State v. Robert Raso

80 A.3d 33, 2013 WL 6235865, 2013 R.I. LEXIS 156
CourtSupreme Court of Rhode Island
DecidedDecember 3, 2013
Docket2011-364-C.A.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 80 A.3d 33 (State v. Robert Raso) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Robert Raso, 80 A.3d 33, 2013 WL 6235865, 2013 R.I. LEXIS 156 (R.I. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

Chief Justice SUTTELL,

for the Court.

The defendant, Robert Raso, appeals from eight Superior Court judgments of conviction declaring him to be in violation of the terms of his probation and sentencing him to serve twenty-five years of previously imposed suspended sentences. On appeal, the defendant argues that the complaining witness’s testimony was inconsistent and not credible, and that, therefore, the hearing justice acted arbitrarily and capriciously in finding a violation. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.

I

Facts and Procedural History

In 1990, defendant pled nolo contendere to twenty-six offenses, including: felony assault, second-degree sexual assault, kidnapping, assault with intent to commit murder, arson, and a number of robberies. On the one arson and eight robbery charges, he was sentenced to forty years at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), consisting of twelve years to serve and twenty-eight years suspended, with probation.

On March 8, 2011, the state filed a probation-violation report pursuant to Rule 32(f) of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure 1 alleging that defendant had failed to comply with a specific term of his probation by failing to keep the peace and be of good behavior. 2 In its violation report, the state noted that “[sjaid violation of probation is not contingent upon any specific criminal offense.” It was, however, based upon allegations of sexual assault; 3 the complaining witness was de *35 fendant’s fourteen-year-old stepdaughter, Natalie. 4

A combined probation violation and bail hearing was conducted over the course of five days in the Superior Court, commencing on March 22, 2011. Thirteen witnesses testified during the hearing regarding Natalie’s allegations of sexual abuse, the most recent of which had occurred on March 6, 2011. As the sole issue raised by defendant on appeal concerns the credibility assessments of the hearing justice, we set forth the testimony of the various witnesses in some detail.

The Neighbor

The defendant’s next-door neighbor, Felicia Barbato, testified that she called the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) on several occasions regarding incidents “that [she] heard inside [her neighbor’s] house that [were] disturbing enough to provoke [her] to call DCYF.” Barbato testified that she reported hearing Natalie “screaming, begging him to stop, go away, stop touching me.” The last call Barbato made to DCYF was on the morning of March 6, 2011, when she reported that she heard Natalie crying and yelling. During her testimony, Barbato indicated that she is on probation herself for several offenses, including forgery and larceny, and that she and defendant did not get along.

The Complaining Witness

The complaining witness, Natalie, testified that on the night of March 5, 2011, she went to bed around 10 or 10:30 and then texted defendant to ask him to bring her a milkshake, which he did. She further testified that she woke around midnight or 12:30 on March 6 to find that defendant had entered her room and climbed into bed with her. Natalie stated that defendant removed her pajama bottoms and touched her chest and her vagina with his hands and his mouth. She recalled that defendant had first touched her chest and “made out” with her when she was “nine or ten” and that the sexual conduct, including contact 5 with his penis, occurred on “more than ten” occasions prior to March 6. 6

Natalie testified that she had previously told her two best friends, Riley and Sarah, that defendant had molested her, and that, after he left her room that night, she texted them the message “I can’t do this anymore.” 7 Natalie recalled going out to *36 breakfast with her mother, her sister, and defendant the next morning, where she received text messages from both Riley and Sarah, urging her to get help and tell someone. She recalled crying while reading these messages. Natalie testified that she did not tell her mother then because “she wouldn’t believe me and I didn’t want all this to happen.” After breakfast, the family stopped to buy paint before returning to their home. Shortly after they returned, a DCYF caseworker, Ann Murphy, arrived at the apartment and questioned Natalie. This interview resulted in defendant being removed from the home.

Natalie testified that on the evening of March 10, she was brought to the basement of her mother’s friend’s home and questioned there for about three and a half hours by her uncle, Ian Sateikis, her mother’s friend Heather Burlingame, and, finally, her mother. 8 Throughout a more than three-hour barrage of questions and accusations that she was lying, during which her mother told her that she was “a f* * *ing liar” and that defendant would “die in jail,” Natalie maintained that her stepfather had molested her. Natalie recalled that Burlingame told her that Natalie herself could be prosecuted. Eventually, however, Natalie told her mother “it wasn’t true.” She testified that she did so because her mother did not believe her, and that once she recanted, the questioning stopped. The following day, March 11, Natalie gave a statement to the Burrillville police in which she again stated that “it wasn’t true.” Natalie testified that she did so “[b]ecause [she] wanted it to be over.”

The Young Friends

Natalie’s friend Riley testified that in September 2010, Natalie divulged that “her stepfather had been raping her since she was in [s]ixth [g]rade.” Riley testified that Natalie did not tell her any details and that “[she] didn’t want to know.” Riley testified that she never told anyone about this because Natalie asked her to promise not to tell anyone.

The next witness was Sarah, who testified that she was in the seventh grade when Natalie first told her that defendant was molesting her and that he had been doing so since she was nine years old. Sarah recalled that Natalie made her promise to keep it a secret, so that her younger sister would not “get taken away” or “go through life without her father.” Sarah stated that she kept this promise and did not tell anyone. Sarah testified that on March 6, Natalie texted her that defendant “drugged her, put duct tape over her mouth and raped her.” According to Sarah, the text was deleted when the battery fell out of her phone. Natalie denied ever texting Sarah that defendant drugged her and duct-taped her mouth.

The Uncle

Ian Sateikis, Natalie’s uncle, was the next witness to testify. Sateikis lives in Illinois, and his sister, Penelope Edwards, is married to defendant. Sateikis testified that, after his sister called and told him that Natalie “had made allegations towards [defendant],” he drove to Rhode Island. Sateikis recalled that his sister asked him to talk to Natalie “to find out what was going on and if she was telling the truth.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
80 A.3d 33, 2013 WL 6235865, 2013 R.I. LEXIS 156, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-robert-raso-ri-2013.