State v. Phlipot

64 A.3d 856, 2012 Del. Super. LEXIS 553, 2012 WL 7992987
CourtSuperior Court of Delaware
DecidedDecember 13, 2012
DocketCriminal Action Nos. IS-09-04-0355 IS-09-04-0356, IS-09-10-0774 thru IS-09-10-0800, IS-09-10-0801 thru IS-09-10-0806
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 64 A.3d 856 (State v. Phlipot) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Phlipot, 64 A.3d 856, 2012 Del. Super. LEXIS 553, 2012 WL 7992987 (Del. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

HERLIHY, Judge.

On June 10, 2010 a Sussex County jury found Matthew Phlipot guilty of two charges of rape fourth degree, six counts of tampering with a witness, and twenty-seven counts of criminal contempt. The same jury acquitted him on two other charges of rape fourth degree. Phlipot was sentenced on August 10, 2010. His convictions were upheld.1 The mandate was issued May 19, 2011.

[858]*858Through new counsel, he filed for post-conviction relief on March 2, 2012. This Court sought and obtained an affidavit from trial counsel on March 28, 2012. The Court mistakenly sent the affidavit directly to Phlipot and not his new counsel. That counsel responded, however, in a letter memorandum received on April 26, 2012. Because of points raised in that response, the Court was constrained to seek input from the State which has been submitted.

Factual Background

At the time of the rape offenses, the victim, KK, was seventeen. Defendant Matthew Phlipot was thirty-two. She was attending Christian Tabernacle School near Milford. She played various sports, including basketball. The head basketball coach brought in Phlipot as an assistant. He was a respiratory therapist at Beebe Hospital in Lewes. He and KK became friendly enjoying music, sports and the good stereo system in his car. Their contact while in school was through email and text messages. She gave him her cell number.

They started to meet. She discussed her troubled background and difficulties she was having with her father, who was separated from her mother. At that point, her mother was simply not in her life. Phlipot, in turn, told her his marriage was not going well and that he was in the process of a divorce.

In January 2009, they saw more of each other and there was more hugging and kissing and holding of hands. She told him she had been thinking for a while of running away from her father and going to Illinois to live with an aunt and uncle. KK left him on January 19, 2009, and went to a friend’s house. Shortly thereafter, Phlipot came to the friends house and she left with him for his house. Phlipot’s wife was not home. KK and he had sex two or three times over several days. She testified that they had oral and vaginal intercourse, perhaps a total of four to six times. The oral sex proceeded the vaginal sex each time.2

They were together over the weekend of January 24th-25th. He gave her a diamond “Promise” ring, and on the 24th he took to Cape Henlopen State Park and up one of the former watch towers open to the public. Phlipot took her to a town in Maryland where she was supposedly going to make a connection with a bus and eventually get to Illinois. They missed the bus. Phlipot, instead, took her to a motel near the Baltimore-Washington Airport. They supposedly had sex there.

The next day, he got her on a train to Chicago. But the train either made a regular stop in Harper’s Ferry or was stopped there. The authorities forewarned she was on it, took KK off the train, detained her for a day or two, and eventually turned her over to her father who brought her back to Delaware. She still had the ring but hid it in one of her shoes.

Soon after their return here, she went to the Delaware State Police. She testified she was not completely honest with them in that first interview. She denied having sex with Phlipot. She still cared for him at that point.

KK chose to live with her paternal grandmother. Between KK’s first and second interview with the police, the grandmother found the ring. That discovery prompted the second interview. Again, she denied there had been a sexual relationship with Phlipot. He had been arrested in the several weeks between KK’s first and second interview with the police. The State Police interviewed her [859]*859for a third time about five weeks later. On this occasion, she was truthful and recited the sex experiences she had with Phlipot.

The State Police arrested Phlipot for endangering the welfare of a child. He entered a guilty plea in Family Court on February 29, 2009.3 As part of his sentence, he was ordered to have “[n]o contact in any, by phone, by mail or any other means, directly or through a third-party with (KK).”4

Despite the no contact order, Phlipot sent KK numerous emails.5 He even went so far as to create a special Yahoo! account. That account, in so many words, enabled him to create a message for KK to read but there would be no obvious “sent” or obvious “received.” A subpoena to Yahoo! allowed access to that information, and KK saved, printed and gave copies of some of the emails to the State Police.6 The emails are voluminous and need not be reviewed in detail here.

Based on all of the evidence, the jury found Phlipot guilty of two counts of rape fourth degree, six counts of tampering with a witness, and twenty-seven counts of criminal contempt. It is possible that the two not guilty verdicts on the remaining charges of rape fourth degree resulted from the jury’s finding that several acts of oral sex and vaginal intercourse were continuous acts.

Applicable Standard

Before the Court can consider Phlipot’s motion, it must determine if there are any procedural bars to doing so.7 Phlipot’s motion was filed timely, less than a year after the mandate was issued.8 Other potential procedural bars will be discussed, as applicable, to Phlipot’s claims.

A

Phlipot argues that the Court erred when it charged the jury that it was no defense that he did not know KK’s age, or that he reasonably believed KK had reached her eighteenth birthday. His contention is that this statement of the law is applicable only to cases where the victim is less than sixteen.9 Since KK was seventeen, the Court should not have given this charge.

The Court notes that this issue was not raised on appeal. The only issued raised on appeal was that this Court should have severed the rape charges from the ones not alleging rape. Potentially, therefore, this claim is barred for failure to raise it.10 That bar can be overcome if Phlipot can show cause for relief and prejudice.11 If he establishes appellate counsel, who was the same as trial counsel, failed to raise a meritorious claim, he satisfies the cause prong.12

To demonstrate ineffective assistance of counsel, Phlipot must show (1) counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard and reasonableness and (2) counsel’s deficient performance caused actual preju[860]*860dice.13 Phlipot’s current counsel correctly points out that trial counsel did not directly respond to this claim. He did not address the issue of the correctness or erro-neousness of the claim that the under-sixteen-is-no-defense language is inapplicable in this case.

True, as current counsel’s point is, this claim of error and ineffectiveness fails. The indictment was for rape in the fourth degree. Because the charge and evidence involved sexual intercourse and not penetration, either of two ways to violate 11 Del. C. § 770 (rape fourth) were implicated:

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Related

State v. Phlipot
Superior Court of Delaware, 2017

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 A.3d 856, 2012 Del. Super. LEXIS 553, 2012 WL 7992987, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-phlipot-delsuperct-2012.