State v. Rivera

76 A.3d 197, 145 Conn. App. 344, 2013 WL 4519676, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 435
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedSeptember 3, 2013
DocketAC 34009
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 76 A.3d 197 (State v. Rivera) 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. Rivera, 76 A.3d 197, 145 Conn. App. 344, 2013 WL 4519676, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 435 (Colo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Opinion

DiPENTIMA, C. J.

The defendant, Roberto Rivera, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of three counts of sexual assault in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-71 (a) (1) and three counts of risk of injury to a child in violation of General Statutes § 53-21 (a) (2). On appeal, the defendant claims that the court’s instruction on evidence admitted pursuant to the constancy of accusation exception to the hearsay rule violated his due process rights. The defendant’s argument is foreclosed by State v. Antwon W., 118 Conn. App. 180, 201, 982 A.2d 1112 (2009), cert. denied, 295 Conn. 922, 991 A.2d 568 (2010), wherein we rejected the argument that the introduction of constancy of accusation testimony for the purpose of corroborating the fact of a victim’s complaint violates the constitutional rights of defendants in sexual assault cases. “[T]his court’s policy dictates that one panel should not, on its own, [overrule] the [346]*346ruling of a previous panel. The [overruling] may be accomplished only if the appeal is heard en banc.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Diaz v. Commissioner of Correction, 125 Conn. App. 57, 68 n.9, 6 A.3d 213 (2010), cert. denied, 299 Conn. 926, 11 A.3d 150 (2011). We therefore decline the defendant’s invitation to revisit this issue in the present case and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The victim1 was bom in February, 1993. While living wdth his mother and his aunt in Bridgeport, the victim first met the defendant in 2004 or 2005, when the victim attended an after school basketball program. The victim briefly moved to Chicago, Illinois, with his mother sometime in late 2005, but returned to five with his father in Bridgeport in the summer of 2006. The victim next met the defendant that summer. While riding his bicycle in Bridgeport, the victim spoke to the defendant, who had pulled over in his car. The defendant asked the victim if he would like to go to Smiles Entertainment, an arcade. The victim said he would like to go with him at some point, but “blew [the defendant] off’ at the time. The defendant gave the victim his phone number so that the victim could call him to “visit.” When the victim next saw the defendant, the defendant asked why the victim had not called him and said that he did not like to be “messed around with. ” The victim and the defendant then began a friendship; the victim liked the defendant’s flashy clothing, jewelry, and car. The victim felt as if the defendant gave him a “little brother vibe.”

After they had spent time together, the defendant told the victim about a group called “HNIC” or “Head [347]*347Niggas In Charge,” (group) and asked the victim if he wanted to join it. The victim said he did. The victim understood that the group sold drugs. Later in the summer of 2006, after discussing the group with the victim, the defendant took the victim to his apartment and told . the victim to make a decision about whether he wanted to join the group. At the same time, he asked the victim if he knew what the difference between a male and a female was, and the victim answered that he did know. The defendant told the victim he needed to complete a “mission” to join the group, which the victim understood to mean fighting or robbing another person. The defendant left the room, and when he returned he told the victim that he had to have sex with him to complete the “mission.” The victim said he did not want to have sex with the defendant, but the defendant told him he would not like what happened if he did not. The defendant sexually assaulted the victim. After the assault, the victim went to the bathroom, cried, and went home. He did not tell anyone of the incident.

The victim went to stay with his mother in Chicago again after the incident with the defendant. He returned to Bridgeport to live with his father in 2007. After returning to Bridgeport, the victim saw the defendant again. On one evening, the victim was walking with his girlfriend and the defendant pulled up alongside them in his car. He asked the victim if he wanted to get out of the group, and the victim replied that he did. Later, the victim and the defendant were together, and the defendant took the victim to a studio apartment on Wood Avenue. The defendant told the victim that to finish with the group he had to do the same “mission” as in 2006. The victim said he would not do it. The defendant again sexually assaulted the victim. The victim did not tell anyone about this incident at the time it occurred.

[348]*348The victim started skipping school and selling drags with his friends. His father did not approve of either of these activities and beat the victim when he discovered that the victim was participating in them. During one incident with his father, the victim decided that he “was just fed up with everything . . . [and] didn’t want to go through it no more” and he told his father about the incidents with the defendant. His father called the police, but the victim jumped out of the window of his father’s second-floor apartment because he did not want to “deal with [the defendant] in that way.” Later, the victim spoke with the police, but declined to give details regarding the incidents.

The final incident between the victim and the defendant occurred in March, 2008. The victim was walking in Bridgeport and the defendant confronted the victim in a Walgreen’s parking lot. The defendant called to the victim, and the victim got into a car with the defendant. After dropping others off, the defendant took the victim to a location in the Beachwood neighborhood. The defendant pulled up to an apartment complex and both he and the victim got out of the car in an underground parking garage. The defendant told the victim he had to perform the “mission” again. The defendant again sexually assaulted the victim. Afterward, the victim ran home and told his cousin what had happened. The victim, his father, and another individual went looking for the defendant but did not find him; when they returned home, they called the Bridgeport police. The victim was taken to the St. Vincent’s hospital where he was examined by the medical staff. The staff performed the procedures required for a sexual assault collection kit.2

[349]*349The defendant was charged, by way of a long form amended information, with three counts of aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, three counts of sexual assault in the second degree, and three counts of risk of injury to a child. The defendant was tried before a jury in May, 2011. During the direct examination of the victim’s father, defense counsel objected to the testimony regarding what the victim told his father. Without the jury present, the prosecutor discussed his intention to present the father as a constancy witness to testify to the “who, what, when and where” of the victim’s accusation. The court allowed the testimony of the victim’s father pursuant to the constancy of accusation exception to the hearsay rule, and the victim’s father testified to that information before the jury.

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Related

State v. Roberto Q.
155 A.3d 756 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2017)
State v. Daniel W. E.
142 A.3d 265 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2016)
State v. Tierinni
140 A.3d 377 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2016)
State v. Edwards
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2015

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 A.3d 197, 145 Conn. App. 344, 2013 WL 4519676, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 435, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rivera-connappct-2013.