State v. Radican

80 So. 3d 735, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1563, 2011 WL 6188732
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 14, 2011
DocketNo. 46,848-KA
StatusPublished

This text of 80 So. 3d 735 (State v. Radican) 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. Radican, 80 So. 3d 735, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1563, 2011 WL 6188732 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

STEWART, J.

hA jury found the defendant, James R. Radican, Sr., guilty of molestation of a juvenile, in violation of La. R.S. 14:81.2. He was sentenced to serve 15 years’ imprisonment at hard labor, with credit for time served, and was ordered to register as a sex offender. The defendant now appeals. We affirm the defendant’s conviction and sentence.

FACTS

The defendant and Melanie Roberts were married in June 2001, and had one daughter, R.R., born on February 18, 2003. After they divorced in 2004, the defendant was granted supervised visitation with R.R., every other weekend, pursuant to a joint custody agreement. After approximately one year of the defendant exercising his visitation, Roberts discovered that the defendant had been molesting R.R.

The defendant was indicted for molestation of a juvenile on September 28, 2009, and arrested the next day.

The state filed a notice of intent to use evidence of other crimes on February 8, 2011. Specifically, the state sought to introduce evidence that the defendant was arrested on May 12, 2006, for molestation of a juvenile involving A.R., his stepdaughter, but that he pled guilty to unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling. On March 14, 2011, a jury was selected. On March 15, 2011, a Prieur1 hearing was held, prior to the commencement of the trial in this matter. At the Prieur hearing, A.R., whose date of birth is August 16, 1996, testified that she is the daughter of Melanie Roberts, and the defendant was her stepfather. She stated that on several occasions when |?she was approximately five years old, while her mother was at work, the defendant would take her into a room, pull her pants and panties down and touch her private parts. Although she could not recall how many times the defendant touched her inappropriately, she knew it was a lot. A.R. further testified that her half-sister, R.R., would cry and beg her to go with her to visit the defendant. A.R. stated that she accompanied her sister on two occasions, and both times the defendant would take R.R. to the bathroom in the back of the house, and they would not return for 30 minutes. A.R. stated that when R.R. came back from the bathroom, she looked “nervous” and “awkward.”

Melanie Roberts, who testified about how she learned from R.R. of the abuse, stated that one evening in 2006, she laid R.R. down on a towel to dress her after her bath, and R.R. was touching her vaginal area. When she told her to stop and asked her what she was doing, R.R. replied that “my daddy does it to me and he hurts my boo boo.”

Following arguments by counsel, the court ruled that the use of other crimes [737]*737evidence would be admissible as it showed opportunity, intent, preparation or plan.

Trial began with the testimony of Dr. Neal Boris, an expert in child psychiatry. Dr. Boris testified that sexually abused children, specifically young children ages three years old through five years, generally act out sexual behavior vrith dolls. He further testified that sexually abused children display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He stated that there has been no research or literature that indicates that | «¡watching other people involved in sexual encounters causes PTSD in young children.

Brenda Cameron, R.R.’s great-aunt, testified that she has brought R.R. to meet the defendant for his weekend visitation on at least two occasions when he was alone without any supervision by his mother or grandmother.

Alice Counts, R.R.’s maternal grandmother, testified that pursuant to a child custody agreement, the defendant was allowed supervised visitation with R.R. every other weekend from 6:00 p.m. on Friday to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. Those visits were to be supervised either by his mother, Alice Stokes, or his grandmother, Ella Randolph. Counts testified that she and her husband would meet the defendant’s mother for the defendant’s visitation weekends. She further testified that they began to notice after a few visits that R.R. would scream and holler not to go, and when they picked her up, she would get in the car, not talk and just stare out the window. Once they were home, R.R. did not want them to take her clothes off or change her diaper, and she would be angry.

Counts testified that no one was allowed in the room when R.R. and A.R. were interviewed at the Gingerbread House. She further testified that she did not question or coach A.R. to help her remember. On cross-examination, she reiterated that she had no idea what A.R. stated in the interview at the Gingerbread House.

Melanie Roberts testified that prior to her marriage to the defendant, she had a daughter, A.R., from a previous relationship. She also has a |4younger daughter, K.R., with her current husband. Roberts and the defendant divorced in 2004, and at the time, they entered in a joint custody agreement. A condition of the defendant’s visitation with R.R. was that it had to be supervised either by his mother or grandmother.

Roberts testified that after about a year of R.R. visiting with her father, her behavior changed:

Almost every occasion, as soon as you put her in that car she would just scream and holler and kick. Well everybody played it off that she just didn’t want to be in her car-seat and that’s just not true. You could just tell that something was wrong. And then whenever you would get her back on Sunday or two weeks or however long she was there to stay, she would be just like blank. Just, you know, come here and let me hold you, or come get in my lap or whatever, and it was just be like [sic] she wasn’t even in there. So that kind of had me wondering why she was acting like that.

One evening in 2006, almost a year after the supervised visitation with the defendant began, Roberts had given R.R. a bath and laid her down on a towel to put on her pull-up and clothes, and she noticed R.R. began to “touch herself.” Roberts asked R.R., “What are you doing?,” and R.R. replied, “My daddy does it to me.” She then asked R.R. “What else does he do?” R.R. stated that “He hurts my boo boo,” which Roberts stated refers to her bottom-end. Roberts testified that R.R. told her [738]*738that “Daddy put his finger in my cuckoo and he hurts my boo boo.” R.R. was only two years old at that time.

Roberts stated that R.R. had recently been hospitalized because she was caught trying to molest her younger sister, K.R. She testified that no one ever performed any sexual acts in front of R.R.

| ^Roberts also testified that she did not view or overhear the interviews of her children at the Gingerbread House. When questioned whether she had ever told her daughter, “I got your booty,” in any context, she could not recall ever saying such a phrase. On cross-examination, she testified that the supervised visitations were to take place in Morehouse Parish, at either the defendant’s mother’s house or grandmother’s house.

Roberts testified that R.R. has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder due to severe molestation, oppositional defiance disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and borderline schizophrenia. She stated that R.R. would throw tantrums when she was called by her given name, R.R., at school. She further stated that R.R. failed kindergarten because she was often home due to her constant tantrums.

A.R., R.R.’s half-sister, testified next. She testified in accordance with her prior testimony in the Primr hearing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
80 So. 3d 735, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1563, 2011 WL 6188732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-radican-lactapp-2011.