State v. Shaun M. Rutherford

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedSeptember 6, 2023
Docket2021AP001965-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Shaun M. Rutherford (State v. Shaun M. Rutherford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Shaun M. Rutherford, (Wis. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. September 6, 2023 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Samuel A. Christensen petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2021AP1965-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2014CF238

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT II

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

SHAUN M. RUTHERFORD,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from a judgment and an order of the circuit court for Sheboygan County: L. EDWARD STENGEL, Judge. Affirmed.

Before Gundrum, P.J., Grogan and Lazar, JJ.

Per curiam opinions may not be cited in any court of this state as precedent

or authority, except for the limited purposes specified in WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(3). No. 2021AP1965-CR

¶1 PER CURIAM. Shaun M. Rutherford appeals from a judgment convicting him of child enticement, capturing an image of nudity without consent, and two counts of repeated sexual assault of the same child under the age of thirteen. He also appeals from an order denying his postconviction motion for a new trial. Rutherford argues that the trial court erroneously exercised its discretion in allowing what he asserts was “unqualified expert testimony” at trial from a detective regarding a cell phone that police seized from Rutherford. Rutherford also contends the court erred in concluding his trial counsel did not provide ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to request a Daubert1 hearing or object to the detective’s testimony, failing to call or thoroughly question various witnesses at trial, and failing to request individual voir dire of three of the jurors mid-trial. We affirm the judgment of conviction and postconviction order of the trial court.

BACKGROUND

¶2 In early Spring 2014, Rutherford’s daughter “Nicole,”2 then a thirteen-year-old, ran over to a friend’s house and told her friend that she had discovered her father’s smart phone recording her when she got out of the shower that day. Rutherford had entered the bathroom while Nicole was showering and said he was getting a Q-Tip. Nicole found Rutherford’s phone in a Q-Tip box directly across from the shower. She picked up the phone when she first noticed it in the bathroom and saw that the phone had been recording video footage for approximately seven minutes. Nicole said that she had left her father’s house after

1 Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993). 2 We use a pseudonym to protect the victim’s right to privacy.

2 No. 2021AP1965-CR

she found the video because she was “fed up and didn’t want to deal with this anymore.”

¶3 The mother of Nicole’s friend encouraged Nicole to tell her own mother about the incident. Nicole did, and her mother immediately took Nicole to the Sheboygan Police Department where Nicole gave a statement to police. Nicole detailed repeated assaults by Rutherford, including Rutherford requiring her to “squat over” him and lower her vagina to his mouth, and Rutherford forcing Nicole into penis-to-vagina sex, which she told the officers “hurt.” Nicole recounted one incident when she was much younger in which Rutherford lured her into his bedroom, made Nicole take her clothes off and go inside a closet, and then put a plastic bag over her head and tied it tight with one of his neckties. Nicole said the incident abruptly ended when Rutherford heard a door open and told Nicole to put her clothes back on and exit the closet. She also gave details to police regarding an incident where Rutherford made Nicole watch pornography with him and told her to do things to Rutherford that they had watched, including making Nicole touch Rutherford’s penis and put it into her mouth.

¶4 Pursuant to Nicole’s report, officers seized two Samsung Galaxy cell phones, both smart phones, from Rutherford’s living room. Officers would later learn that both phones belonged to Rutherford; he had a Samsung S2 smart phone for work and a Samsung S3 smart phone for personal use. The S3 was examined using Cellebrite software by Detective Joel Clark, a Sheboygan County officer with twenty years of law enforcement experience and extensive training involving digital forensic recovery. When reviewing the download of Rutherford’s S3, Clark found three pictures of Nicole’s torso and crotch in which Nicole was wearing black-and-white leggings and a specific pair of underwear, which was pulled down partially to reveal her pubic area, that investigators later found in

3 No. 2021AP1965-CR

Rutherford’s house. Clark was unable to find a recording of Nicole in the shower on Rutherford’s S3.

¶5 Rutherford was charged with two counts of repeated sexual assault for the acts which Nicole described from 2006 through 2008 and from 2009 until 2012. Rutherford was also charged with one count of child enticement for the incident involving the plastic bag over Nicole’s head in the closet when she was younger, and with capturing Nicole’s nude image for the photographs of her crotch that Clark recovered from Rutherford’s S3. Rutherford was not charged with any crime relating to the video of Nicole in the shower.

¶6 Before the trial, the State filed a motion in limine asking the trial court to permit Clark to testify that he found it odd that Rutherford’s cell phones, and in particular the S3 smart phone, did not contain SD cards. The State theorized that because Rutherford told detectives that he had “[l]ots of pornography” on his S3 but officers did not find much other than explicit photos of Rutherford and his fiancée, Rutherford must have removed an SD card containing the shower video before his S3 was seized. The State requested that Clark be allowed to testify “based upon [Clark’s] training and experience” that “when he reviews cell phones in his capacity as an officer, approximately 80 percent of the time, smart phones have SD cards in them, and that it’s very unusual for an S3” not to have an SD card.

¶7 The trial court determined that Clark could testify about SD cards and smart phones, ruling as follows: “if you can qualify him with some degree of expertise or experience[, Clark] can say this is a smart phone, and that the smart phone is capable of having an SD card and [Clark] can explain what he understands the purpose of an SD card” to be.

4 No. 2021AP1965-CR

¶8 The case proceeded to a jury trial. Nicole’s forensic interview was played for the jury. Nicole also testified regarding specific incidents of abuse that stood out in her mind, including the offenses for which Rutherford was ultimately convicted. She testified about finding the video when she exited the shower and, when talking about the impact that the abuse from her father would have on her life, Nicole became upset and had to request a break from testifying. The State called several other witnesses at trial who generally corroborated various points of Nicole’s testimony, including Nicole’s brother, several of Nicole’s friends and other family members, and some of Rutherford’s former romantic partners, including Nicole’s mother.

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Related

Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
509 U.S. 579 (Supreme Court, 1993)
State v. Trawitzki
2001 WI 77 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2001)
State v. LaCount
2008 WI 59 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2008)
Sweet v. Berge
334 N.W.2d 559 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1983)
State v. Jeffrey P. Lepsch
2017 WI 27 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2017)
State v. Anthony R. Pico
2018 WI 66 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Shaun M. Rutherford, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-shaun-m-rutherford-wisctapp-2023.