1. A jury trial commenced on May 24, 2005, and on May 26, 2005, Defendant was found guilty as charged. On February 4, 2009, Defendant filed a “Motion for New Trial.” A hearing was scheduled for February 26, 2009, following which Defendant’s motion was denied. On March 5, 2009, Defendant was sentenced to ten years at hard labor without the benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence, with credit for time served. Defendant filed a “Motion to Reconsider Sentence” on March 23, 2009, which was denied without written reasons or a hearing on the same date.

At trial, A.S. testified that the seven-year-old victim, who was her cousin, was living with her at the time of the incident. On the evening of April 2, 2004, Defendant, who was a long time friend of the family, stopped by A.S.’s house around 6:00 p.m. He stated that his daughter, who was fifteen at the time, was coming over to his house to visit for the weekend and asked if the victim could spend the weekend also. Later, in the evening, A.S. stopped by Defendant’s house and asked to borrow some money. She noticed Defendant’s daughter was not there and asked where she was. Defendant told her his daughter went to town with some *1094 friends. She stated that “[the victim] seemed fíne and happy, and I said, okay, and he let me borrow the money, and then I left.” A.S. stated that the next day, Sunday, when she was at a Lake Arthur baseball field, she saw Defendant’s daughter and asked where was her 12father. The daughter stated she did not know. A.S. asked her if she had spent the weekend with Defendant and she said that she had not. This fact was corroborated during trial by Defendant’s daughter. Later, Defendant called A.S. on her cell phone and then dropped the victim off at the ball field. That evening, when the victim got into a tub of hot water she started crying, saying that her “bottom” burned. A.S. testified:

I asked her what was wrong, and she said her bottom burned real bad, and then I already had, you know, him say that Selena was suppose[d] to be there, and I started putting things together in my head, and I asked her if anyone had touched her, and that’s whenever she had told me Wendell had.

A.S. called her mother, L.R., to come over. According to A.S., the victim told them that “she was at Wendell’s house play fighting and he had stuck his finger in her private area — her vagina.” A.S. asked her mother to take the victim to the hospital because her own baby was ill and she could not leave.

On cross examination, A.S. testified that she had known Defendant all her life and that she often visited at his house and on occasion she had left her own three children in his care. She said that he told her that the victim had “loose bowels” the evening of the alleged battery and that he had given her some Pepto-Bismol.

L.R. testified that at the hospital, the doctor showed her the victim’s vaginal area and that “[t]here was redness.” She stated that police officers met her at the hospital and she followed them back to Danny Semmes’ office, who was an investigator with the Sabine Parish Sheriffs Officer. There, he told her to return again the next day because the victim was too traumatized “to talk about it anymore.”

Danny Semmes testified that after he interviewed the victim the next day, he went to Defendant’s house and advised him of the complaint. He stated that | «¡Defendant said he was aware of the allegation. Defendant was Mirandized and his house was searched. A pair of little girls panties and shorts were found in the washing machine.

Dr. William Gaar was the emergency room physician at Jennings American Legion Hospital on the evening L.R. took the victim in for an examination. He testified that he saw redness in the vaginal area of the victim, but did not see any tearing of the hymen. He indicated that he thought the redness was vaginitis and recommended the area to be treated with Neos-porin. He testified that the vaginitis could have been caused by a finger being inserted into the vagina, or possibly by soap, sweat, or too tight underpants.

The victim, who was nine years old at the time of trial, testified. She stated that on the evening of the alleged battery, after she and Defendant ate dinner, she went into his bedroom to watch TV. He came into the bedroom and they began to wrestle. She said that during the wrestling, he “stuck his finger in my wrong spot .... my privates.” She said that she left the room for a minute then asked him when she could go home and he told her tomorrow. She told A.S. the next evening while she was bathing. She testified that she did not recall A.S. coming over to Defendant’s house that night and agreed that she experienced “loose bowels” that evening.

*1095 Finally, Dr. Lee J. Monlezun was qualified as an expert in obstetrics and gynecology. Using Doctor Gaar’s medical report from the evening the victim was admitted into the emergency room for possible molestation, he explained his interpretation of the results of the examination. He noted that Doctor Gaar wrote in his report that the victim’s vaginal opening was “approximately one point five centimeters (1.5cm). No tears noted.” He stated that he examined Defendant’s |4fingers, and that only his little finger may have been small enough to enter the victim’s vagina without tearing the hymen. The doctor explained that the burning the victim experienced when she got into the bath tub was caused by “vulvovaginitis, it’s going to burn, especially if it’s warm water.” The doctor opined that the condition was undoubtedly caused by the loose bowels or diarrhea and not the result of a finger being inserted into her vagina. While admitting that there was a possibility that Defendant could have inserted his little finger into the victim’s vagina, he seriously doubted he could have done so without some tearing because the victim said they were wrestling around.

Defendant has perfected a timely appeal and raises four assignments of errors, as follows: (1) the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict; (2) the trial court erred when it denied Defendant’s motion for mistrial based on other crimes evidence which was impermissibly introduced; (3) the trial court erred when it denied Defendant’s “Motion for a New Trial”; and (4) the trial court “did not provide notice of time limitation for post conviction application under Article 881.1 of the code of criminal procedure.”

APPELLANT’S ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR:

1.The verdict in this case is contrary to law in that the physical evidence and the direct [evidence] conclusively established that the offense conduct did not occur. The alleged victim’s testimony was rebutted by physical evidence through expert medical testimony establishing that the alleged victim’s medical condition was scientifically unrelated to the claimed conduct, and the State never established the intent necessary to support conviction under the Statute for Sexual Battery.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 So. 3d 1092, 9 La.App. 3 Cir. 1092, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 503, 2010 WL 1328967, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bourque-lactapp-2010.