IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA
2021-NCSC-19
No. 126A18-2
Filed 12 March 2021
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
v. MARDI JEAN DITENHAFER
Appeal pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-30(2) from the decision of a divided panel of
the Court of Appeals, 840 S.E.2d 850 (N.C. Ct. App. 2020), finding no error in a
judgment entered on 1 June 2015 by Judge Paul G. Gessner in Superior Court, Wake
County. Heard in the Supreme Court on 11 January 2021.
Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, by Sherri Horner Lawrence, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State-appellee.
Jarvis John Edgerton, IV, for defendant-appellant.
ERVIN, Justice.
¶1 The issue before us in this case involves the sufficiency of the evidence to
support defendant Mardi Jean Ditenhafer’s conviction for felonious obstruction of
justice based upon her actions in allegedly interfering with the ability of law
enforcement officers and social workers to have access to her daughter, who had been
sexually abused by defendant’s husband. After careful consideration of defendant’s
challenge to the Court of Appeals’ decision, we hold that the record contains sufficient
evidence that defendant acted with deceit and intent to defraud to support her STATE V. DITENHAFER
Opinion of the Court
conviction for felonious obstruction of justice and affirm the decision of the Court of
Appeals.
I. Factual Background
A. Substantive Facts
¶2 Defendant is the mother of Jane and the wife of William Ditenhafer, who is
Jane’s adopted father.1 After reaching middle school, Jane developed mental health
and self-esteem-related problems and began to engage in self-harming-related
activities. According to Jane, defendant would become angry about her self-harming
activities, claiming that she was acting as she was in order to get “attention” and to
“fit in” and that Jane needed to stop what she was doing. Jane claimed to be afraid
of Mr. Ditenhafer because of his anger, his tendency to yell at her, and the spankings
that he would administer for the purpose of disciplining her when she got in trouble.
Upon discovering that Jane had sent suggestive photos of herself to a middle school
boy, defendant and Mr. Ditenhafer became very angry with Jane and prohibited her
from using electronic devices. Around the same time, Mr. Ditenhafer, with
defendant’s knowledge, began giving Jane full-body massages to “help [her] self-
esteem.”
1 “Jane” and “John” are pseudonyms that are employed in order to protect the children’s identities and for ease of reading. STATE V. DITENHAFER
¶3 After giving Jane a massage in 2013, Mr. Ditenhafer told Jane to come into the
living room. Once she had complied with that instruction, Mr. Ditenhafer informed
Jane that he had discovered that she had sent additional suggestive photographs to
the boy who had received the earlier images. According to Jane, Mr. Ditenhafer
claimed to have been “turned on” by these photos and told Jane that they “could either
show [defendant] these photos” or she could “help him with his . . . boner.” At that
point, Jane started crying because, “if [defendant] saw these [images] again, she
would call the police and I would get in trouble and I would get sent to jail,” and did
as Mr. Ditenhafer had instructed her to do.
¶4 Subsequently, Mr. Ditenhafer began to pressure Jane to engage in sexual acts
with him on a regular basis. Over time, the abuse that Mr. Ditenhafer inflicted upon
Jane became more serious, with such abusive episodes occurring “at least two times
a week” when defendant was not in the home and progressing to the point that Mr.
Ditenhafer had Jane engage in oral and vaginal sex acts with him. Jane claimed that
Mr. Ditenhafer told her not to tell anyone about the abuse or he would make her
sound like a “crazy lying teenager.” Jane refrained from telling defendant about the
abuse that she was suffering at the hands of her adoptive father because she “didn’t
think [defendant] would believe [her] and [defendant] would get angry at [her] for
making up a lie.” STATE V. DITENHAFER
¶5 In the spring of 2013, when Jane was in the ninth grade, she visited an aunt,
who was the sister of her biological father, in Arizona. During that visit, Jane
informed her aunt that Mr. Ditenhafer had been sexually abusing her. At that point,
Jane and her aunt called defendant for the purpose of telling defendant about the
abuse that Jane had experienced. Defendant reacted to the information that Jane
and her aunt had provided by becoming angry with Jane.
¶6 The aunt reported Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer to law
enforcement officers in Arizona. The Arizona officers, in turn, contacted Detective
Stan Doremus of the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, who initiated an investigation into
Jane’s allegations. Jane testified that, upon her return to North Carolina, defendant
picked her up from the airport and told her that defendant did not believe Jane’s
accusations; that Jane “needed to tell the truth and recant and not — and not lie
anymore because it was going to tear apart the family and it was just going to end
horribly”; and “that [Jane] didn’t need to do this.”
¶7 After learning of Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer, Susan Dekarske,
a social worker employed by the Child Protective Services Department of Wake
County Human Services, interviewed defendant and Mr. Ditenhafer, both of whom
denied Jane’s accusations. Even so, Mr. Ditenhafter agreed to move out of the family
home and to refrain from communicating with Jane during the pendency of the
investigation. STATE V. DITENHAFER
¶8 On 11 April 2013 Jane and defendant met with Detective Doremus and Ms.
Dekarske at the family home. After Ms. Dekarske asked to speak with her privately,
Jane told Ms. Dekarske about several instances of sexual abuse that she had suffered
at the hands of Mr. Ditenhafer, the fact that defendant urged Jane to recant her
accusations against her adoptive father, and the fact that defendant had blamed Jane
for destroying the family given that Mr. Ditenhafer “would get 15 years in prison,
that [defendant] would also lose her job and that [John] would lose his dad, [and] they
will lose the house.” On 22 May 2013, Detective Doremus and Ms. Dekarske went to
Jane’s school for the purpose of speaking with her privately in light of their
understanding that defendant had been pressuring Jane to deny the truthfulness of
her claims against Mr. Ditenhafer.
¶9 On 21 June 2013, Detective Doremus and Ms. Dekarske again met with
defendant and Jane at the family home. During the course of this meeting, defendant
“had her hand on [Jane]’s thigh virtually the whole time” and “was answering the
questions for [Jane].” When Detective Doremus asked defendant whether she
thought that Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer were true, defendant, who
appeared to be shocked, responded by stating that “there is some truth to everything
that [Jane] says but not all of it is true.” In addition, defendant told Ms. Dekarske
that she and Jane had been working to improve their ability to communicate with
each other and that, while defendant believed a portion of what Jane had been saying, STATE V. DITENHAFER
she “did not believe it was” Mr. Ditenhafer who had abused Jane. After Detective
Doremus and Ms. Dekarske asked if they could speak with Jane privately, defendant
responded that she was not comfortable with allowing Jane to be alone with Detective
Doremus and declined to allow this request.
¶ 10 Detective Doremus and Ms. Dekarske met with Jane in private again on 11
July 2013. Detective Doremus recalled that, as soon as she entered the meeting room,
Jane “became upset and said that the only reason that [defendant] let her talk with
us alone is because [Jane was] supposed to recant” and that, upon making this
statement, Jane “started to cry, [and] said she was not going to recant to us because
she was telling the truth.” As the meeting progressed, defendant sent text messages
to Jane asking how the meeting was going, interrupted the meeting by entering the
room in which the interview was taking place, and appeared angry when Detective
Doremus informed her that Jane had not recanted her accusations against her
adoptive father. After Detective Doremus showed defendant a stack of sexually
explicit e-mails that Mr. Ditenhafer had sent to Jane, defendant “looked at one page
[of the e-mails], . . . flipped over to another page, and then left” with Jane in a
“[h]urried, angry, rushed” manner.
¶ 11 As the investigation continued, defendant remained angry with Jane and
continued to pressure her to recant. At one point, defendant threatened to take Jane
to a psychiatric hospital because Jane was “crazy.” When asked about the nature of STATE V. DITENHAFER
the comments that defendant had made to her during this period of time, Jane
testified that
[defendant] would tell me I was manipulative and crazy and how I needed to tell the truth because I was tearing apart her family and destroying her family and that [Mr. Ditenhafer] was going to go to jail because of my lies and [my younger brother] was going to turn into a drug addict and drop out of high school and that I was, like, ruining, like, our family. And this one time she also called me a manipulative bitch.
In addition, defendant forbade Jane from visiting or talking with her Arizona
relatives until she told them that she had falsely accused Mr. Ditenhafer of sexually
abusing her. Defendant also informed Jane that a family trip to Disneyland was “not
going to happen because we’re going to lose our money and we’re going to lose our
stuff and the animals” and that, on the other hand, if Jane recanted her allegations
against Mr. Ditenhafer, the family could still go to Disneyland. Finally, defendant
told Jane that defendant might have breast cancer and that Jane needed to stop lying
about the way in which her adoptive father had treated her because those lies were
causing defendant to experience stress.
¶ 12 The conduct in which defendant engaged and Jane’s fear that she would lose
her relationship with her younger brother finally caused Jane to recant her
accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer in early August 2013. On 5 August 2013, as Ms.
Dekarske was preparing to leave after meeting with Jane and defendant at the family
home, Jane ran outside and told Ms. Dekarske that she needed to tell her something. STATE V. DITENHAFER
Then, in a manner that Ms. Dekarske described as “robotic” and “rehearsed,” Jane
stated, “I just want to let you know I am recanting my story and I’m making it all
up.” As Ms. Dekarske looked back towards the house, she saw defendant watching
from the window, so she decided to end the conversation and discuss the subject with
Jane at a later time.
¶ 13 On 7 August 2013, Jane called Detective Doremus and told him, while
defendant listened, that she wished to recant her accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer.
In addition, Jane sent an e-mail to Detective Doremus for the purpose of telling him
that she wished to recant, with defendant having “prompted [Jane] on what to write.”
¶ 14 On 29 August 2013, Detective Doremus went to Jane’s school for the purpose
of meeting with Jane. As she entered the room in which the meeting was to take
place, Jane appeared to be nervous and told Detective Doremus that “I’m not
supposed to talk to you.” In response, Detective Doremus informed Jane that, while
he believed that her allegations against her adoptive father were true, the Wake
County Sheriff’s Office had ended its investigation and Mr. Ditenhafer would not be
prosecuted for sexually abusing her.
¶ 15 Mr. Ditenhafer moved back into the family home around Thanksgiving and
resumed his practice of sexually abusing Jane while defendant was absent from the
house. On 5 February 2014, defendant entered the bedroom that she shared with Mr.
Ditenhafter and observed Mr. Ditenhafer engaging in vaginal intercourse with Jane. STATE V. DITENHAFER
As Jane retreated into the adjacent bathroom, defendant angrily yelled “What’s going
on? What is this?” While Jane stood crying in the bathroom, defendant asked Jane
whether this was her “first time.” Although Jane contemplated telling defendant that
Mr. Ditenhafer had habitually abused her for the past several years, she told
defendant instead that “my boyfriend and I have done it before.”
¶ 16 Later that day, defendant drove Jane to a McDonald’s at which defendant
planned to retrieve a cell phone that Detective Doremus had examined during the
investigation of Jane’s earlier accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer. At that time, Jane
told defendant that she had been telling the truth about Mr. Ditenhafer’s conduct and
that he had continued to sexually abuse her. In response, defendant stated that “I’m
not sure if I believe you or not, but I just—I need to handle this first” before exiting
the vehicle to obtain the cell phone from Detective Doremus. Defendant did not report
what she had witnessed to Detective Doremus and refused to allow Jane to speak
with him. In addition, defendant directed Jane to refrain from telling anyone else
about what Mr. Ditenhafer had been doing to her “[b]ecause it was family business”
and instructed Jane to help her discard the sheets and bedding upon which the abuse
had occurred.
¶ 17 On 16 March 2014, defendant called Mr. Ditenhafer’s brother and told him that
she had walked in upon an act of sexual abuse involving Mr. Ditenhafer and Jane.
After receiving this information, which he found to be shocking, the brother-in-law STATE V. DITENHAFER
continued to communicate with defendant over the course of the next several weeks
for the purpose of helping defendant determine how she should protect herself and
the children. Although the brother-in-law initially thought that defendant would act
in the children’s best interest, she informed him a few weeks after their initial
conversation that she intended to refrain from “involv[ing] anyone else or the
authorities because that would cost them more money and time” and because “[w]e
don’t need anymore [sic] drama.” At this point, the brother-in-law notified Child
Protective Services about the sexual abuse that Mr. Ditenhafer had perpetrated upon
Jane, resulting in the initiation of a new investigation by that agency.
¶ 18 On 29 April 2014, Robin Seymore, a Wake County Human Services employee,
went to Jane’s school for the purpose of interviewing Jane. Jane appeared anxious
during her conversation with Ms. Seymore, denied that Mr. Ditenhafer had ever
abused her, and called defendant to let her know that Ms. Seymore was there asking
questions. After the end of her conversation with Jane, Ms. Seymore went to John’s
school in order to interview him. Within five minutes after Ms. Seymore’s discussion
with John had begun, defendant burst into the room in which the interview was being
conducted, grabbed John, and told Ms. Seymore, “[a]bsolutely not. You’re not going
to talk to him. You are not going to talk to him. This is not happening.” After making
this series of statements, defendant told Ms. Seymore that “I have nothing to say to
you” before leaving the interview room with John. STATE V. DITENHAFER
¶ 19 On 30 April 2014, Ms. Seymore went to the family home for the purpose of
interviewing defendant. In spite of the fact that rain was pouring down and thunder
could be heard, defendant told Ms. Seymore, “[y]ou’re not coming into the house” and
insisted that they talk outside. In the course of the ensuing conversation, defendant
stated that Mr. Ditenhafer had stopped living in the family home during the
preceding February while insisting that his departure “had nothing to do with the
children or [Jane]” and suggested that his absence stemmed from the fact that “they
had marital problems.” In addition, defendant stated that her husband had decided
to refrain from entering the house anymore in order to “avoid any more lies from
[Jane].” After Ms. Seymore left the family home following her conversation with
defendant, she and her supervisor decided to seek the entry of an order taking Jane
into the nonsecure custody of Wake County Human Services.
¶ 20 On 1 May 2014, Detective Doremus and other law enforcement officers came
to the family home for the purpose of placing defendant under arrest and taking Jane
into the custody of the Wake County Department of Human Services. After their
arrival, the officers observed defendant driving towards the residence. Upon
discovering that Detective Doremus and the other officers were present, defendant
backed up, turned around, and began to drive away. After the officers followed
defendant and activated their emergency lights, defendant, who had Jane and John
in the vehicle with her, pulled over on the side of the road, rolled up the windows, STATE V. DITENHAFER
locked the doors, and phoned her attorney while ignoring the officers’ requests that
she exit from her vehicle. As she sat in the car with the children, defendant told Jane,
“[d]on’t say anything. Don’t get out of the car . . . If they try and take you away,
[Jane], don’t go. Refuse to go. . . . Run down the street. Just don’t go.” Eventually,
defendant complied with the officers’ requests and was placed under arrest.
B. Procedural History
¶ 21 On 20 May 2014, the Wake County grand jury returned a bill of indictment
charging defendant with one count of felonious obstruction of justice and one count of
accessory after the fact to sexual activity by a substitute parent. On 9 September
2014, the Wake County grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging
defendant with being an accessory after the fact to sexual activity by a substitute
parent based upon an event that allegedly occurred on or about 5 February 2014. On
10 March 2015, the Wake County grand jury returned another superseding
indictment charging defendant with two counts of felonious obstruction of justice,
with one count alleging that defendant had obstructed justice by encouraging Jane to
recant her allegations of sexual abuse against Mr. Ditenhafer on or about the period
from 11 July 2013 to 1 September 2013 and with the second count alleging that
defendant had obstructed justice by denying employees of the Wake County Sheriff’s
Office and the Wake County Department of Human Services access to Jane on or
about the period from 11 July 2013 to 1 September 2013. STATE V. DITENHAFER
¶ 22 The charges against defendant came on for trial before the trial court and a
jury at the 25 May 2015 criminal session of the Superior Court, Wake County. At the
close of the State’s evidence, defendant, who did not offer evidence on her own behalf,
unsuccessfully moved to dismiss all three of the charges that had been lodged against
her for insufficiency of the evidence and on the basis of “a variance between the crime
alleged in the indictment and any crime for which the State’s evidence may have been
sufficient to warrant submission to the jury[.]” On 1 June 2015, the jury returned
verdicts convicting defendant of felonious obstruction of justice by encouraging Jane
to recant the allegations of sexual abuse that she had made against Mr. Ditenhafer,
felonious obstruction of justice based upon her actions in denying employees of the
Wake County Sheriff’s Office and the Wake County Department of Human Services
access to Jane, and accessory after the fact to sexual activity by a substitute parent.
Based upon the jury’s verdicts, the trial court entered a judgment sentencing
defendant to a term of six to seventeen months imprisonment based upon the first of
her two convictions for felonious obstruction of justice, a judgment sentencing
defendant to a consecutive term of six to seventeen months imprisonment based upon
her second conviction for felonious obstruction of justice, and a judgment sentencing
defendant to a consecutive term of thirteen to twenty-five months imprisonment
based upon her conviction for accessory after the fact to sexual activity by a substitute STATE V. DITENHAFER
parent. Defendant noted an appeal to the Court of Appeals from the trial court’s
judgments.
¶ 23 In seeking relief from the trial court’s judgments before the Court of Appeals,
defendant argued that the trial court had erred by denying her motions to dismiss all
three of the charges that had been lodged against her for insufficiency of the evidence
and by “failing to limit Defendant’s culpable conduct in its jury instruction for
accessory after the fact to her failure to report abuse.” State v. Ditenhafer, 258 N.C.
App. 537, 547 (2018), aff’d in part and rev’d in part, 373 N.C. 116 (2019). In a divided
decision, the Court of Appeals found no error in the trial court’s judgment relating to
the first of defendant’s obstruction of justice convictions, which rested upon
defendant’s conduct in encouraging Jane to recant her accusations against Mr.
Ditenhafer, on the grounds that the record contained sufficient evidence to support
defendant’s conviction. Id. at 547–49. On the other hand, the Court of Appeals
overturned the trial court’s judgment relating to the second of defendant’s obstruction
of justice convictions, which rested upon defendant’s conduct in precluding
investigating officials from having access to Jane, on the grounds that the record did
not contain sufficient evidence to support that conviction. Id. at 550–51. Finally, the
Court of Appeals reversed the judgment that the trial court had entered based upon
defendant’s conviction for accessory after the fact to sexual activity by a substitute
parent on the grounds the indictment that had been returned against defendant STATE V. DITENHAFER
“fail[e]d to allege any criminal conduct” and, instead, sought to hold defendant liable
for an omission unrelated to the performance of any criminal act. Id. at 551–53. The
State noted an appeal to this Court from the Court of Appeals’ decision relating to
defendant’s conviction for accessory after the fact to sexual activity by a substitute
parent based upon a dissenting opinion by Judge Inman and this Court granted the
State’s request for discretionary review with respect to the issue of whether the record
contained sufficient evidence to support defendant’s conviction for the felonious
obstruction of justice charge relating to defendant’s actions in precluding
investigating officials from having access to Jane.
¶ 24 On 1 November 2019, this Court filed an opinion in which it affirmed the Court
of Appeals’ decision to reverse defendant’s conviction for accessory after the fact to
sexual activity by a substitute parent. State v. Ditenhafer, 373 N.C. 116, 129 (2019).
In addition, we overturned the Court of Appeals determination that the trial court
had erred by denying defendant’s motion to dismiss the charge that defendant had
feloniously obstructed justice by denying investigating officials access to Jane for
insufficiency of the evidence on the grounds that the record contained sufficient
evidence “to persuade a rational juror that defendant denied officers and social
workers access to Jane.” Id. at 129 (cleaned up). In support of this conclusion, we
pointed to the presence of evidence tending to show that defendant had “talked over
Jane during several interviews . . . in such a manner that Jane was precluded from STATE V. DITENHAFER
answering the questions,” that defendant had “interrupted an interview . . . by
constantly sending Jane text messages and by abruptly removing Jane from the
interview,” and that defendant “successfully induced Jane to refuse to speak with
investigating officers and social workers” on multiple occasions. Id. at 128. As a
result, we remanded this case to the Court of Appeals for the limited purpose of
determining “whether there [was] sufficient evidence to enhance the charge of
obstruction of justice for denying access to Jane from a misdemeanor to a felony under
N.C.G.S. § 14-3(b).” Id. at 129.
¶ 25 On remand from this Court, the Court of Appeals held that there was sufficient
record evidence to support defendant’s conviction for felonious, as compared to
misdemeanor, obstruction of justice on the grounds that defendant had precluded
investigating officials from having access to Jane. State v. Ditenhafer, 840 S.E.2d
850, 855 (N.C. Ct. App. 2020) (holding that “the State [had] introduced evidence,
taken in the light most favorable to it, that [d]efendant acted with deceit and the
intent to defraud”). In support of its determination that defendant’s actions had
involved deceit and the existence of an intent to defraud, the Court of Appeals pointed
to the fact that defendant “did not permit [Jane] to answer questions and answered
for her in one interview, sent text messages and physically interrupted another
interview, and sought to constantly influence [Jane]’s statements in those interviews
by verbally abusing and punishing [Jane] for the statements she was making.” Id. at STATE V. DITENHAFER
856. In addition, the Court of Appeals noted the presence of evidence tending to show
that defendant had “instructed [Jane] not to speak with investigators and directed
investigators not to speak with [Jane] in private, ensuring that the daughter did not
have the opportunity to give investigators truthful statements regarding the abuse”
and that “[d]efendant [had] controlled the narrative by coaching [Jane] on what to
say, listening on the line when [Jane] recanted her story to Detective Doremus, and
prompting [Jane] on what to write in the [e-mail] in which [Jane] recanted her story.”
Id. (cleaned up). In dissenting from the majority’s decision, Judge Tyson stated that
the presence of deceit and an intent to defraud “is not what the indictment alleges
nor what the State’s evidence shows” and asserted that, on the contrary, the record
evidence demonstrated that “[d]efendant presented her daughter and allowed access
every time upon request,” with this fact tending to negate any contention that
defendant acted with deceit and intent to defraud. Id. at 858 (Tyson, J., dissenting).
Defendant noted an appeal to this Court from the Court of Appeals’ decision based
upon Judge Tyson’s dissent.
II. Substantive Legal Analysis
¶ 26 In seeking to persuade us to overturn the Court of Appeals’ decision, defendant
argues that the record is devoid of substantial evidence tending to show that she acted
with either deceit or the intent to defraud in the course of denying investigating
officials access to Jane. According to defendant, the record evidence uniformly STATE V. DITENHAFER
demonstrates that, during the time period set out in the relevant count of the
indictment, she did not believe Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer. In
addition, defendant contends that, in light of the fact that she did not believe Jane’s
accusations against her husband, her attempt to induce Jane to recant her
accusations against Mr. Ditenhafter amounted to an effort to persuade Jane to tell
the truth “even if [she was] ultimately wrong about what the truth was.” In support
of this argument, defendant directs our attention to what she describes as the
expressions of shock that defendant made when she interrupted Mr. Ditenhafer’s
abuse of Jane in February 2014. As a result, defendant maintains that her “actions
during the relevant period were not intended to deceive; but, instead, were intended
to protect [Mr. Ditenhafer] from what [defendant] incorrectly believed was a false
accusation.”
¶ 27 In seeking to persuade us to refrain from disturbing the Court of Appeals’
decision, the State argues that “the Court of Appeals majority properly followed this
Court’s directive and determined that the State presented sufficient evidence to
support defendant’s felony obstruction of justice charge for denying access to the
minor sexual abuse victim, Jane.” After acknowledging defendant’s claim that “she
believed Jane was abused by someone other than [Mr. Ditenhafer],” the State points
out that defendant “inconsistently took many steps to intervene in and frustrate law
enforcement and [social services]’ investigations into the sexual abuse.” In essence, STATE V. DITENHAFER
the State argues that, “[h]ad defendant indeed committed her acts during the
investigation as Jane’s concerned biological mother free of any intent to deceive or
defraud, defendant would have cooperated with any investigation of Jane’s reported
sexual abuse” while, instead, defendant “did everything other than cooperate with
the investigation” in order “to maintain her belief of a happy life with [Mr.
Ditenhafer].” The State further argues that “[d]efendant’s intent to deceive and
defraud is further revealed by her failure to report or even acknowledge the sexual
abuse after directly witnessing it firsthand.” As a result, the State argues that
“[d]efendant’s many actions of pressuring Jane to recant during the indictment period
and witnessing the sexual abuse firsthand after the indictment period both show
defendant’s overall mental attitude towards Jane’s sexual abuse allegations and
defendant’s selfish persistent desire to protect [her husband] and what she believed
to be her good life” and permitted the jury to infer “her intent . . . from the
circumstances and her actions throughout the investigation.”
¶ 28 In deciding whether to grant or deny a motion to dismiss for insufficiency of
the evidence, “the trial court need determine only whether there is substantial
evidence of each essential element of the crime and that the defendant is the
perpetrator.” State v. Crockett, 368 N.C. 717, 720 (2016) (quoting State v. Hill, 365
N.C. 273, 275 (2011)). Substantial evidence is “such relevant evidence as a reasonable
mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” State v. Stone, 323 N.C. 447, STATE V. DITENHAFER
451 (1988) (quoting State v. Smith, 300 N.C. 71, 78–79 (1980)). Put another way,
substantial evidence is that which is “necessary to persuade a rational juror to accept
a conclusion.” Crockett, 368 N.C. at 720 (quoting Hill, 365 N.C. at 275). In
determining whether the record contains sufficient evidence to support the
submission of the issue of defendant’s guilt of a criminal offense to the jury, the trial
court must consider the evidence “in the light most favorable to the State,” with the
State being “entitled to every reasonable intendment and every reasonable inference
to be drawn therefrom,” State v. Powell, 299 N.C. 95, 99 (1980), and with
“contradictions and discrepancies [being] for the jury to resolve” instead of
“warrant[ing] dismissal,” State v. Winkler, 368 N.C. 572, 574 (2015) (quoting Powell,
299 N.C. at 99). For that reason, “[t]he evidence need only give rise to a reasonable
inference of guilt in order for it to be properly submitted to the jury.” Stone, 323 N.C.
at 452 (citing State v. Jones, 303 N.C. 500, 504 (1981)). In view of the fact that
determining whether the record contains sufficient evidence to support the
defendant’s guilt of a criminal offense requires resolution of “a question of law,”
Crockett, 368 N.C. at 720, this Court reviews challenges to the sufficiency of the
evidence to support the jury’s decision to convict the defendant of committing a crime
using a de novo standard of review, State v. Melton, 371 N.C. 750, 756 (2018) (citing
State v. Chekanow, 370 N.C. 488, 492 (2018)). STATE V. DITENHAFER
¶ 29 At the time that this case was initially before the Court, we held, among other
things, that the record contained sufficient evidence to support the submission of the
issue of defendant’s guilt of obstruction of justice based upon an allegation that
defendant had denied investigating officials access to Jane to the jury. Ditenhafer,
373 N.C. at 128–29. As a result, the sole issue before the Court of Appeals on remand
was whether the record contained sufficient evidence to support defendant’s guilt of
felonious, rather than misdemeanor, obstruction of justice on the basis of N.C.G.S. §
14-3(b), id. at 129, which provides that, “[i]f a misdemeanor as to which no specific
punishment is prescribed be infamous, done in secrecy and malice, or with deceit and
intent to defraud, the offender shall, except where the offense is a conspiracy to
commit a misdemeanor, be guilty of a Class H felony,” N.C.G.S. § 14-3(b) (2019). As
the Court of Appeals has correctly held, a defendant commits felonious, as compared
to misdemeanor, obstruction of justice in the event that he or she “(1) unlawfully and
willfully (2) obstruct[s] justice by providing false statements to law enforcement
officers investigating [a crime] (3) with deceit and intent to defraud.” State v. Cousin,
233 N.C. App. 523, 531 (2014). After considering the evidence in the light most
favorable to the State, as we are required to do in accordance with the applicable
standard of review, we hold that the record contains sufficient evidence to support a
jury determination that defendant acted with deceit and an intent to defraud when
she denied investigating officials access to Jane. STATE V. DITENHAFER
¶ 30 At trial, the State asserted that defendant sought to deprive investigating
officials of meaningful access to Jane in order to preclude her from accusing Mr.
Ditenhafer of sexually abusing her. In support of this assertion, the State elicited
evidence concerning numerous incidents that occurred during the time period
specified in the relevant indictment count. For example, the State presented evidence
that defendant answered questions for Jane during meetings with investigators in
order to preclude Jane from answering the questions that were posed to her in a
truthful manner. In addition, defendant told investigating officials that they were
not allowed to speak with Jane privately and instructed Jane to recant the truthful
accusations that she had made against Mr. Ditenhafer. On one occasion, defendant
interrupted a private meeting between Jane and the investigating officials and
removed Jane from the meeting. In the same vein, the record contains evidence
tending to show that defendant drafted an e-mail which appeared to state that Jane’s
accusations against defendant were false and required Jane to send that e-mail to
investigating officials. As a result, the record contains evidence tending to show that,
in addition to simply precluding investigating officials from having access to Jane,
defendant actively encouraged Jane to make what everyone now acknowledges to
have been false statements exonerating Mr. Ditenhafer from criminal liability for his
sexual abuse of Jane. STATE V. DITENHAFER
¶ 31 Admittedly, the mere existence of evidence tending to show the nature of
defendant’s obstructive activities does not suffice to show that she acted with the
deceit and intent to defraud necessary to support her conviction for felonious, as
compared to misdemeanor, obstruction of justice. In addition to containing evidence
recounting defendant’s obstructive activities, the record is also replete with evidence
tending to suggest that, instead of being engaged in a disinterested search for the
truth, defendant knew that Jane’s accusations against her husband were likely to be
true and had motives other than a desire for truthfulness in seeking to interfere with
the investigation into the validity of Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer. For
example, during an early stage in the investigation, defendant acknowledged to
investigating officials that Jane had probably been abused and that some, but not all,
of Jane’s accusations were truthful. In light of this admission, the jury could
reasonably have concluded that defendant did, in fact, know that something had
happened to Jane and that her accusations rested upon something more than a mere
fabrication. Similarly, defendant’s knowledge that Mr. Ditenhafer had begun giving
full-body massages to Jane sufficed to put defendant on notice that the nature of the
interactions between Jane and her adoptive father, at an absolute minimum, posed a
risk of harm to Jane. In addition, defendant continued her obstructive conduct after
being shown inappropriate e-mails that Mr. Ditenhafer had sent to Jane. Finally,
defendant’s repeated statements that Jane’s accusations risked the destruction of the STATE V. DITENHAFER
existing family structure and harm to other members of the family provided ample
support for a jury finding that defendant’s conduct was motivated by a desire to
preserve the existing family structure, from which she clearly believed that she
derived benefits, rather than an attempt to dissuade Jane from making false
accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer.
¶ 32 The inference that defendant was acting with deceit and an intent to defraud
that the jury was entitled to draw based upon the evidence of defendant’s conduct
during the period of time specified in the relevant count of the indictment is
substantially bolstered by the evidence concerning defendant’s conduct in the
aftermath of her discovery in September 2014 that Mr. Ditenhafer was, in fact,
sexually abusing Jane.2 In spite of the fact that she now had conclusive proof that
Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer were true, defendant continued to attempt
to protect her husband from the consequences of his actions. For example, the record
reflects that defendant appeared to be more concerned about issues relating to Jane’s
chastity than about the impact of Mr. Ditenhafer’s abusive conduct upon her
daughter. In addition, defendant destroyed the bedding upon which the sexual abuse
had occurred. On the same day upon which defendant obtained confirmation that
2 Assuming, without deciding, that evidence concerning defendant’s conduct outside
the time period specified in the relevant count of the indictment is not admissible as substantive evidence of defendant’s guilt of obstruction of justice, we see no reason why that conduct is not relevant to the issue of the intent with which defendant acted when she obstructed investigating officials’ access to Jane during the relevant time period. STATE V. DITENHAFER
Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer were true, defendant failed to report the
adoptive father’s conduct to Detective Doremus during a meeting held for the purpose
of retrieving Jane’s cell phone and refused to allow Jane to speak with Detective
Doremus. After acknowledging the abuse that Mr. Ditenhafer had inflicted upon
Jane, defendant told her brother-in-law that she had talked to a lawyer and a
therapist and that both of them had advised her to refrain from involving anyone else
because “[w]e don’t need anymore [sic] drama” and because the making of such a
report would “cost them more money and time.” Finally, when law enforcement
officers came to the family home for the purpose of arresting defendant and taking
Jane into nonsecure custody, defendant attempted to escape while instructing Jane
to “[r]efuse to go” with the officers and to “[r]un down the street” instead. As a result,
the extensive evidence of defendant’s efforts to protect Mr. Ditenhafer from the
consequences of his actions after her discovery that Jane’s accusations of sexual abuse
were true coupled with the statements that defendant made to the brother-in-law
provides substantial additional support for the State’s contention that, rather than
simply trying to ensure that investigating officials were not misled by Jane’s false
accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer, defendant acted with deceit and an intent to
defraud.
¶ 33 As a result, for all of these reasons, we hold that the record evidence, when
taken in the light most favorable to the State, provides more than sufficient support STATE V. DITENHAFER
for a jury finding that defendant precluded investigating officials from having access
to Jane with deceit and the intent to defraud. Although defendant does, of course,
take a contrary position and although the record does not contain any evidence
tending to show that defendant actually admitted that she had obstructed the State’s
attempts to investigate Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer for nefarious
reasons, the absence of such direct evidence concerning defendant’s mental state does
not, of course, preclude the State from attempting to establish defendant’s guilt
through the use of inferences derived from circumstantial evidence. On the contrary,
the presence of evidence tending to show defendant’s persistent refusal to
acknowledge the truthfulness of Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer in the face
of Jane’s assertions that she was telling the truth, defendant’s knowledge of what
appear to have been inappropriate interactions between Mr. Ditenhafer and Jane,
defendant’s refusal to credit or even review evidence tending to bolster the credibility
of Jane’s accusations against Mr. Ditenhafer, and the fact that defendant appears to
have been acting on the basis of motives other than a disinterested search for truth
during the offense date range specified in the relevant count of the indictment
suffices, standing alone, to support a reasonable inference that defendant acted with
deceit and an intent to defraud rather than in the course of a permissible attempt to
exercise her constitutional rights as Jane’s parent. And, when one considers the
record evidence concerning defendant’s conduct after discovering Mr. Ditenhafer in STATE V. DITENHAFER
the very act of abusing Jane, the evidence that defendant precluded investigating
officials from having access to Jane deceitfully and with an intent to defraud seems
even more compelling. Thus, for all of these reasons, we have no hesitation in
concluding that the Court of Appeals did not err by upholding defendant’s conviction
for felonious obstruction of justice based upon defendant’s interference with
investigating officials’ access to Jane.
III. Conclusion
¶ 34 A careful review of the evidence presented for the jury’s consideration
persuades us that the record, when viewed in the light most favorable to the State,
contains substantial evidence tending to show that defendant had acted with deceit
and an intent to defraud at the time that she obstructed justice by denying officers of
the Wake County Sheriff’s Office and Wake County Department of Human Services
employees access to Jane during their investigation of Jane’s allegations against Mr.
Ditenhafer. As a result, the Court of Appeals’ decision to find no error in the trial
court’s judgment based upon defendant’s conviction for felonious obstruction of justice
arising from the denial of access to Jane is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.