Townsend v. State

418 N.E.2d 554, 1981 Ind. App. LEXIS 1337
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 13, 1981
Docket2-479A110
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 418 N.E.2d 554 (Townsend 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
Townsend v. State, 418 N.E.2d 554, 1981 Ind. App. LEXIS 1337 (Ind. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, Judge.

Following trial by jury, Townsend was convicted of delivering a Schedule II controlled substance and conspiracy to commit a felony. I.C. 35-24.1-4.1-2 (Burns Code Ed.1975); I.C. 35-1-111-1 (Burns Code Ed. 1975). 1 The following issues are presented for review:

1) Whether the trial court erred in ruling that the state may unilaterally raise and rebut the entrapment defense in its casein-chief;
2) Whether the trial court committed error in instructing the jury that multiple sentences would be served concurrently;
*556 3) Whether testimony admitted by the trial court was obtained in violation of Townsend’s right to counsel and his right to not incriminate himself;
4) Whether the trial court erred in excluding evidence of possible official hostility towards Townsend; and
5) Whether the trial court erred in prohibiting Townsend from presenting his defense of police misconduct shocking to the community conscience.

The relevant facts are as follows: Townsend was the proprietor of an establishment in West Lafayette known as Brianhouse. Between August of 1976 and February of 1977 Brianhouse was officially visited three times by the West Lafayette police. As a result of the visits, Townsend was charged with possession of alcoholic beverages for a commercial purpose, maintaining a common nuisance, and furnishing alcoholic beverages to a minor. These charges were pending when the events leading to the convictions on review here took place.

Around January of 1977, the Region III Metropolitan Enforcement Group (MEG) began an investigation into drug activities in Tippecanoe County. On three occasions Townsend was acquitted of the charges emanating from two of those meetings. The encounter which resulted in the conviction before us occurred at a pizza parlor on March 17, 1977, when Townsend delivered the Schedule II controlled substance to an undercover agent.

I.

Prior to trial Townsend formally stated that he would not rely on the defense of entrapment. This election 2 was prompted by a desire on his part to keep from the jury prejudicial evidence of predisposition apparently involving prior drug incidents.

Townsend argues that the trial court required him to make an election between asserting an entrapment defense and thereby subjecting himself to the prejudicial ef-feet of otherwise inadmissible evidence of prior unrelated criminal acts or foregoing the defense in order to keep such predisposition evidence from the jury. In this regard he points to a pretrial order which acknowledged existing law réquiring the State to rebut an entrapment defense by evidence of predisposition. To the extent that Townsend argues such acknowledgment forced him to make an unfair election, he is in error. The pretrial order did nothing more than advise Townsend of the law of Indiana. Townsend’s argument in this respect is very simply a quarrel with the possible adverse effects of a correct application of the law regarding the defense of entrapment.

Townsend’s argument, however, contains another aspect. He asserts that the unfair coercive effect was occasioned by the prospect of the State itself unilaterally raising the entrapment issue in its case-in-chief and then immediately proceeding to rebut the “defense” by the introduction of the prejudicial evidence of prior unrelated criminal acts. He complains that control of his defenses must lie with him and that he should have been permitted to hear the State’s case-in-chief before injecting entrapment as an issue.

Our Supreme Court has not directly addressed this issue. The State points to Gray v. State (1967) 249 Ind. 629, 231 N.E.2d 793:

“Where the evidence shows, as in this case, that there was a plan devised by law enforcement officers to reveal a violation of the criminal law and such law enforcement officers participate actively in the transaction which is declared to be illegal, without further proof the evidence shows merely that it was the scheme, the idea, and the plan which originated with law enforcement officers. There must be in such instances evidence which will rebut that the illegal transaction was induced solely by the plan of the law enforcement officers, since the burden of proof is on the State and does not shift to the de *557 fendant. The evidence must show that the illegal transaction was actually that of the appellant and not that of the law enforcement officials or informer who was acting at the instigation of the law enforcement officials.” 231 N.E.2d at 796.

Although Gray could be read to arguably support the State’s position, an examination of the case shows that the Court’s primary concern was whether entrapment had been rebutted. That concern necessarily presupposes that the defense had been raised. How it was raised, or by whom, was not at issue.

Most Indiana cases are similarly unspecific. In Hardin v. State (1976) 265 Ind. 635, 358 N.E.2d 134, our Supreme Court adopted the majority position of Sorrells v. United States (1932) 287 U.S. 435, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413, and foreshadowed the present provision of the new criminal code: 3

“When the question of entrapment is raised, the court must make a two-part inquiry: (1) Did police officers or their informants initiate and actively participate in the criminal activity; and (2) is there evidence that the accused was predisposed to commit the crime so that the proscribed activity was not solely the idea of the police officials? If the evidence shows police activity absent any showing of predisposition on the part of the accused, entrapment as a matter of law has' been established.” 358 N.E.2d at 136 (citation omitted).

This language recites the court’s duty when entrapment is raised, but does not directly address the question of by whom it may be raised. See also Stayton v. State (1st Dist.1980) Ind.App., 400 N.E.2d 784, 786, 787; Maynard v. State (3d Dist.1977) Ind.App., 367 N.E.2d 5, 7. The most recent Supreme Court decision, Williams v. State (1980) Ind., 412 N.E.2d 1211, is also inconclusive. Although it first appears the court recognized that the State can unilaterally raise an entrapment issue, id. at 1214-15 (entrapment defense raised by the testimony of the undercover officer), a search of the record reveals that an entrapment instruction was given by the Court without objection. (Williams

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Bluebook (online)
418 N.E.2d 554, 1981 Ind. App. LEXIS 1337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/townsend-v-state-indctapp-1981.