State v. Ditenhafer

812 S.E.2d 896, 258 N.C. App. 537
Court of Appeals of North Carolina·Decided March 20, 2018·No. COA16-965·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinions

McGEE, Chief Judge.

*538Mardi Jean Ditenhafer ("Defendant") was convicted of two counts of felony obstruction of justice and one count of felony accessory after the fact to sexual activity by a substitute parent. Defendant contends the trial court erred in denying her motions to dismiss the charges and in its instruction to jurors regarding accessory after the fact. We uphold Defendant's conviction for obstruction of justice by causing her daughter to recant the report of sexual abuse, but we vacate Defendant's *539conviction for obstruction of justice based on denying investigators access to the daughter. We also vacate Defendant's conviction for being an accessory after the fact for her failure to report a crime.

I. Factual and Procedural History

The evidence at trial tended to show that in 2013, Defendant was married to William Ditenhafer ("William"). The couple had two children, a daughter ("the daughter") and a younger son ("the son"). The daughter is Defendant's biological daughter and was adopted by William when she was in the third grade. The son is the biological son of Defendant and William.

The relationship between William and the daughter was initially positive. However, in middle school, the daughter's grades began to drop as a result of self-esteem issues, and she began to harm herself. William punished the daughter for her dropping grades with corporal punishment, which "scared [her] a lot with his anger and his yelling, um, and the spankings." The daughter tried to bring her self-esteem and self-harming issues to the attention of Defendant, but Defendant grew angry with the daughter and claimed the daughter was only seeking attention. As a result of her parents' anger at her, the daughter believed she was a painful burden on the family.

During eighth grade, the daughter began sending sexually suggestive pictures of herself by text message to a boy. William discovered the photos, and he and Defendant grounded the daughter. Rather than seek professional counseling for the daughter, William, with Defendant's knowledge, began to give the daughter full-body massages under the guise of improving her self-image. William gave the massages to the daughter once a week while she was covered only by a towel.

After one of the massages, the daughter took a shower to remove oil from her body. After the shower, as the daughter was walking to her room with a towel wrapped around her body, William called her into the living room where he was seated on the couch. A television displayed several suggestive photographs that the daughter had again sent to the boy by text message. William told the daughter he had been looking at the photos and that they "turned [him] on." He then gave the daughter an ultimatum: either stimulate his penis with her hand or he would show the photos to Defendant and have the daughter sent to jail. The daughter began to cry and refused for several minutes, but ultimately relented. William then took off his pants and instructed the daughter to drop her towel. He guided her hand along his penis until he ejaculated. William made the daughter touch his penis at least twice a week thereafter.

*540William's abuse of the daughter eventually expanded to include making her perform fellatio on him on at least three occasions, and he gave her a book with instructions on how to perform sex acts. The daughter did not tell Defendant about these incidents because she feared Defendant would not believe her and would punish her.

The daughter turned sixteen on 27 November 2012. Thereafter, William had vaginal intercourse with her on multiple occasions. He also penetrated her vagina with vibrators *899and his fingers several times and attempted anal penetration on several occasions. He also bought her sexually suggestive clothing to wear for him, took sexually suggestive videos and photographs of her in those outfits and various stages of undress, and sent her explicit email messages requesting sexually suggestive photographs from her. The daughter attempted to hint to Defendant that she was being abused by leaving her undergarments in Defendant's and William's bed; when confronted, William told Defendant that the daughter had just been napping in their room. Defendant grew upset with the daughter for taking naps in her bed, making the daughter once again fearful of telling her mother the truth.

William's abuse further exacerbated the daughter's self-harming. She began to cut parts of her body that William told her were attractive, such as her shoulders and bellybutton. The daughter attempted suicide several times by slicing her wrists, taking pills, and attempting to drown herself. When Defendant noticed the daughter's bandaged wrists after one such attempt, she told the daughter that she thought it was just another ploy for attention.

In the spring of 2013, when she was sixteen, the daughter visited her biological paternal aunt ("the aunt") in Arizona. The night before she was to fly home, the daughter informed the aunt that she was being sexually abused and raped by her adoptive father. The aunt and the daughter called Defendant to tell her of the abuse and informed Arizona law enforcement. Rather than feeling supported after the call to her mother, the daughter felt that Defendant was "angry at [her]."

A short time after reporting the abuse to the aunt, the daughter flew home to North Carolina and was picked up at the airport by Defendant. Defendant told the daughter she did not believe her, that she needed to recant, and that she needed to stop lying because "it was going to tear apart the family and it was just going to end horribly and that [the daughter] didn't need to do this." The daughter reiterated to her mother that the abuse occurred.

*541The daughter and Defendant met with Susan Dekarske ("Ms. Dekarske") with Wake County Child Protective Services ("CPS") and Detective Stan Doremus ("Detective Doremus") with the Wake County Sheriff's Department ("WCSD") on 11 April 2013 in Defendant's home. The daughter described William's abuse of her. CPS, William, and Defendant entered into a safety agreement whereby William was removed from the home during the investigation into the abuse. The daughter started seeing a therapist, Elizabeth Guarnaccia ("Ms. Guarnaccia"). The daughter met with CPS and WCSD several times over the following months with Defendant present or within listening distance. On almost a daily basis, Defendant pressured the daughter to recant her allegations, including yelling at her, threatening to have her involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, calling her crazy and a "manipulative bitch," and telling the son that his sister was crazy. Defendant told the daughter that she "was tearing apart her family and destroying her family and that William was going to go to jail ... and [the son] was going to turn into a drug addict and drop out of high school" as a result of the daughter's reports of abuse.

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State v. Ditenhafer, 812 S.E.2d 896, 258 N.C. App. 537 (N.C. Ct. App. 2018).

812 S.E.2d 896 (State v. Ditenhafer) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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