Suarez v. State

901 S.W.2d 712, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 1238, 1995 WL 325977
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 31, 1995
Docket13-93-259-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 901 S.W.2d 712 (Suarez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Suarez v. State, 901 S.W.2d 712, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 1238, 1995 WL 325977 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

YÁÑEZ, Justice.

OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

A jury found appellant, Jaime Suarez, guilty of sexual assault and assessed punishment at ten years’ probation.1 By three points of error, appellant challenges his conviction. Appellant complains that there is insufficient evidence to establish that the complainant did not consent or that she was physically unable to resist. Appellant also asserts that the introduction of extraneous testimonial evidence was error. We affirm.

Appellant is a licensed lay midwife with offices at the McAllen Maternity Clinic in Hidalgo County. On January 30, 1992, Evangeline Garcia went to the McAllen Maternity Clinic. Garcia had an appointment to see Suarez for a prenatal examination. Suarez called Garcia from the waiting room and led her to the examination room, where he first asked her some medical history questions. Suarez asked Garcia how many children she had, whether she had planned this pregnancy, commented on how ‘Very young looking” she kept herself, and if she was married.2 Appellant then told her to go behind a curtain, take off her clothes, and put on a hospital gown open to the front. Garcia then sat at the foot of the examination table, holding her gown closed. The examination table was located in a comer of the room with the head and one side of the table against the wall. Garcia told Suarez she was nervous, and Suarez, with his hand inside her thigh, responded, “it’s okay, I’ll take care of you.” At the time, Garcia thought “he [was] just trying to be nice and like, just trying to comfort — I don’t know — Like, don’t be scared.”

Suarez then told her to lie back on the examination table and put her arms behind her head so that he could conduct a breast examination. With one hand still on her breast, Suarez showed her a little card on breast cancer and told her how important it was to perform routine checks for tumors. Standing alongside the table, Suarez then conducted the breast examination with the gown completely open. Garcia testified that Suarez told her, “you are truly beautiful.” When asked how she felt after this comment, Garcia stated, “it was just an examination and usually all those are just uncomfortable, you know.”

[715]*715After conducting the breast examination, Suarez placed a Doppler monitor on Garcia to hear the baby’s heartbeat. Suarez then told her that he could not find a heartbeat and that she was not twelve weeks pregnant as she had suspected. Garcia testified that she became scared and that she asked herself, “how come he couldn’t find a heart beat?” Suarez then said he would check her uterus and told her to place her legs on the stirrups. Garcia testified that she had felt “[i]t was going to be over with sometime soon” and was concerned because Suarez could not hear the baby’s heartbeat. During the pelvic examination, Garcia was conscious and aware of the examination.

Regarding appellant’s conduct while her heels were in the stirrups, Garcia testified that

A: He put his — his hand in the — my vagina to check what he said was the bladder. And he pressed down. He asked me if it hurts.
Q: And did you answer him?
A I said, no.
Q: And then what did he do next?
A: Then he moved his hand to another side and pressed again and asked me if it hurt again. And I said, no.
Q: And at this point, did you tell him anything?
A: No.

Suarez then asked Garcia if she was sexually active with her husband. When she answered “yes,” he told her not to be with him three days prior to her next visit. He also asked her if she enjoyed having sex with her husband. Garcia did not answer the question. All this time, Suarez still had at least two fingers inside her. According to Garcia, Suarez then pressed in deeper with his hand and it was uncomfortable. He asked Garcia if she and her husband had rough sex “because he could feel like there was something tom like — like a hernia or something.” Garcia testified that she was still in the stirrups and that Suarez was standing at the side of the examination table.

Garcia then testified as follows:

Q: At that point, did you think something was wrong?
A: I got scared. I asked him if I was pregnant or was it a tumor or something was wrong.
Q: Now, when you’re saying you got scared, were you scared because he— you thought you had a tumor or something, or were you scared for some other reason?
A: His face showed like he was noticing something was wrong, his face expressions, when I was looking at him.
* He * * * ⅜
Q: And at this point, what was Mr. Suarez doing with his hand?
A: He had it inside me and was pulling in and out and in an up-and-down motion.
Q: Was this more than once?
A: Yes.
Q: More than twice?
A: Yes.
Q: Did he do this repeatedly?
A: Yes.

Garcia testified that Suarez’s other hand was at the pubic hairline on her stomach and that the hand inside her vagina had touched her clitoris more than three times. Garcia stated that she felt that this was wrong, but that she was scared he could do something to the baby since he could touch her uterus. According to Garcia, “I said, if I move, he’ll pull something out.” The State elicited further testimony from Garcia concerning this part of the examination.

Q: Did you ever tell him to stop?
A: I turned towards the wall and just froze.
Q: Were you able to move at that point?
A: No.
Q: Were you able to cry out?
A: No. I just went into a daze.
Q: Were you able to resist?
A: I just froze.
Q: And where was his hand at this time?
A: Still inside.
Q: Had you consented for him to do that?
A: No.

[716]*716At this point, Suarez was still standing on the long side of the examination table with one hand inside Garcia’s vagina and the other on her pubic hairline. Garcia claimed that when Suarez noticed that she was not responding to what he was doing and that she was looking towards the wall, he stopped and pulled out his hand. Garcia testified that she tried to sit up, but that Suarez told her he was not yet done. Suarez then “backed up into the sink, the trash can at the sink, and took his hand to his face, and said how well it smelled.”

Garcia recounted that Suarez then performed a test with a reflex hammer. During the reflex examination, Suarez told Garcia that her legs were too big and he demonstrated with his hand, warm water and a sponge how to take care of them.

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Bluebook (online)
901 S.W.2d 712, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 1238, 1995 WL 325977, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/suarez-v-state-texapp-1995.