State v. Racca

525 So. 2d 1229, 1988 WL 49444
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 17, 1988
DocketKA 87 1077
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 525 So. 2d 1229 (State v. Racca) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Racca, 525 So. 2d 1229, 1988 WL 49444 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

525 So.2d 1229 (1988)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Lee E. RACCA, Jr.

No. KA 87 1077.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

May 17, 1988.

Bryan Bush, Dist. Atty., Office of Dist. Atty., Baton Rouge, by Brenda Creswell, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff/appellee.

Eddie L. Anderson, Jr., Baton Rouge, for defendant/appellant.

Before COVINGTON, C.J., and SAVOIE and LeBLANC, JJ.

*1230 COVINGTON, Chief Judge.

Lee E. Racca, Jr. was charged by bill of information with molestation of a juvenile, in violation of La.R.S. 14:81.2; and aggravated oral sexual battery, in violation of La.R.S. 14:43.4. He was tried by a jury, which convicted him as charged on each count. The trial court imposed concurrent terms of seven years at hard labor for each conviction. Defendant appealed, urging eight assignments of error, as follows:

1. The trial court erred by requiring that defendant be screened from the victim's view during her testimony.

2. La.R.S. 15:283 is unconstitutional.

3. The court erred by ruling the child-victim was competent to testify.

4. The sentences imposed are excessive.

5. The court erred by permitting the introduction of hearsay testimony.

6. The evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict.

7. The court erred by permitting the state to make prejudicial remarks and to ask prejudicial questions.

8. The verdicts were contrary to the law and evidence.

Assignments of error seven and eight were not briefed by defendant and, therefore, are considered abandoned. Uniform Rules—Courts of Appeal, Rule 2-12.4. Defendant designated all errors discoverable by an inspection of the pleadings and proceedings as his ninth assignment of error; however, he does not urge that a particular error was committed. This Court routinely reviews every criminal appellate record for patent error. Our inspection of the instant record does not reveal the existence of such.

FACTS

The victim of the instant offenses was defendant's niece, who was six years old at the time of the incidents. The victim's parents were divorced; and she lived with her mother and step-father in Texas. The offenses occurred while the victim and her younger sister were visiting their father, defendant's brother, during the summer. Their father, Faron Racca, and his wife, Lisa, lived in an apartment complex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Defendant, who was eighteen years old at the time, stayed with his brother from time to time. Defendant, Faron and Lisa Racca, their two-week old son, the victim, and her sister, were sharing a two-bedroom apartment when the incident took place.

Although the victim's father had the custodial care of the victim and her sister during the summer, the girls' step-mother, Lisa Racca, took care of them while her husband worked. On one occasion, defendant agreed to stay with the two girls while Mrs. Racca ran errands. When she returned, Mrs. Racca noticed that the victim's face was scratched. Defendant and the girls told her that the victim had tripped and fallen down the stairs. After he learned of the victim's injuries, Faron Racca sought the advice of a nurse who lived in the same apartment complex. He also testified that he took her to a doctor for treatment of the injuries.

The girls left the day after the incident to visit their maternal grandmother. She brought them back to their mother and step-father approximately one week later.

The victim's step-father, Patrick McCrary, testified that he noticed a change in the language used by the girls when they returned home after having spent approximately five weeks in Baton Rouge. He explained that both of them had begun to curse and use foul language. Within a few days of their return, both girls also told their parents that "Uncle Little Rock" played dirty tricks on them. Mr. McCrary testified that, although both he and his wife suspected some type of abuse had occurred, they were not able to learn what had happened until mid-September, approximately two months after the girls returned home. Over defendant's objection, Mr. McCrary testified that the victim told him defendant had placed his penis in her mouth.

Mr. McCrary related that he and his wife immediately reported the incident to local authorities. They returned to Baton Rouge the following weekend in order to *1231 file a complaint. Defendant was arrested and charged with the instant offenses.

DENIAL OF RIGHT OF CONFRONTATION

By assignments of error one and two, defendant urges that the court erred by permitting the victim to testify by way of closed-circuit television because he was denied his right to confront her. In assignment of error number one, defendant contends that La.R.S. 15:283, which authorizes the procedure permitting a child who is the victim of physical or sexual abuse to testify by closed-circuit television, is unconstitutional as applied in this matter. In assignment of error number two, defendant contends that La.R.S. 15:283 is unconstitutional on its face.

By assignment of error number one, defendant asks this Court to reconsider the opinions expressed in State v. Daniels, 484 So.2d 941 (La.App. 1st Cir.1986), in which we held that the use of the procedures authorized in La.R.S. 15:283 did not abridge the defendant's right of confrontation. Defendant does not attempt to distinguish the method used to obtain the victim's testimony in the instant matter from those methods considered by the court in Daniels; he simply requests that we find that the use of the same methodology denied him the right to confront the victim.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that "[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him." In Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 85 S.Ct. 1065, 13 L.Ed. 2d 923 (1965), the federal right to confrontation was made binding on the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Court set forth the purposes underlying the constitutional right of confrontation in California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 158, 90 S.Ct. 1930, 1935, 26 L.Ed.2d 489 (1970). Therein, the Court noted the purposes protected by that right are as follows: (1) to insure that the witness will give his statements under oath, thus impressing him with the seriousness of the matter and guarding against the lie by the possibility of a penalty for perjury; (2) to force the witness to submit to cross-examination, the "greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth"; (3) to permit the jury that is to decide the defendant's fate [the opportunity] to observe the demeanor of the witness making his statement, thus aiding the jury in assessing his credibility. See also State v. Kaufman, 304 So.2d 300 (La.1974), U.S. cert. denied, 429 U.S. 981, 97 S.Ct. 495, 50 L.Ed.2d 591 (1976).

As noted by this Court in State v. Daniels, supra, at 944, the legislature attempted to ease the burden that the judicial system places on the child victim by enacting La.R.S. 15:283. Therein, we concluded that La.R.S. 15:283 preserves the essential elements of confrontation—the oath, the opportunity to observe the witness' demeanor, and the right to cross-examine. We found that the defendant's right to confront the child face to face during the child's testimony is not critical to the purposes of cross-examination.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
525 So. 2d 1229, 1988 WL 49444, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-racca-lactapp-1988.