State v. Chanler Lee Guyton

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedOctober 6, 2020
Docket2019AP001409-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Chanler Lee Guyton (State v. Chanler Lee Guyton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Chanler Lee Guyton, (Wis. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. October 6, 2020 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2019AP1409-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2017CF178

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT III

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

CHANLER LEE GUYTON,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from a judgment of the circuit court for Door County: DAVID L. WEBER, Judge. Affirmed.

Before Stark, P.J., Hruz and Seidl, JJ.

¶1 SEIDL, J. Following a bench trial, Chanler Guyton was convicted of five counts of threats to a witness, as a repeater. Guyton now appeals his judgment of conviction, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to support the circuit court’s guilty verdicts. More specifically, Guyton argues the State failed to No. 2019AP1409-CR

present sufficient evidence to prove that: (1) two of the five victims met the applicable statutory definition of a “witness”; (2) Guyton knew or had reason to know that the five victims were witnesses; and (3) Guyton threatened the five victims because they were witnesses. We reject these arguments and affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 A criminal complaint charged Guyton with five counts of threats to a witness, contrary to WIS. STAT. § 940.201(2) (2017-18).1 The charges stemmed from an allegation that Guyton had threatened five Door County Department of Human Services (the Department) employees—McKayla, Debra, Chloe, Barb, and Ali.2 After Guyton waived his right to a jury trial, the matter proceeded to a bench trial.

¶3 McKayla testified that, as part of her duties as a social worker for the Department, she had been assigned to a Child in Need of Protection and/or Services (CHIPS) case involving Guyton’s son. McKayla stated that she was assigned to this case in its postdispositional phase, and that she inherited the case from Ali.

¶4 At the time McKayla was assigned the CHIPS case, Guyton was incarcerated at the Door County Jail. McKayla met with him on a monthly basis to discuss the case, and Guyton was initially permitted to speak with his son on the

1 All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2017-18 version unless otherwise noted. 2 Pursuant to the policy underlying WIS. STAT. RULE 809.86(4), we use pseudonyms to refer to the victims in this opinion.

2 No. 2019AP1409-CR

telephone. Guyton was not authorized, however, to have in-person visits with his son.

¶5 McKayla stated that her meetings with Guyton were “usually hostile.” She explained that Guyton expressed his disagreements with the decisions the Department was making regarding the case. Guyton also sent a number of written complaints about the Department’s handling of his son’s case to McKayla’s supervisor, Debra, and the Department’s deputy director, Chloe.

¶6 McKayla testified that on July 18, 2017, she called Guyton to inform him that the Department was suspending his authorization to make phone calls to his son. The reason for this suspension was that the Department and the Sturgeon Bay Police Department were both investigating new allegations that Guyton had abused his son. When McKayla informed Guyton about the suspension, he became “hostile” and “loud.” McKayla stated he then made the following threat:

I’m going to deal with this with my own hands when I get out of here. Everyone who has touched the case is going to pay for this. [McKayla, Barb, Ali, Debra, and Chloe]. This is going to turn very tragic, and this will be the sickest thing that Door County has ever seen before. I am going to come to your office for you armed. You violated my rights, now I am going to violate yours. I will be out in six months and will be taking this into my own hands then.[3]

McKayla told Guyton she would need to report this threat to her supervisor, to which he responded that he did not care.

3 McKayla testified she took notes of the phone call with Guyton, and that her notes reflected that Guyton made this threat “verbatim.”

3 No. 2019AP1409-CR

¶7 McKayla also testified that, like in any other case involving the out-of-home placement of a child, there was a potential that Guyton’s son’s CHIPS case could progress to a termination of parental rights (TPR) case. She stated that if that happened, she believed she would be called as a witness. She explained that as “the ongoing case manager [she] would be filing the [TPR] paperwork and likely testifying to that documentation.”

¶8 In addition, McKayla detailed the allegations of abuse that prompted the Department to suspend Guyton’s phone calls with his son. She explained that Guyton’s son had disclosed allegations of abuse to his therapist, who in turn had informed McKayla about the allegations. McKayla believed that if charges were filed based on these new allegations, she would have been called as a witness in the criminal proceedings.

¶9 Debra testified that she worked in a management position at the Department. She stated that she first became aware of Guyton’s case when he was arrested in December 2016 and the Department needed to find a place for his son to live. Her involvement in the case included approving various social workers’ decisions, and she also personally performed a “home visit” and a “relative visit” during the search for a potential placement for Guyton’s son. She explained that, as a manager, this level of involvement was higher than what she would have in an “average” case. However, “due to the location and the number of staff we have in our department, it just made more sense” for her to perform these tasks for this particular case.

¶10 Ultimately, the Department placed Guyton’s son with the child’s maternal grandmother. Debra stated Guyton was not happy with this decision, and he wrote her at least eight letters criticizing the Department’s actions. Debra

4 No. 2019AP1409-CR

testified that, given her involvement in Guyton’s case, she believed she could be called as a witness at either a postdispositional CHIPS hearing or a TPR proceeding.

¶11 Chloe testified that she served both as the deputy director for the Department and in the “role of grievance examiner.” In the latter role, she acted as the “first line” in reviewing complaints made against the Department’s employees. Pursuant to this duty, Chloe received, and responded to, multiple written complaints from Guyton regarding the Department’s handling of his son’s case. Responding to these letters required Chloe to speak with the Department employees handling the case. As a result, she had more involvement in Guyton’s case than she would have had with an average case.

¶12 Chloe stated that it would be uncommon for her to be called as a witness in a CHIPS proceeding. Nonetheless, she believed it would be possible for her to be called to testify in a postdispositional CHIPS hearing or TPR proceeding involving Guyton because of her “involvement in the complaints.”

¶13 Barb testified that she was a social worker when Guyton made his threat to McKayla. She was familiar with the case because she had been assigned, in June 2017, to investigate the statements Guyton’s son had made involving “past physical discipline and fear of his father.” She also had investigated a prior “referral” against Guyton, during which she “spoke with him over the phone and he refused to meet.” Given her investigations, she believed it would not be uncommon for her to be called as a witness at a postdispositional CHIPS hearing or TPR proceeding involving Guyton.

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Chanler Lee Guyton, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-chanler-lee-guyton-wisctapp-2020.