State v. Pakhnyuk

926 N.W.2d 914
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedMay 8, 2019
DocketA17-0474
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 926 N.W.2d 914 (State v. Pakhnyuk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Pakhnyuk, 926 N.W.2d 914 (Mich. 2019).

Opinions

CHUTICH, Justice.

This appeal raises two issues. First, we must determine whether a defendant forfeits a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence that is based on a statutory interpretation argument when he fails to raise it in the district court. We conclude that the forfeiture rule does not apply to such a challenge.

Second, we consider how to apply the intent element in subdivision 1(a) of Minnesota's criminal interference-with-privacy statute, Minn. Stat. § 609.746 (2018). Specifically, we must determine whether a criminal defendant charged with interference with privacy under subdivision 1(a)

*917must have a specific "intent to intrude upon or interfere with" the victim's privacy when he enters the property of another, or if it is sufficient that the State prove this intent only when he "gazes, stares, or peeps" through the victim's window. See id. We agree with the court of appeals that, on this question, the statute is ambiguous. See State v. Pakhnyuk , 906 N.W.2d 571, 578 (Minn. App. 2018). We also agree that the principles of statutory construction compel a conclusion that the specific intent requirement applies only to the act of "gaz[ing], star[ing], or peep[ing]" through the victim's window. See Minn. Stat. § 609.746, subd. 1(a)(2) ; Pakhnyuk , 906 N.W.2d at 581. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the court of appeals.

FACTS

In July 2012, appellant Fedor Pakhnyuk, a resident of Chicago, Illinois, visited Minnesota to help his brother with some work. Pakhnyuk stayed with his brother and his family at their home in Shakopee.

During Pakhnyuk's stay, his niece had three friends over for a sleepover. The niece was 14 years old, and her friends were of similar age. Pakhnyuk, then age 38, had been drinking at the house that evening, and he gave beer to the four girls. As the evening progressed, Pakhnyuk made several crude sexual remarks to the girls and convinced them to watch a movie together. As they watched, Pakhnyuk sat beside one of the friends and placed a blanket over both of their laps, reached under the blanket, and touched the friend's inner thigh. Offended by Pakhnyuk's advances, the girls went upstairs to the niece's bedroom for the rest of the evening.

Five days later, Pakhnyuk, his niece, and one of the niece's same friends were still staying at the house. During the evening, the friend went to the kitchen to get some water. To return to the niece's bedroom, she had to walk through the living room where Pakhnyuk was sleeping on the floor. As she passed, he stood up, hugged her, grabbed her buttocks, and said, "Do you miss me?" She pushed Pakhnyuk off, ran upstairs to the niece's bedroom, and locked the door.

The two girls were changing clothes in the niece's bedroom later that evening to get ready for bed. The friend looked out the window as she was undressing and saw Pakhnyuk sitting on the roof outside, staring at her. When she screamed, Pakhnyuk climbed down from the roof. Eventually, Pakhnyuk was confronted by his brother, who contacted the authorities.

Pakhnyuk was charged with interference with privacy against a minor, Minn. Stat. § 609.746, subd. (1)(e)(2), furnishing alcohol to a person under the age of 21, Minn. Stat. § 340A.503, subd. 2(1) (2018), and disorderly conduct, Minn. Stat. § 609.72, subd. 1(3) (2018). Pakhnyuk pleaded not guilty and demanded a jury trial. At trial, Pakhnyuk argued he did not act with a specific intent to interfere with privacy. The jury found Pakhnyuk guilty of all three charges.

Pakhnyuk appealed his conviction for interference with privacy, arguing for the first time that the evidence was insufficient because the language of Minnesota Statutes section 609.746, subdivision 1(a), required the State to prove that when Pakhnyuk entered his brother's property, he had the specific intent "to intrude upon or interfere with" the privacy of another person. The State contended that Pakhnyuk forfeited his statutory interpretation argument because he did not raise it in the district court. In the alternative, the State asserted that subdivision 1(a) only required it to prove that Pakhnyuk possessed the specific intent to interfere with privacy when he peeped through his niece's bedroom window.

*918A panel of the court of appeals held that Pakhnyuk did not forfeit his statutory interpretation argument when he failed to raise it in the district court. Pakhnyuk , 906 N.W.2d at 575. The court then rejected Pakhnyuk's statutory interpretation argument and affirmed his conviction, with one judge dissenting. See id. at 581. The court of appeals concluded that the statute was ambiguous because it was susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation. Id. at 578. The court relied upon an earlier version of the statute, which the court believed showed that the Legislature did not intend to require the specific intent to "intrude upon, or interfere with" the privacy of another to apply to the element of entering another's property. See id. at 578-79. Because the Legislature made only modest revisions when adopting the current version of the statute, the court determined that reading the statute to require the intent element to apply only to the act of peeping through a window better reflected the Legislature's intent to protect individual privacy. Id. at 579-81. The dissent argued, on the contrary, that the statute was "so grievously ambiguous" that its meaning "must be determined by the rule of lenity."

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Bluebook (online)
926 N.W.2d 914, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pakhnyuk-minn-2019.