State v. Shenkman

CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedDecember 9, 2014
DocketAC36408
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Shenkman (State v. Shenkman) 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. Shenkman, (Colo. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

****************************************************** The ‘‘officially released’’ date that appears near the beginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be published in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the beginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the ‘‘officially released’’ date appearing in the opinion. In no event will any such motions be accepted before the ‘‘officially released’’ date. All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecti- cut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the electronic version of an opinion and the print version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Con- necticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest print version is to be considered authoritative. The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears on the Commission on Official Legal Publications Electronic Bulletin Board Service and in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be repro- duced and distributed without the express written per- mission of the Commission on Official Legal Publications, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. ****************************************************** STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. RICHARD SHENKMAN (AC 36408) Gruendel, Prescott and Bishop, Js. Argued September 19—officially released December 9, 2014

(Appeal from Superior Court, judicial district of Hartford, Dewey, J.) Adele V. Patterson, senior assistant public defender, for the appellant (defendant). Mitchell S. Brody, senior assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Gail P. Hardy, state’s attorney, and Vicki Melchiorre, supervisory assistant state’s attorney, for the appellee (state). Opinion

GRUENDEL, J. The defendant, Richard Shenkman, appeals from the judgments of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, in docket number CR-09-633370, of kidnapping in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-92 (a) (2) (C), criminal violation of a protective order in violation of General Statutes § 53a- 223, and carrying a pistol without a permit in violation of General Statutes § 29-35, and, in docket number CR- 09-224139, of threatening in the second degree in viola- tion of General Statutes § 53a-62 (a) (1), threatening in the second degree in violation of § 53a-62 (a) (2), assault in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a- 61 (a) (1), threatening in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-61aa (a) (1) (A), interfering with an officer in violation of General Statutes § 53a- 167a, attempt to commit assault of public safety person- nel in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-49 and 53a- 167c, and arson in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-111 (a) (4). On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the trial court improperly denied his motion for a bill of particulars, (2) certain convictions violate the prohibition against double jeopardy, and (3) the court improperly instructed the jury on the defense of mental disease or defect. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. From the evidence adduced at trial, the jury reason- ably could have found the following facts. The defen- dant and the victim, Nancy Tyler, married in 1993. Their relationship deteriorated in subsequent years. The defendant had a bad temper and was very controlling. On one occasion in 2000, the defendant furiously berated Tyler in an intimidating manner while backing her up against a wall; on another in 2003, the defendant threw her across a room, placed his hands around her neck, and attempted to choke her. The marriage reached its nadir in January, 2006, when the defendant kicked Tyler and their children out of the family home in South Windsor. Tyler filed for divorce soon thereafter. The defendant only grew more enraged with that development, and tried to force Tyler to stay with him, telling her he could not live without her. When she refused, he responded with various threats. The defen- dant repeatedly told Tyler that he was going to commit suicide in front of their children as part of an effort to ‘‘destroy’’ her. He warned Tyler, an attorney by profes- sion, that he ‘‘was going to have [her] law license taken away so [she] couldn’t work anymore,’’ and he fre- quently contacted the partners at her law firm and ‘‘tried to drag them into the divorce [and] to tell them that they should fire’’ her. On numerous occasions in the past, the defendant told Tyler that ‘‘he had learned over time that the crazier he acted the more he got his way. And at one point [they] talked about . . . a number of lawsuits going on and [she] asked him, how do you handle these things, how is it that they always just go away, and he said, because I act crazy and they give up.’’ When the defendant became controlling, ‘‘the wisest response [in her view] was to give in because his behav- ior would escalate, he would get nastier and nastier and yell and scream and slam around [and] make everybody miserable, so the easiest thing was just to give in.’’ During their divorce proceeding, the defendant called Tyler’s attorney, John Harvey, at home late one night and cautioned, ‘‘I will lie, cheat or do whatever I have to do to use this system to get payback.’’ The defendant told Harvey ‘‘over and over and over’’ that ‘‘[h]e just wanted to see [Tyler] destroyed.’’ The defendant simi- larly sent a handwritten letter dated November 27, 2008, to Michael Riggs, another attorney who represented Tyler in the dissolution proceeding, which stated in relevant part that ‘‘[t]he ‘war [with Tyler]’ enters year four next month. We are only in the middle chapters of this nasty saga. Watch the local [and] national news- casts the week of Dec[ember] 14 for the next chapter with reenforcements entering the battlefield.’’ The defendant previously had visited Harvey’s office and threatened to do something to the family home in South Windsor. On another occasion, the defendant threat- ened that ‘‘[h]e was going to destroy everything so that [Tyler] ended up with nothing.’’ The court dissolved the marriage in 2008, and entered certain financial orders. When the defendant wilfully violated those orders, the court on June 16, 2009, found him in contempt. The court then ordered the defendant to vacate the family home, located at 96 Tumblebrook Drive in South Windsor (house), and continued the mat- ter ‘‘for compliance until July 7, 2009.’’ At that time, the defendant owed Tyler approximately $180,000, and title to the house had vested in Tyler. Pursuant to the court’s outstanding orders, the defendant ‘‘either had to pay [Tyler] the money [by July 7, 2009] or had to vacate the house so that [she] could sell it and pay the debts . . . .’’ At that time, Tyler’s safety was the subject of a protective order that precluded the defendant from having any contact with her.1 On July 7, 2009, the defendant and Tyler were due to appear in court for further proceedings on the motion for contempt. Tyler arrived at her office in downtown Hartford early that morning. Shortly after 8 a.m., she exited the building to pick up a garment from a nearby dry cleaning business. Once outside, she saw the defen- dant’s van parked across the street. Mindful of the pro- tective order, she quickly picked up her garment and headed back to the office. As she entered the elevator to her office building, Tyler called Susan Arnold, a close friend, and headed to the parking garage where her vehicle was located. When she approached the vehicle, the defendant ‘‘came out of nowhere . . . and grabbed [Tyler] . . .

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State v. Shenkman, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-shenkman-connappct-2014.