Thornton v. State

653 N.E.2d 493, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 784, 1995 WL 407401
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 12, 1995
Docket64A04-9409-CR-357
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 653 N.E.2d 493 (Thornton v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thornton v. State, 653 N.E.2d 493, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 784, 1995 WL 407401 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

DARDEN, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Lawrence Thornton appeals from the jury’s verdict finding him guilty of two counts of child molesting, class D felonies; two counts of child molesting, class C felonies; and two counts of incest, class D felonies.

We affirm.

ISSUE
I. Whether the trial court erred in admitting the testimony of J., one of Thornton’s daughters.
II.Whether the trial court erred in admitting the rebuttal testimony of Carla Rollins and Tracy Clifft.

FACTS

The evidence favorable to the verdict indicates that Thornton was divorced from his first wife during the 1970’s. The three daughters born of the marriage resided with their mother after the divorce, and Thornton had little contact "with them over the years. When she was approximately fourteen, C., Thornton’s oldest daughter, requested that she be allowed to live with Thornton and his *495 girlfriend. Thornton agreed. Later, J., Thornton’s middle daughter who was approximately twelve, asked to live with Thornton, and he agreed. The girls wanted to move in with their father because he admittedly allowed them to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes.

After Thornton began fondling both girls, and engaging in intercourse with J., C. moved away. Thornton and J. then moved to a trailer where Thornton continued to engage in intercourse with J. J. then contacted her sister L., who was approximately 13 years of age at that time, and begged L. to move into the trailer. After L. moved in, she and J. slept with Thornton in his bed. Thornton fondled both girls. Later, the trio moved back to Thornton’s girlfriend’s home, where Thornton engaged in sexual intercourse with both girls. On one occasion, Thornton took the girls to a Motel 6 where he rented a room, provided the girls with alcohol, and engaged in sexual intercourse with each of them.

L. left the home, and soon thereafter reported the sexual abuse to Detective Kiser of the Portage Police Department on November 4, 1991. J. gave statements to welfare caseworkers and Detective Kiser on November 6 and 22, 1991. Thornton was charged with, and a jury convicted him of, four counts of child molesting and two counts of incest for the acts he perpetrated against C., J., and L. Additional facts will be presented in our discussion of the issues.

DECISION

I. J.’S TESTIMONY

Thornton contends the trial court erred in allowing J. to testify at trial. We disagree.

At some point after giving statements to the welfare caseworkers and Detective Kiser, J. was placed in a foster home. On February 21, 1992, a CHINS proceeding was held to determine whether J. was a child in need of services. At the hearing, Dr. Stan Lelak, a licensed clinical psychologist, testified ’that J.’s foster mother brought J. to see him because “[tjhere was some talk that J. may have different persons inside of her that sometimes come out.” (R. 48-9).

As a result of her initial interview with Dr. Lelak, J. was placed in the Juvenile Detention Center that evening. The next morning, Dr. Lelak visited J. and spoke with two other personalities, Mary and Jay. Dr. Lelak visited with J. on an out-patient basis once a week from December, 1991, until approximately February 4, 1992 when he was notified by welfare caseworkers that either J., or another of her personalities, had run away from Chesterton High School. Not knowing if J. was a danger to herself or others, Dr. Lelak ordered that she be hospitalized. Once in the hospital, Dr. Lelak saw J. almost every day during her one week stay.

Altogether, Dr. Lelak testified, J. possessed six personalities, including that of J. Dr. Lelak explained the function of these personalities as follows:

Typically ... multiple personality disorder, all personalities have a role, or a function, or a job, and all of these jobs or functions are to protect the primary personality or the presenting personality from different kinds of stresses or trauma that may have occurred in their lives. Based on my review of the literature, my work and everything that was reported, the abuse, in order, is sexual, physical, emotional. Those are the things that the other personalities typically prevent the presenting one from learning about.

(R. 52).

Thornton’s trial counsel cross-examined Dr. Lelak at the CHINS proceeding in part as follows:

Q. Do you have the name of the personality that is being sexually abused?
A. To the best of my recollection, it is DEE. D-E-E, as far as I can tell.
Q. Do you know the age of Dee?
A. Oh, as to the best of my knowledge now, I believe all the ages have been integrated to about fourteen and three-quarters or almost fifteen, which is J.’s chronological age. My first contact with Dee was approximately, she was approximately age eleven.

(R. 57) (emphasis added).

Thereafter, based upon Dr. Lelak’s testimony noted above, Thornton filed a motion in *496 limine alleging that J.’s testimony at his trial would be “inherently unreliable,” and that she “should be deemed incompetent to testify.” (R. 40). Specifically, Thornton argued that J.’s multiple personality disorder affected her perception and memory of events and that her memory was inaccurate because it had been impermissibly enhanced by psycho-therapeutic techniques which are analogous to hypnosis. As a result, Thornton contended, J.’s testimony would not only violate his constitutional right to confront his accuser, but would also amount to hearsay.

The trial court found that “[J.] is not disqualified from testifying by reason of her multiple personality disorder or by reason of the treatment rendered to merge the multiple personalities,” (R. 157), and denied Thornton’s motion. 1

Prior to the prosecution calling J. as a witness at trial, Thornton questioned J. outside the presence of the jury concerning her multiple personality disorder and treatment, and lodged a specific and continuing objection to J.’s testimony. The trial court overruled Thornton’s objection and J. testified. Thereafter, Thornton called Dr. Lelak as a witness and questioned him concerning J.’s diagnosis and treatment.

Thornton now argues the trial court erred in allowing J. to testify because, he alleges, her therapy rendered her incompetent to testify. We note that Thornton’s argument in large part relies upon facts concerning the specifics of Dr. Lelak’s diagnosis and treatment of J.’s multiple personality disorder which were elicited from Dr. Lelak at trial. We remind Thornton that many of those facts were not before the trial court when it ruled upon Thornton’s motion in limine; nor, were those facts before the trial court prior to his objection to J.’s trial testimony. Therefore, in determining whether the trial court erred in allowing J.

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Bluebook (online)
653 N.E.2d 493, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 784, 1995 WL 407401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thornton-v-state-indctapp-1995.