State v. Lagge

388 P.2d 792, 143 Mont. 289, 1964 Mont. LEXIS 259
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 30, 1964
Docket10605
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 388 P.2d 792 (State v. Lagge) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Lagge, 388 P.2d 792, 143 Mont. 289, 1964 Mont. LEXIS 259 (Mo. 1964).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE DOYLE

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal by defendant, Arnold Raymond Lagge, hereinafter referred to as appellant, from a conviction of the crime of rape in the district court of the thirteenth judicial district.

On the night of December 16, 1962, the prosecutrix, a girl of fifteen years of age, was babysitting for Beulah Straight at 211 North 15th Street, Billings. Prosecutrix put Beulah’s four children in their respective beds by 9:00 P.M., the oldest child being eleven years old. After putting the children to bed, the prosecutrix listened to the radio and did her homework until approximately 11:00 P.M. at which time one Bob Allison, a boyfriend of Beulah Straight’s, came to the house but left some five minutes later. The prosecutrix continued to listen to the radio until it went off the air, prepared for and retired to bed about 12:15 A.M. The bed in which the prosecutrix retired to was located near the door to the front of the house. The prosecutrix testified that she was asleep within five minutes.

*291 Shortly thereafter, the prosecutrix was awakened by the sounds of the house dog and found a person standing over her beside the bed. This person was a man and started to make advances upon the prosecutrix’s person. The prosecutrix noticed the smell of liquor on her assailant’s breath and testified that the man threatened her and told her to be quiet when she started to scream. The prosecutrix was finally able to get up and run into the children’s bedroom where she shook the oldest girl and tried to awaken her so that she could go for help. Before she could accomplish this act, her assailant came in behind her, carried her back into the first bedroom where he struck her in the jaw, said “God damn it, shut up” and, hitting her in the stomach, knocked her out and had intercourse with her. Shortly thereafter he departed. The prosecutrix then called her mother, the time was approximately 1:00 A.M. At approximately 2:00 A.M. the prosecutrix was examined by her family physician, Dr. Eugene Eronmiller, who testified that an act of sexual intercourse had recently been accomplished upon her.

Throughout the acts that transpired after the prosecutrix awoke, there were no lights on in the house but there was some illumination from sources of light outside the house. Still, the interior of the house was in comparative darkness.

The prosecutrix made a statement in the presence of Officer Stirens at 3:30 A.M. on the morning of the attack and rape on her person. In this statement the prosecutrix gave a brief description of the person who attacked her. At somewhere around 4:30 A.M. of the same morning, the prosecutrix was shown a photograph of the defendant. On cross-examination, the prosecutrix testified that when she was shown this photograph she made a statement to the effect: “That’s not the person.” Later however, while the defendant was in a police lineup, the prosecutrix did identify him as her assailant and corroborated this identification by recognizing his voice as the voice of the person who had assaulted her.

*292 During defendant’s cross-examination of the prosecutrix and after the prosecutrix had testified that she did not identify the defendant by the use of a photograph, the defendant moved the court to “require the prosecution and the police department to produce the picture of the defendant which was used for means of identification of the defendant in this case.” Defendant alleges this motion was an attempt to obtain material for cross-examination and impeachment purposes. The court refused to grant the motion. The defendant predicates his first specification of error on this refusal which is: “The court erred in refusing to require the prosecution to produce the picture of the defendant, referred to by the prosecuting witness for use in cross-examination by the defendant.”

Sections 93-1901-11 and 93-1901-12, B.C.M.1947, establish the criteria by which a witness may be impeached. The witness had testified that she did not identify the defendant by a photograph but by a police lineup.

At this stage of the trial, neither the trial judge, the prosecuting attorney, nor the defense counsel seemed aware of the fact that there were two photographs of the defendant. As before indicated, the prosecutrix did not identify defendant from any photograph, but assuming that somehow this failure to identify a photograph might have a bearing on identification, no prejudicial error in the trial court’s ruling was made. As later developed, the chief of police testified to two photographs of defendant, one taken some thirteen years prior to trial and one taken some three years prior to trial. The police chief testified that it was the old photograph which had been shown to the prosecutrix and which she could not identify as her attacker. Meanwhile, the prosecuting attorney had a newer photograph, which he did not know had ever been displayed to the prosecutrix. The two photos are exhibits on this appeal, and the appearance of the defendant is considerably different in the two photos. It would seem that the inability of the prosecutrix to identify her assailant from the old photo strengthens her subsequent *293 identification from the police lineup and Amice. In any event, no prejudicial error could result because no impeachment could be possible under the circumstances here.

In addition, the record further indicates that defendant’s counsel Avas not too concerned in obtaining the photograph. He did not subpoena the chief of police as he had statutory authority to so do either before or during the trial. Sections 94-8901 and 94-8902, R.C.M.1947. The defendant also objected to the prosecution’s attempt to introduce the photograph later in the trial. Under the existing circumstances, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to produce.

The defendant next alleges that the court erred in refusing to give defendant’s offered instruction 24, a cautionary instruction taken from CALJIC, No. 510. Instruction 24 reads: “A charge such as that made against the defendant in this case is one, Avhich, generally speaking, is easily made, and once made, difficult to disprove even if the defendant is innocent. From the nature of a case such as this, the complaining witness and the defendant usually are the only witnesses. Therefore I charge you that the law requires that you examine the testimony of the prosecuting witness with caution.”

The defendant cites adequate California law which does allow cautionary instructions quite readily. But the question of allowing cautionary instructions has been settled previously here in Montana so we need not look to other jurisdictions for aid or assistance.

In State v. Peterson, 102 Mont. 495, 502, 59 P.2d 61, 64, while discussing an instruction similar in context to the instant one, we quoted from several other Montana cases saying: “While this court has said: 'It is undoubtedly true that charges such as this are easy to make and hard to defend against, even by one who is guiltless; and where the state relies upon the uncorroborated testimony of the prosecutrix, the jury should be cautious of convicting upon such evidence.’ (State v. Gaimos, 53 Mont. 118, 162 P.

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

Related

State v. Floyd
790 P.2d 475 (Montana Supreme Court, 1990)
State v. Bingman
745 P.2d 342 (Montana Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. Freeman
599 P.2d 368 (Montana Supreme Court, 1979)
State v. DeGeorge
566 P.2d 59 (Montana Supreme Court, 1977)
State v. Smith
541 P.2d 351 (Montana Supreme Court, 1975)
State v. Glidden
529 P.2d 1384 (Montana Supreme Court, 1974)
State v. Hoskins
514 P.2d 1331 (Montana Supreme Court, 1973)
State v. Frates
Montana Supreme Court, 1972
State v. Gloyne
476 P.2d 511 (Montana Supreme Court, 1970)
State v. Logan
473 P.2d 833 (Montana Supreme Court, 1970)
State v. Dunn
472 P.2d 288 (Montana Supreme Court, 1970)
State v. Bouldin
456 P.2d 830 (Montana Supreme Court, 1969)
State v. Lukus
423 P.2d 49 (Montana Supreme Court, 1967)
State v. Doe
409 P.2d 439 (Montana Supreme Court, 1965)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
388 P.2d 792, 143 Mont. 289, 1964 Mont. LEXIS 259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lagge-mont-1964.