State v. Silver

249 P.3d 1141, 125 Haw. 1, 2011 Haw. LEXIS 27
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 2, 2011
DocketSCWC-29060
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 249 P.3d 1141 (State v. Silver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Silver, 249 P.3d 1141, 125 Haw. 1, 2011 Haw. LEXIS 27 (haw 2011).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

DUFFY, J.

Petitioner/Defendant-Appellant Barry Silver (Silver) filed a timely application for a writ of certiorari (Application), urging this court to review the Intermediate Court of Appeals’ (ICA) July 15, 2010 judgment on appeal in support of its June 30, 2010 memorandum opinion, which affirmed the Circuit Court of the Second Circuit’s (circuit court) March 7, 2008 judgment finding Silver guilty of four counts of sexual assault in the third degree. 1 We accepted the Application on November 23, 2010.

Silver’s Application presents the following questions:

A. Did the Maui prosecutor mislead the grand jury and withhold clearly exculpatory evidence which would have negated four out of five counts in the indictment?
B. Did the trial court exclude critical evidence of a prior inconsistent statement made by the complaining witness to law enforcement officials in a sex assault case?
C. Did the trial court permit testimony by psychologist Alexander Bivens that was tantamount to an opinion that the complaining witness was telling the truth?
D. Did the State commit prosecutorial misconduct by arguing sexual predator profiles and grooming techniques without any support in the evidence?
E. Does touching the buttocks of a child during horseplay or a massage constitute third degree sexual assault, and if so, does the statute provide fair notice of that fact?
F. Did the trial court fail to conduct a timely hearing regarding claims of a sleeping juror by waiting until after the alternates were released and the verdict?

We hold that the ICA gravely erred by concluding that sufficient evidence existed to support Silver’s conviction on Count 1. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of conviction on Count 1 for insufficiency of the evidence. We leave the remainder of the ICA’s opinion undisturbed.

*3 I. BACKGROUND

This ease arises from incidents on July 16-17, 2004, in which Silver allegedly touched the penis and buttocks of Minor, who was eleven years old at the time, while Silver and Minor were staying at the condominium home of Vickie Josefsberg (Vickie) and Alan Josefsberg (Alan) (collectively, the Josefs-bergs) in Ka'anapali, Maui. On June 6, 2005, the grand jury indicted Silver on five counts of sexual assault in the third degree in violation of Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) section 707-732(l)(b). 2 Counts 1, 3, and 5 alleged that Silver touched Minor’s buttocks on three separate occasions, and Counts 2 and 4 alleged that Silver touched Minor’s penis on two separate occasions.

A. Trial Proceedings

1. The State’s case

Silver’s jury trial began on January 8, 2007. Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee State of Hawai'i (State or prosecution) called as witnesses, inter alia, Minor and Minor’s father.

a. Minor’s testimony

Minor testified that he visited Maui with his father in the summer of 2004, when he was eleven years old. While in Maui, they stayed at the Josefsbergs’ condominium; Minor’s father was a former student of Alan’s. At that time, Minor met Silver who was also staying with the Josefsbergs.

Minor testified that he slept on the living room couch’s foldout bed along with his father. At the beginning of the trip, Silver slept in another room on a cot, but eventually moved to the same bed as Minor and his father because he said the cot was bad for his back. Minor slept between his father and Silver.

Minor testified that while he was sleeping on the couch on the night in question, Silver woke him up by rubbing him and whispering to him. Silver asked Minor to scoot closer, and Minor complied by scooting a few inches closer. Silver told Minor, “shh, don’t wake anybody up.” According to Minor, Silver rubbed his arm and then began rubbing his back. At this point, Minor scooted away and fell back asleep for a short time.

Minor testified that he was again woken up by Silver, who was rubbing him on his arm and lower back. According to Minor, as Silver was rubbing down Minor’s back, he “brushed over [Minor’s] butt really slow.” Minor then scooted closer to his father and fell back asleep for a couple of minutes.

Minor testified that he woke up again because Silver was rubbing his arm. At this point, Minor was lying on his back and Silver “brushed over [Minor’s] crotch and [his] penis[.]” Minor testified that because Silver brushed over his penis and buttocks slowly, it indicated to Minor that Silver’s actions were intentional. Minor testified that, in total, Silver brushed over his penis once and his buttocks twice. Thereafter, Minor scooted very close to his father and fell asleep.

Minor also testified that, “a day or two before” the alleged touching on the foldout couch occurred, Silver had also touched him inappropriately in the swimming pool. While in the pool, Silver and Minor’s father would throw Minor back and forth between them. According to Minor, Silver would, “hold under my butt to like hoist me up and throw me, but I don’t remember like him grabbing me or anything.” "When asked what part of his body Silver touched, Minor responded, “[k]ind of like my crotch to throw me or under my butt to throw me.”

b. Minor’s father’s testimony

Minor’s father testified that he saw “a lot of physical contact in the pool[]” between Silver and Minor. He elaborated that he saw, “wrestling, kind of tossing around, splashing water back and forth, kind of a lot of, you know, horseplay[.]” According to Minor’s father, Silver would grab Minor and *4 throw him up in the air. Minor’s father testified that he would not have known if Silver had his hands underneath Minor’s buttocks. Further, he did not see any sexual contact between Silver and Minor in the pool.

2. Silver’s motions for judgment of acquittal

Upon the close of the State’s case, Silver moved for judgment of acquittal on each count pursuant to Rule 29 of the Hawaii Rules of Penal Procedure (HRPP). 3 The circuit court denied the motion, finding that, when viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, evidence existed to support the elements of each count.

The defense then rested its case without calling any witnesses. At this point, Silver renewed his HRPP Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal. The court initially denied the motion as to all counts, however, after reviewing the testimony of Minor, the court granted Silver’s motion as to Count 2, which alleged sexual contact with Minor’s penis during the nighttime massage.

The jury found Silver guilty of Count 1 and Counts 3-5.

B. Post-trial Proceedings

On January 29, 2007, Silver filed a motion for a new trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
249 P.3d 1141, 125 Haw. 1, 2011 Haw. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-silver-haw-2011.