State v. Hebdon

2013 Ohio 1729
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided April 29, 2013·No. CA2012-03-052, CA2012-03-062·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS

TWELFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO BUTLER COUNTY

STATE OF OHIO, :

Plaintiff-Appellee, : CASE NOS. CA2012-03-052 CA2012-03-062

:

- vs - OPINION : 4/29/2013

KEVIN L. HEBDON, :

Defendant-Appellant. :

CRIMINAL APPEAL FROM BUTLER COUNTY AREA III COURT Case Nos. CRB110728 and CRB1101318

Michael T. Gmoser, Butler County Prosecuting Attorney, Kimberly L. McManus, Government Services Center, 315 High Street, 11th Floor, Hamilton, Ohio 45011, for plaintiff-appellee

Jeremy L. Evans, 306 South Third Street, Hamilton, Ohio 45011, for defendant-appellant

HENDRICKSON, P.J.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, Kevin Hebdon, appeals his conviction in the Butler County Area III Court for sexual imposition.

{¶ 2} In May 2011, appellant was charged with two counts of sexual imposition, misdemeanors of the third degree, in violation of R.C. 2907.06(A)(1). The charges stemmed from allegations that appellant had touched his stepdaughter, B.S., on her breast and buttocks in September 2010 and April 2011.

{¶ 3} Prior to trial, appellant filed several motions for discovery, including a Notice of Exculpatory Evidence and Motion for Disclosure on September 26, 2011. In his motion, appellant requested that the state furnish two diaries belonging to B.S. During a hearing on the motion, the prosecution argued that it had already disclosed the relevant portions of B.S.'s diaries, and that allowing appellant to read the remaining portions of the diaries would only result in more trauma for B.S. Conversely, the defense argued that appellant was entitled to B.S.'s diaries in their entirety under Crim.R. 16(B). Ultimately, the trial court conducted an in camera inspection of the diaries to determine if they contained additional evidence requiring disclosure.

{¶ 4} After the in camera review, the court proceeded directly to a bench trial, without allowing appellant to review the remaining portions of B.S.'s diaries. Thus, presumably, the trial court denied appellant's motion for disclosure. See State v. Wagner, 12th Dist. No. CA2002-07-056, 2003-Ohio-2369, ¶ 3 ("when faced with a silent record, [a reviewing court] will presume that any outstanding motions at the conclusion of the proceeding have been overruled").

{¶ 5} At trial, B.S. testified that she had lived with her mother, her brothers, and appellant since she was roughly two years old. B.S. testified that in early September 2010, when she was 14 years old, she was lying in the middle of her bed reading a book, when appellant entered her room and laid down on the bed next to her while talking to her mother on the phone. B.S. stated that appellant placed the phone on hold, so that her mother could not hear the noises in B.S.'s bed. At that point, B.S. claimed that appellant placed his left hand on her right breast. B.S. explained that appellant used his hand to cup her breast "completely * * * including the nipple and areola." B.S. also testified that appellant would often ask her whether her breasts were real or "fake," but she could not specifically recall

whether appellant made any such comment that night.

{¶ 6} B.S. also explained that on numerous evenings when her mother was at work, appellant would ask to stay in B.S.'s bed for the entire night. Further, B.S. testified that in the months leading up to the September 2010 incident, appellant often told her that she looked "super hot or cute," and would call her "baby * * * in an uncomfortable way." Additionally, appellant would compare B.S.'s breast size to her mother's breast size, and told B.S. that if he were younger and not married to her mother, that he would date her.

{¶ 7} B.S. then testified that in April 2011, she was in the family computer room doing her homework, when appellant approached her to talk about an upcoming school dance. Appellant gave B.S. permission to go to the dance, but B.S. told him that she did not want to go, and that she had other plans. At that point, appellant grabbed B.S.'s hands and made her dance with him. According to B.S., appellant first placed his hands on B.S.'s upper waist and asked, "[i]s this how boys dance with you?" Appellant then moved his hands below her waist, and said, "or like this?" B.S. testified that at that point, appellant lifted her up by her buttocks and swung her around. B.S. stated that she had to hit appellant's chest to make him let go of her, and that when he finally put her down, he left the room and appeared upset.

{¶ 8} During cross-examination, the defense asked B.S. about two diaries that she kept in 2010 and 2011. The defense asked B.S. about a specific entry in one of the diaries, entitled "[T]op ten list of reasons why [I] don't like Kevin," which listed "felt me up (cleavage)" as the number one reason. B.S. indicated that she had included this entry because appellant's touching of her breasts was "important" to her. B.S. also testified that she sometimes wrote in her diary to express anger and other "personal things," such as her problems with her physical appearance and the lack of attention that people paid to her.

{¶ 9} The defense also questioned B.S. about a text message that she received from a friend at some point after the September 2010 incident, asking whether appellant had "touched [her] again." B.S. explained that when appellant discovered the text message, he confiscated her phone and gave it to her mother. Before her mother left for work the next day, she and appellant confronted B.S. about the text message. B.S. testified that she was not comfortable speaking with her mother in front of appellant, but that when appellant left the room, she told her mother that appellant had touched her. However, B.S. immediately told her mother that she was "not a hundred percent sure that anything had happened." When the defense asked B.S. why she failed to tell her mother the whole story, B.S. explained, "I knew she was going to work and I didn't want to start anything right then and there since she was leaving." B.S. also testified that she did not want to start anything because of the stress it would cause the rest of her family.

{¶ 10} Lastly, B.S. testified on cross-examination about a conversation that she had with the police shortly after she made the allegations against appellant. B.S. admitted to telling the police that during the September 2010 incident, appellant sat, rather than laid, on her bed, and that prior to touching her breast, appellant said that he wanted to make sure that her breasts were not "fake."

{¶ 11} After B.S. testified, B.S.'s grandmother, J.S., took the witness stand. J.S.

testified that on several occasions within the last year, she saw appellant approach B.S. from behind and hug her "very tightly * * *." J.S. also stated that appellant would sometimes place his head in B.S.'s lap while she sat on the sofa, which "creeped" J.S. out.

{¶ 12} Next, B.S.'s mother, R.H., testified for the defense. R.H. testified that she was not alarmed by the fact that appellant had laid on B.S.'s bed in September 2010. R.H. further testified that when she confronted B.S. about the text message from her friend, B.S. was "not

very forthcoming with any response at all * * *." R.H. stated that before leaving for work,

I was trying to encourage [B.S.] to open up and talk to me. So I asked her, you know, was this true? Had [appellant] touched her? Finally, her response was yes. And then she immediately said, I'm not sure anything really happened. So I asked her to try to give me some specific details, you know, was she dressed? She said that she was. Was he dressed? She said he was, you know, was the touch just on the breast? She said yes, but, again, she wasn't sure anything had really happened.

{¶ 13} When R.H. spoke to B.S. several weeks later, B.S. told her that she was sure that appellant had actually touched her, and indicated that, "well, [appellant] failed [a] polygraph test so that confirms everything." R.H. stated that this was the extent of her conversation with B.S. about the allegations.

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State v. Hebdon, 2013 Ohio 1729 (Ohio Ct. App. 2013).

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