State v. Mucie

448 S.W.2d 879, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 1122
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 12, 1970
Docket54317
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 448 S.W.2d 879 (State v. Mucie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Mucie, 448 S.W.2d 879, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 1122 (Mo. 1970).

Opinion

HIGGINS, Commissioner.

Dr. Richard P. Mucie, a licensed osteopathic physician and surgeon, was convicted by a jury of manslaughter by abortion; his punishment was assessed at 10-years’ imprisonment in custody of the Department of Corrections, and sentence and judgment were rendered accordingly. Section 559.-100, V.A.M.S.

The victim of the crime charged against Dr. Mucie was a 19-year-old student at Oklahoma University. Around Thanksgiving vacation in 1967, she advised her boy friend that she might be pregnant and they decided to seek an abortion because she did not wish to have the baby. She enlisted the help of her boy friend who, in turn, discussed the matter with his father in January, 1968, at Norman, Oklahoma. The father was advised of the pregnancy; that the girl, although engaged to the boy, did not wish to marry at that time, and that the girl did not want to have the baby.

On January 30, 1968, the boy’s father called Dr. Mucie in Kansas City, Missouri, and told him that his son and his fiancee had a problem in connection with her pregnancy. Dr. Mucie advised the boy’s father to have the girl examined by a doctor to determine the length of the pregnancy. The father learned from his son that the onset of pregnancy was the first or middle of October, 1967, and, upon relaying this information to Dr. Mucie, was told by Dr. Mucie that “it was too late to do anything about it.” This advice was relayed by the father to his son and the father was then told that the girl had not been examined. The father again told his son to have the girl examined and, subsequently, the son called his father and advised that his fiancee was then 13 to 14 weeks pregnant. This information was relayed to Dr. Mucie, who advised the son’s father to have the girl come to Kansas City on the evening of February 7, 1968. The father understood that the cost would be “about four.”

The father told his son of the advice received from Dr. Mucie and, on February 7, 1968, the son and his fiancee flew to Kansas City, arriving at 6:30 p. m. They went by taxi to 1924 East 31st, Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, where they met Dr. Mucie in his Kansas City Sinus Clinic. They waited in the lobby for ten or fifteen minutes before the girl went into the inner office. After about fifteen more minutes the girl came out with Dr. Mucie. “He said he couldn’t do anything at the time, but he would take us, he had made arrangements for us to have a room at the Ambassador Hotel, and that he would take us there, and then call us about 11:30 and come pick us back up.” During the interim the couple ate and attended a show.

At 11 p. m., Dr. Mucie called, and about forty minutes later arrived at the hotel to take the couple back to the Sinus Clinic. Dr. Mucie took the girl to the inner office and the boy waited in the outer office. In 20 to 30 minutes Dr. Mucie came to the outer office dressed in a surgeon’s gown and asked the boy if he would like to pay him before he started, and the boy paid Dr. Mucie $400 in one hundred dollar bills. That was the last the boy saw of Dr. Mucie for several hours except when he came to the outer office every half hour or so to change music records.

At about 7:30 a. m., February 8, 1968, Dr. Mucie asked the boy if he wished to see the girl. He went to the inner office and saw his fiancee lying on a couch with a cover over her. Dr. Mucie said she was under sedation. He said “hello” and, al *882 though she did not speak, she smiled and seemed to move her hand. Dr. Mucie gave him some tomato juice and he went back to the outer office and slept until around 11:30 a. m.

About 11:30 a. m., he was awakened by Dr. Mucie’s porter and a little later Dr. Mucie came in and “said that she had had a heart attack, and that she was in a state of shock, and they had taken her to the hospital * * * he was going to the hospital, and he would be right back to take me there * * * and about another half hour passed, and I didn’t see him again, so I went to look for him. * * * I heard Dr. Mucie’s voice in a far back room * * * he was laying on his bed talking on the telephone to someone. * * * He said something to the effect that it was necessary for a coroner to be called in, couldn’t he just file (fill) out a doctor’s certificate of death. * * * Then I went back into the office and sat down and he came in about another five or ten minutes later and told me she had died, * * * and then he said that the only possible way we could get out of this is if I said that— went along with him and said that we had been passing through Kansas City and that she had had chest pains, and that I had brought her to him for treatment * * ,*.”

On February 8, 1968, at about 11:30 a. m., Charles William Sievers, an ambulance driver went with his attendant to the Sinus Clinic and found the girl lying on a doctor’s cot. Dr. Mucie advised that he detected a heartbeat and instructed them to take the girl to Osteopathic Hospital and give her oxygen enroute. They were not advised what treatment the girl had been given; they noted blood on the girl’s fingers, stiffness of the arms, and the hand was in a “clawed” position. Dr. Mucie wiped some blood from between the fingers of the clawed hand. Upon lifting the patient, the attendant noted that the girl’s legs did not bend down, and when in the ambulance he was unable to detect a pulse or heartbeat.

When the ambulance arrived at Osteopathic Hospital at 1:00 p. m., Dr. Richard Frederick Spavins, an osteopathic physician and surgeon, examined the girl. He found no pulse and concluded she had been dead about four hours. Dr. Spavins called Dr. Mucie and was advised by him that he had given the girl cardiac resuscitation and an injection of Vistaril, a tranquilizer, and that he had been treating her for two weeks for a heart condition. When advised by Dr. Spavins that he was going to call the coroner, Dr. Mucie told him he could and would sign the death certificate. There was no mention of abortion, uterine hemorrhage or of any treatment other than the cardiac treatment in the conversation.

The body was taken by the same ambulance to the morgue at General Hospital.

Detective James W. Smith observed the girl’s body at the Osteopathic Hospital at about 1:40 p. m., February 8, 1968, and noted needle marks on her arms, buttocks, and left breast. He later took photographs of the body showing the needle marks. He was present at the autopsy performed on the body at General Hospital by Dr. Raymond J. Caffrey, a pathologist and deputy coroner, and took custody of part of a fetus removed from the girl’s uterus and the uterus from the girl’s body, both of which were put into preservative bottles.

Detectives Kenneth Riddell and Floyd Foster went to the Sinus Clinic at 6:30 or 7:00 p. m., February 8, 1968, and, upon examining a trash container, “a dumpster,” on the premises, found numerous items and what appeared to be part of a fetus.

Dr. Andrew McCanse, medical doctor and coroner of Jackson County, viewed the body at General Hospital about 2:30 p. m., February 8, 1968, and appointed his deputy, Dr. Caffrey, to perform an autopsy. Dr. McCanse called Dr. Mucie and was told by him that he had seen the girl the previous evening with complaints of chest pain and nervousness, and he thought she might have some cardiac condition which he treated with Vistaril by injection. He said *883

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Bluebook (online)
448 S.W.2d 879, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 1122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mucie-mo-1970.