State v. Dinka

2019 Ohio 4209
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided October 14, 2019·No. CA2019-03-022 CA2019-03-026·Published·Cited by 99 cases

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS

TWELFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO WARREN COUNTY

STATE OF OHIO, :

Appellee, : CASE NOS. CA2019-03-022 CA2019-03-026

:

- vs - OPINION : 10/14/2019

JOHN CHRISTOPHER DINKA, :

Appellant. :

CRIMINAL APPEAL FROM WARREN COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS Case No. 18CR34899

David P. Fornshell, Warren County Prosecuting Attorney, Kirsten A. Brandt, 520 Justice Drive, Lebanon, Ohio 45036, for appellee

Law Offices of Jeffrey E. Richards, Jeffrey E. Richards, 147 Miami Street, P.O. Box 536, Waynesville, Ohio 45068, for appellant

HENDRICKSON, P.J.

{¶ 1} Appellant, John Christopher Dinka, appeals from his conviction and sentence in the Warren County Court of Common Pleas for violation of a civil protection order. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm appellant's conviction, but remand the case to the trial court to correct the imposition of postrelease control.

{¶ 2} Appellant and his former girlfriend, Barbara Howard, have three children

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together. In 2013, Howard obtained a protection order against appellant. In December 2013, appellant was convicted of violating the protection order in Warren County Common Pleas Case No. 13CR29379.

{¶ 3} In May 2018, after the first protection order had expired, Howard obtained a second protection order against appellant. The protection order was served on appellant on October 24, 2018, while he was serving time in the Warren County Jail. Appellant was released from jail on November 6, 2018. He was arrested later that day and subsequently indicted on one count of violating a protection order in violation of R.C. 2919.27(A)(1), a felony of the fifth degree. The charge arose following allegations that after being released from jail, appellant repeatedly called Howard, left her voicemails, and went within 100 yards of her residence. After his arrest, appellant continued to contact Howard from jail, sending her requests to video chat with him using the jail's HomeWav Visitation System.

{¶ 4} Appellant pled not guilty to the charge and a jury trial was held on January 31, 2019. Officer Tyler Demmien, who is employed at the Warren County Jail, testified that on October 24, 2018, he personally served appellant with the domestic violence civil protection order that had been granted to Howard in May 2018. Appellant signed a receipt, acknowledging he received the protection order. Appellant also told Officer Demmien, "I've already received this several times. * * * [T]his is bull crap that I'm getting this again."

{¶ 5} In addition to serving appellant with the protection order, Officer Demmien read each line of the protection order out loud to appellant. The protection order, which was admitted into evidence as an exhibit, advised appellant that Howard was to have exclusive possession of their formally shared home and that appellant was not to be present within 100 yards of Howard or any place appellant knew or should have known Howard was likely to be. The protection order further advised appellant as follows:

CA2019-03-026

6. RESPONDENT [APPELLANT] SHALL NOT INITIATE OR HAVE ANY CONTACT with the protected persons named in this Order or their residences, businesses, places of employment schools, day care centers, or child care providers. Contact includes, but is not limited to, landline, cordless, cellular or digital telephone; text; instant messaging; fax; email; voice mail;

delivery service; social networking media; blogging; writings;

electronic communications; or communications by any other means directly or through another person. Respondent may not violate this Order even with the permission of a protected person.

[E]xception see #17.

***

11. PARENTAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ARE TEMPORARILY ALLOCATED * * * [to Howard] until further order of the Juvenile Court. * * *

12. VISITATION ORDERS DO NOT PERMIT RESPONDENT TO VIOLATE THE TERMS OF THIS ORDER. As a limited exception to paragraphs 5 and 6, temporary visitation rights are established as follows: The parties shall abide by the Warren County Juvenile Court Model Parenting Schedule regarding parenting matters with Respondent [appellant] having parenting time according to the children age 2-12 Model II (attached). * * * The parties shall abide by this order until further order of the Juvenile Court.

***

17. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED [that] [t]he parties may only text message each other regarding child related matters only. The exchanges of the children shall take place at the South Lebanon Early Learning Center * * *. Due to the ages of the children the parties may have contact during the exchanges of the children, if necessary.

Although Officer Demmien did not review the Warren County Juvenile Court's Model Parenting Schedule with appellant, the officer testified that the parenting schedule was attached to the order served on appellant.

{¶ 6} Howard testified that she and appellant had been dating "on and off" for the past six years. She had a prior protection order against appellant, which appellant was convicted of violating in 2013. After that protection order expired, Howard obtained a

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domestic violence civil protection order.

{¶ 7} Howard was aware that at the beginning of November 2018, appellant was in jail. She received notice that appellant was due to be released on November 6, 2018. Starting around noon on November 6, 2018, Howard began receiving phone calls from appellant. Appellant called Howard 15 times that day. Although Howard did not answer the calls, she listened to the voicemails appellant left. Appellant's messages indicated he wanted to collect some personal items that were left at Howard's home and he wanted to talk to and see his children.

{¶ 8} Howard explained that she did not initially contact law enforcement to report the 15 phone calls because she believed appellant would leave her alone after he collected the belongings he left at her house. According to Howard, appellant left behind his cell phone, medication, and some of his clothes when he was "evicted" from her residence in May 2018 after she obtained the second protection order.

{¶ 9} Howard testified she arrived home from work around 5:00 p.m. on November 6, 2018, which was the time she normally got home. Around 5:30 p.m., she received a voicemail from appellant indicating that he was leaving the courthouse and walking over on foot. Howard placed appellant's belongings on the porch outside her residence. Around 7:00 p.m., Howard received another phone call from appellant. In the voicemail appellant left, he demanded to know where his medicine was as he claimed that "a bunch of it was missing." After Howard received this voicemail, someone started banging on the windows and the back door of her house. Howard did not look to see who was causing the noise; instead, she called the police to report the incident.

{¶ 10} Howard was aware that appellant had been arrested on November 6, 2018, as appellant attempted to contact her from jail. Appellant called Howard on the night he was

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arrested, but she let the call go to voicemail. Subsequently, from November 7, 2018 through January 19, 2019, appellant sent Howard more than 20 invitations to video chat with him using the jail's HomeWav Visitation System. These invitations, the voicemails appellant left, and call logs from Howard's phone were all admitted into evidence.

{¶ 11} Howard's neighbor, Elizabeth Hursong, testified that on November 6, 2018, appellant stopped by her house on two occasions. The first time, appellant stopped to talk for a few minutes. He came back approximately ten minutes later, asking if he could stay overnight at Hursong's home. Hursong refused but gave appellant some food to eat.

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State v. Dinka, 2019 Ohio 4209 (Ohio Ct. App. 2019).

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