State v. Raines

354 S.E.2d 486, 319 N.C. 258, 1987 N.C. LEXIS 1932
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedApril 7, 1987
Docket427PA86
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 354 S.E.2d 486 (State v. Raines) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Raines, 354 S.E.2d 486, 319 N.C. 258, 1987 N.C. LEXIS 1932 (N.C. 1987).

Opinions

WHICHARD, Justice.

The State’s evidence, in pertinent part, showed the following:

The victim suffered from migraine headaches so severe that “sometimes [she] would pass out, or most of the time [she] would be extremely . . . nauseated.” On the morning of 13 July 1983 the victim went to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital, a private hospital in Asheville, complaining of a migraine headache. She was placed in intensive care later that day when she experienced severe nausea and vomiting. She described her condition as “still vomiting severely and just too weak to move.” She was “hooked up” to both “an IV” and a heart monitor.

The victim’s husband visited her during the 7:00 p.m. visiting hour. She was vomiting severely at the time. Defendant, a charge nurse employed by the hospital in its intensive care unit, entered the room, administered a shot to the victim and told her it “would take care of [her] vomiting in about 10 minutes.”

The victim’s husband then left, and the next person the victim saw was defendant. Defendant gave her a back rub and left, but subsequently returned and gave her “an injection in [her] IV” which caused a burning sensation. Approximately ten minutes later defendant returned, inserted his hand into the victim’s vagina, and “started pushing harder and harder.” He tried to insert his penis “but it didn’t go.” He “began to rock back and forth” and in a few minutes ejaculated on the victim.

Defendant later returned and administered another injection in the victim’s “IV.” The victim felt the same burning sensation as before. Defendant left, returned a few minutes later, pulled the [261]*261victim to the side of the bed, and “inserted his penis.” The victim testified: “[T]his time it did go.” Defendant “began to rock back and forth again” but was interrupted and left when someone called for him. He subsequently returned and sexually assaulted the victim again. She testified: “He inserted his penis into the vagina and rocked back and forth again for a while.”

Visual and microscopic examinations of the victim’s nightgown and bedsheets revealed the presence of semen and spermatozoa. An SBI chemist examined the semen. He also examined blood samples from defendant, the victim’s husband, and a respiratory therapist who had monitored the victim’s oxygen on the night in question. The chemist testified that neither the victim’s husband nor the therapist could have contributed the semen found on the victim’s nightgown, but that defendant could have.

Defendant testified, denying any sexual contact with the victim. He stated: “I at no time touched [the victim] in any way that was improper or unprofessional.” Other hospital personnel testified that they observed nothing unusual in or about the intensive care unit that night, and that nothing unusual was reported to them.

The jury returned verdicts of guilty of (1) engaging in vaginal intercourse with a person over whom defendant’s employer had assumed custody, and (2) engaging in a sexual act with a person over whom defendant’s employer had assumed custody. N.C.G.S. 14-27.7 (1986). Defendant appealed from judgments of imprisonment for four years on each count. The Court of Appeals found no error in the trial, but remanded for resentencing. This Court allowed discretionary review on 12 August 1986.

First, defendant contends the trial court erred in denying his motions to dismiss and to set aside the verdict. He argues that the State failed to prove that his employer, St. Joseph’s Hospital, had custody of the victim. We disagree.

The statute under which defendant was convicted provides:

[I]f a person having custody of a victim of any age or a person who is an agent or employee of any person, or institution, whether such institution is private, charitable, or governmental, having custody of a victim of any age engages in vaginal intercourse or a sexual act with such victim, the [262]*262defendant is guilty of a Class G felony. Consent is not a defense to a charge under this section.

N.C.G.S. 14-27.7 (1986). Defendant contends that the custodial relationship, which is an element of the offense created by this statute, cannot exist between a private hospital and its patient because the patient voluntarily submits to the hospital’s care and control and thus can leave or refuse treatment at any time. Defendant would limit the meaning of the word “custody,” as used in the statute, to legal control or restraint.

We do not believe the General Assembly intended such a narrow construction. Words in a statute generally must be construed in accordance with their common and ordinary meaning, unless a different meaning is apparent or clearly indicated by the context. State v. Koberlein, 309 N.C. 601, 605, 308 S.E. 2d 442, 445 (1983). The ordinary meaning of the word “custody” is not limited to legal control or restraint. The word’s definitions include an aspect of care, preservation, and protection as well. See Burton, Legal Thesaurus 131 (1980) (“care, charge, control”); Black’s Law Dictionary 347 (5th ed. 1979) (the “care and control of a thing or person”); Webster’s New International Dictionary (3d ed. unabridged 1964) (the “act or duty of guarding and preserving”). Voluntary patients in a private hospital place themselves in the care, charge, and control of the institution. The normal role of the hospital is to guard, preserve, and restore the health of patients who are in its care, charge or control. We thus conclude that the ordinary meaning of the word “custody,” in the context in which it is used here, applies to voluntary patients in a private hospital.

As further indication of legislative intent, we note that the statute expressly applies to “any” private institutions. Because patients in private institutions generally are voluntary admittees, the General Assembly must have intended — by the express, unlimited inclusion of such institutions — to extend the protection of the statute to those patients.

Further, the purpose of the statute — prevention of sexual abuse by institutional personnel of persons in an institution’s care — is no less applicable, nor is such abuse of a position of trust less reprehensible, in a private hospital-voluntary patient context than otherwise. While voluntary patients in private hospitals may have the legal power to terminate their stay, in reality their [263]*263physical freedom is normally restricted by the condition that motivated their admission. Such restraint is not dissimilar from that imposed on a penal institution inmate or an involuntarily committed patient. As stated by the Court of Appeals:

[Voluntary patients need the protection that the statute provides no less than committed patients; for . . . while they remain as patients of a hospital they are as vulnerable as committed patients to abuse by employees who have ready access to their quarters and supply them with food, drink, medication, assistance, and other necessary care.

State v. Raines, 81 N.C. App. at 302, 344 S.E. 2d at 140.

In adopting this construction we are not unmindful that “criminal statutes are to be strictly construed against the State.” State v. Glidden, 317 N.C. 557, 561, 346 S.E. 2d 470, 472 (1986). However,

[t]he object in construing penal, as well as other statutes, is to ascertain the legislative intent. . . . The words must not be narrowed to the exclusion of what the legislature intended to embrace. . .

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Bluebook (online)
354 S.E.2d 486, 319 N.C. 258, 1987 N.C. LEXIS 1932, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-raines-nc-1987.