State v. Fleckenstein

159 A.2d 411, 60 N.J. Super. 399
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedMarch 28, 1960
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 159 A.2d 411 (State v. Fleckenstein) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fleckenstein, 159 A.2d 411, 60 N.J. Super. 399 (N.J. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

60 N.J. Super. 399 (1960)
159 A.2d 411

THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,
v.
EDWARD A. FLECKENSTEIN, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Argued March 7, 1960.
Decided March 28, 1960.

*401 Before Judges GOLDMANN, FREUND and HANEMAN.

Mr. Edward A. Fleckenstein argued the cause for appellant, pro se.

Mr. Frank A. Dolan, Sussex County Prosecutor, argued the cause for respondent.

The opinion of the court was delivered by HANEMAN, J.A.D.

Defendant Edward A. Fleckenstein appeals from a judgment of conviction after a trial without a jury before the Sussex County Court based upon two indictments charging acts of lewdness and carnal indecency in violation of N.J.S. 2A:115-1. He also appeals from the trial court's denial of his motions to take additional testimony and for a new trial.

Defendant was charged with committing acts of fellatio upon the persons of W, the complaining witness at the trial, and one R, presently a resident of New Castle County, Delaware, who could not be located and served with a subpoena requiring his presence at the trial, pursuant to the provisions of the Uniform Act to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from without a State, N.J.S. 2A:81-18.

At the time of the alleged offenses on June 9 and June 19, 1957, W and R were 16 and 15 years of age, respectively; defendant was an adult. As a member of the New Jersey and New York Bars, defendant personally conducted his own defense.

Testimony was introduced at the trial demonstrating that defendant was well-known to the youth in the community of Hamburg and vicinity, and that he frequently associated with youngsters.

On June 22, 1957, after receiving a series of anonymous telephone calls reporting that a man in the Hamburg area *402 had been seen associating with young boys and picking them up on the highway, the state police, after a brief surveillance of the car with the reported license registration H/F 400, intercepted said vehicle. Defendant was identified as the driver and W as the passenger. As a result of the questioning that followed, defendant was arrested and, with W, was escorted to the Sussex substation of the state police where statements were taken.

W, who at the time of the trial was serving in the United States Army as a military policeman, told of how he had met defendant and how defendant had often given him rides in his car and bought him snacks at various times. The sordid facts of the alleged sexual acts performed upon W need not be detailed here. W described the meetings with defendant by himself on June 9 and with R on June 19, 1957, and the events that followed. He further testified that he was not a willing participant in the alleged activities with defendant.

Defendant denies having engaged in sexual perversion with either W or R. He contends that the United States Army, the municipal and county court judges, the prosecutor, and the state police are all against him, even though he is completely innocent of the crimes charged. He accuses the state police and the municipal court judge of forgery and perjury in forging the complaint against him, alleging that the complaint he saw when apprehended on June 22, 1957 specified the date of May 25, 1957 as the date of the alleged offense with W rather than that of June 9, 1957 as set out in the present complaint. He further charges that the prosecutor misrepresented a material fact to the court in that he withheld a statement signed by W in which the latter allegedly named May 25, 1957 as the date of the first charged offense. In short, defendant alleges that the conviction from which he is here appealing is the result of a vicious plot "to frame the defendant and involve defendant in trouble." In his brief, for example, defendant asserts:

*403 "The long standing disputes and feuds between defendant and the Army, * * * his heading a McCarthy organization, his arrest in Germany by the Army and forcible expulsion from that country and his law suits and threatened suits against the Army, play an obvious role."

Stating that this case resolves itself into the question of whom the court believes from the testimony presented, the trial judge concluded:

"[A]fter giving this a great deal of thought and after weighing all the testimony regarding this act, and considering the collateral issues that have been brought in here to test the credibility of certain individuals, the one inescapable conclusion that I come to is that this defendant is guilty of the charges * * *." (Emphasis supplied.)

The trial judge denied defendant's motions for taking additional testimony and for a new trial on the grounds that the former motion was, in reality, a motion for a new trial, it was not brought within ten days, and it was not based on newly discovered evidence.

I.

Defendant asserts that his conviction must be set aside because of a lack of corroboration of W's testimony. He cites State v. Lefante, 14 N.J. 584 (1954), as authority for the proposition that in morals cases such as that sub judice, corroboration is required in order for the State to obtain a conviction. However, the Lefante case, in which the defendant was appealing from a conviction of carnal abuse of a nine-year-old girl, does not so hold. To the contrary, the Supreme Court clearly stated therein, at page 592, "Suffice it to say that the child's story, both on direct and cross-examination, carries conviction." (Emphasis supplied.) It was claimed by defendant in Lefante that he was prejudiced by the testimony of a doctor who had examined the complaining witness more than two years after the first charged offense and found that her hymen had been partly *404 ruptured and healed. This testimony, argued defendant, was too remote, and furthermore, the doctor never connected the defendant with carnal abuse. The court held, however, that the complaining witness herself had identified the defendant as the guilty person, and that although the testimony of the doctor was relevant, it was not prejudicial to defendant since he cross-examined the doctor in order to show that such a rupture was not uncommon in children. The corroboration issue was never raised or discussed. Certainly the court, by its treatment of the issue of whether or not the doctor's statement was admissible, did not intend to convey the impression that said statement was necessary corroboration of the child's story. The only question before the court was whether this testimony was properly admitted by the trial judge and, if not, whether its admission was prejudicial to defendant.

Defendant cites People v. Oyola, 6 N.Y.2d 259, 189 N.Y.S.2d 203, 160 N.E.2d 494 (Ct. App. 1959), and People v. Porcaro, 6 N.Y.2d 248, 189 N.Y.S.2d 194, 160 N.E.2d 48 (Ct. App. 1959), as authority for the argument that corroboration is required in all cases "on moral subjects." An examination of these opinions discloses that they are not authority for the principle so urged.

In the former case the indictment concerned a morals charge by a daughter against her father and in the latter case by a stepdaughter against her stepfather. In both instances the complaining witness was under 12 years of age. Section 392 of the N.Y. Code of Criminal Procedure

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of New Jersey v. Zachary T. Mai
New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 2025
State of New Jersey v. Isaac A. Young
152 A.3d 955 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 2017)
Capell v. Capell
817 A.2d 337 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 2003)
State v. Segars
799 A.2d 541 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 2002)
Schajer v. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance
701 A.2d 132 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1997)
State v. Bono
319 A.2d 762 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1974)
State v. Connolly
295 A.2d 204 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1972)
State v. Rassmussen
449 P.2d 837 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1969)
State v. Garcia
199 A.2d 860 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1964)
State v. Vaughner
185 A.2d 227 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1962)
In Re Fleckenstein
166 A.2d 753 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
159 A.2d 411, 60 N.J. Super. 399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fleckenstein-njsuperctappdiv-1960.