State v. Parsons

612 A.2d 73, 28 Conn. App. 91, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 257
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJune 30, 1992
Docket10200
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 612 A.2d 73 (State v. Parsons) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Parsons, 612 A.2d 73, 28 Conn. App. 91, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 257 (Colo. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

Freedman, J.

The defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of three counts of sexual assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-70 (a), three counts of sexual assault in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-71 (a) (1), two counts of risk of injury to a child in violation of General Statutes § 53-21, and a single count of promoting a minor in an obscene performance in violation of General Statutes § 53a-196b (a).1 The trial court imposed a total effective sentence of forty-six years, execution suspended after twenty-nine years with five years of probation and the defendant received an unconditional discharge on the conviction for promoting a minor in an obscene performance.

[93]*93The defendant claims that the trial court improperly (1) denied his pretrial motion to dismiss three of the eleven counts charged by the state, (2) charged the jury with respect to the date of all charged offenses, (3) denied his motion for judgment of acquittal, (4) charged the jury on promoting a minor in an obscene performance, (5) permitted the state to ask leading questions of the minor victims on direct examination, and permitted one of the minor victims to read from a prior statement on direct examination, (6) permitted eight witnesses to testify for the state under the constancy of accusation exception to the hearsay rule where the cumulative prejudicial effect of their testimony outweighed its probative value, and (7) admitted into evidence twenty-five photographic enlargements of pictures taken by the defendant when the prejudicial effect of such enlargements outweighed their probative value. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury could reasonably have found the following facts. The two female victims, Y, born in July, 1978, and C, born in December, 1979, are the defendant’s stepchildren. V and C’s mother, who is the wife of the defendant, also had three other children by the defendant, including a son, D, born in August, 1984. Toward the end of January and beginning of February, 1989, the victims’ mother began attending real estate classes, which met on six successive Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. She would also leave the house at least one night during the week to study. After spending additional time out of the house to take the real estate examination, the victims’ mother began work in a local real estate office. She worked three or four nights a week from 5 p.m. until 8 or 9 p.m., a three hour shift on alternate Saturdays, and an occasional shift on Sunday afternoons. During the mother’s absence from the house, the defendant would stay at home with the children.

[94]*94Beginning in February, 1989, when their mother attended the real estate classes, the defendant started showing V and C pornographic pictures in magazines, which he told them were normal. He then began having V take her clothes off, and sometimes he took his off too. Finally, one evening in May, 1989, and several times thereafter, the defendant sexually assaulted V and C, and also involved them in other bizarre acts. On one occasion, D walked into the room while the defendant was sexually assaulting V, and the defendant told D to remove his clothes. The defendant then fondled D’s penis. The victims did not tell anyone what the defendant was doing to them because he told them not to tell, and threatened to harm them if they did.

In June or July, 1989, the children’s mother arrived home from work to find V and C “scurrying” from the kitchen or the living room “to get on bathrobes and they were both completely naked underneath.” The defendant was present at this time. When she asked what was going on, they replied, “Oh nothing.” D was also present, but, when he attempted to respond to his mother’s question, the defendant told him to be quiet. The mother continued to work at her job through the summer and fall of 1989.

On December 10,1989, the children’s mother attended a church service during which a sermon about guilt and hidden feelings was given. Knowing that some of her jewelry was missing at home, she returned home and gave a lecture about guilt and hidden feelings to her children. In response, V hesitantly told her mother that the defendant was sexually assaulting her. When the mother confronted the defendant with V’s accusations, he denied them. V stated that her accusations were true, and C also told her mother that the accusations were true.

[95]*95The defendant was eventually arrested on December 12,1989. The victims, who told the police about the assaults, were then taken to a local hospital and were interviewed and examined. During a subsequent search of the defendant’s home after his arrest, the police found a photographic contact sheet containing numerous photographs, taken by the defendant, of V. V was clothed only in a T-shirt, and the photographs focused primarily on her buttocks. The police also discovered pornographic magazines, at least one of which was admitted into evidence. Additional facts that are pertinent to a discussion of the issues presented in this appeal will be presented as necessary.

I

The defendant’s first claim can be divided into two parts. He claims that the trial court improperly (1) denied his motion to dismiss the eleventh count, promoting a minor in an obscene performance, because prosecution for that offense was barred by the statute of limitations, and (2) denied his motion to dismiss the eleventh count and two of the risk of injury counts because of a lack of specificity in the state’s bill of particulars regarding the time of occurrence of the alleged offenses.

A

The defendant claims that because the statute of limitations, as set forth in General Statutes § 54-193, barred a prosecution under General Statutes § 53a-196b, the trial court improperly denied his motion to dismiss that count.

The statute of limitations, General Statutes § 54-193 (b) provides in pertinent part: “No person may be prosecuted for any offense ... for which the punishment is or may be imprisonment in excess of one year, except within five years next after the offense [96]*96has been committed.” Promoting a minor in an obscene performance is a class B felony. General Statutes § 53a-196b (c). The punishment for that offense may be imprisonment for more than one year; General Statutes § 53a-25; and therefore a prosecution must be commenced within five years from the date of its occurrence to satisfy § 54-193 (b).

On January 15, 1991, the state filed an amended information which for the first time charged the defendant with a violation of § 53a-196b, promoting a minor in an obscene performance.2 The basis of this charge was the photographs of the partially clad victim. In its bill of particulars, the state alleged that the defendant had committed this offense “on or about 1986 or 1987.” Had the offense occurred in the first two weeks of January, 1986, therefore, the defendant could have precluded prosecution for that offense by affirmatively raising a statute of limitations defense.

The statute of limitations, General Statutes § 54-193,. is not a jurisdictional bar to prosecution, but rather is an affirmative defense which must be proved by the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence. General Statutes § 53a-12 (b); State v. Crawford, 202 Conn. 443, 451, 521 A.2d 1034 (1987); State v. Coleman, 202 Conn.

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Bluebook (online)
612 A.2d 73, 28 Conn. App. 91, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-parsons-connappct-1992.