State v. Deloretto

189 P.3d 1243, 221 Or. App. 309, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1095
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 23, 2008
Docket05C45532; A130694
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 189 P.3d 1243 (State v. Deloretto) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Deloretto, 189 P.3d 1243, 221 Or. App. 309, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1095 (Or. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinions

SCHUMAN, J.

A jury found that defendant, a high school teacher, rubbed his arm against the breasts of one of his students without her consent and for the purpose of gratifying his sexual desire. The trial court entered a judgment of conviction for sexual abuse in the third degree. ORS 163.415.1 On appeal, defendant argues that the court committed several reversible errors. First, he argues that the court erred in denying his motion for a new trial. The motion was based on the state’s failure, until after the verdict, to provide him with information that he maintains would have shown that the complaining student had once made a false allegation of rape. With that information, he argues, he could have impeached her credibility and altered the outcome of the case. Second, he argues that the court erred in failing to provide him, until after the trial, with hospital records from the night of the alleged rape. He had subpoenaed those records to the court for in camera review, and he maintains that they would have confirmed that the allegation of rape was false. Third, he argues that the trial court erred by allowing evidence of uncharged misconduct. And fourth, he argues that the court erred by denying his motion for a mistrial after the prosecutor concluded his closing argument by asking the jury to vindicate the victim. We conclude that the court erred in admitting some of the evidence of defendant’s uncharged conduct and that admitting it was prejudicial. We therefore reverse and remand.

Factual details will emerge in our discussion of defendant’s assignments of error. In brief: The victim, K, was a student and teacher’s aide in defendant’s high school history class. In April 2005, she reported to a school guidance [312]*312counselor that, when she went to defendant’s class after missing a day of school, he “put his left arm across my breasts and grabbed my right shoulder and jokingly said, ‘Never miss my class again.’ ” K reported that defendant had previously acted toward her in ways that made her feel uncomfortable. On the same day as the reported incident, he had winked at her in a flirtatious manner. Once, while K was walking past defendant’s desk to go to the computer and she accidently bumped his chair, he turned around and placed his hand on her lower back and kept it there as she walked past him. On a different occasion, he had shuffled through papers that she was holding in her lap, and while doing so, he placed his arms on her upper thigh. The breast-touching incident, however, was the first that led to a complaint. As a result of that complaint, defendant was charged with sexual abuse in the third degree.

Defendant’s primary theory at trial was that the incident did not occur. On cross-examination of K, he attempted to show that another student, D, had teased K by saying that defendant flirted with her, and that the teasing might have led her to make a false accusation. Defendant also introduced evidence that the police report of the incident, based on K’s statements, specified that it had occurred in the hallway rather than the classroom. Both the defense and the prosecution called students from defendant’s class to testify as to whether they had seen defendant touch K. Several students testified that they never saw such conduct; others testified that they did. The jury, as noted, ultimately returned a verdict finding defendant guilty of sexual abuse in the third degree.

I. ADMISSION OF EVIDENCE OF UNCHARGED CONDUCT

We begin with defendant’s third assignment of error, because it is dispositive. Before trial, the state filed a motion to admit evidence that defendant had exhibited inappropriate behavior toward female students in the past. Defendant argued that the incidents were uncharged misconduct and were not relevant to any fact in issue; his defense in this case was not that the inappropriate behavior was accidental or that he had touched K without any sexual intent, but that no touching occurred. See State v. Baughman, 164 Or App 715, [313]*313995 P2d 551 (2000), rev dismissed, 333 Or 596 (2002) (uncharged conduct evidence showing intent inadmissible where defendant does not contest intent but denies that the allegedly intentional act occurred). The trial court agreed with defendant, but only provisionally. It ruled that evidence of the alleged misconduct involving other victims was inadmissible, “provided that the court may reconsider this ruling should the defense pursue a course of conduct during trial that leads the court to conclude that such evidence has become relevant and admissible.”

Throughout the trial, defendant attempted to create doubt about whether he had touched the victim’s breasts. During his closing argument, however, defense counsel implied that even if the touching had occurred, it was an “innocent event [ ]” and that the victim may have interpreted it as sexual because teenagers think about “sexual kind of things a lot.” In response, the court allowed the state to reopen its case and present testimony from three female former students who alleged that defendant had inappropriately touched them as well.

In his third assignment of error, defendant argues that the trial court erred by allowing the three students to testify about the earlier uncharged incidents. According to defendant, admitting the evidence ran afoul of the prohibition in OEC 404(3):

“Evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts is not admissible as evidence to prove the character of a person in order to show that the person acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.”

The state responds that the evidence was admissible to prove that, contrary to the assertion in his closing argument, defendant acted with the requisite intention, that is, when he touched K’s breasts, he did so “for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of either party.” ORS 163.305(6).

In State v. Johns, 301 Or 535, 548, 725 P2d 312 (1986), the court explained that, under OEC 404(3), otherwise relevant evidence of uncharged misconduct is admissible unless the evidence “is offered solely to prove (1) the character of a person, and (2) that the person acted in conformity [314]*314therewith.” (Emphasis added.) Thus, if the disputed evidence is relevant to the question of intent — if, in other words, a rational factfinder could conclude that, because defendant acted as he did in the earlier incidents, he likely acted with sexual intent when he touched K’s breasts — then evidence of those incidents was admissible. Johns, 301 Or at 551. The court in Johns established a multipart inquiry to determine whether uncharged misconduct is relevant to intent in a charged crime:

“(1) Does the present charged act require proof of intent?
“(2) Did the prior act require intent?
“(3) Was the victim in the prior act the same victim or in the same class as the victim in the present case?
“(4) Was the type of prior act the same or similar to the acts involved in the charged crime?

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
189 P.3d 1243, 221 Or. App. 309, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1095, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-deloretto-orctapp-2008.