State v. Laplante

• Decision Date: 13 January 2009
• Docket Number: No. 2007-32-C.A.,2007-32-C.A.
• Citation: 962 A.2d 63
• Parties: STATE v. Susan LaPLANTE.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

962 A.2d 63

STATE v. Susan LaPLANTE.

No. 2007-32-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

January 13, 2009.

Virginia McGinn, Providence, for Plaintiff.

Janice Weisfeld, Providence, for Defendant.

Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, SUTTELL, and ROBINSON, JJ.

OPINION

Justice FLAHERTY, for the Court.

Before this Court is an appeal by the defendant, Susan LaPlante, from judgments of conviction for fraudulently obtaining public assistance in violation of G.L.1956 § 40-6-15 and for giving a false document to a public official in violation of G.L.1956 § 11-18-1. This case came before the Supreme Court for oral argument on November 5, 2008, pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not summarily be decided. After hearing the parties' arguments and considering the memoranda submitted by counsel, we are satisfied that cause has not been shown. Accordingly, we will decide the appeal at this time. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgments of conviction of the Superior Court.

Facts and Procedural History

The defendant, Susan LaPlante, was charged with welfare fraud in an amount over $500, in violation of § 40-6-15 (count 1); with food-stamp fraud in an amount over $500, in violation of § 40-6-16 (count 2); and with filing a false document with a public agency, in violation of § 11-18-1 (count 3). Susan received a jury trial in Providence County Superior Court in April 2006.¹ A verdict was returned acquitting LaPlante of food-stamp fraud, but convicting her on the charges of welfare fraud and filing false documents.² On July 7 2006, the trial justice sentenced Susan to a five-year suspended sentence, with five years of probation, for count 1, and a consecutive one-year suspended sentence, with one year of probation, for count 3. The trial justice also ordered her to pay restitution to the state in the amount of $30,335.79. Susan filed a timely notice of appeal. The facts pertinent to this appeal are as follows.

Susan, a mother of three, fell into difficult financial circumstances in December 2002 after her husband, Paul, was arrested and charged with domestic assault and ordered to have no contact with her and their children. Paul was released on bail, and he went to stay with his parents, Ernest and Loraine LaPlante, in Cumberland. On December 9, 2002, as a result of the financial stress caused by the marital separation, Susan went to the Department of Human Services (DHS) to apply for state assistance. She met with Theresa McLean, an eligibility technician with DHS, to fill out an application for various assistance programs, including food stamps and medical assistance. DHS deemed her to be ineligible for food-stamp assistance because of her assets and resources. DHS, however, did grant medical assistance to her and her three children.

DHS determined Susan's eligibility for assistance based on the information that she disclosed in her application for benefits. On the application, Susan indicated that the father of her children was not living in the household. She told McLean that her husband left the home as a result of a domestic-violence arrest. McLean reviewed the application with Susan and specifically highlighted her obligation to inform DHS within ten days if there was a change in her circumstances. Susan did not contact DHS to change the information from that submitted on her application.

Susan also signed DHS applications for childcare assistance on March 10, 2003, September 19, 2003, and March 10, 2004. Each time, she indicated that she was separated, and she did not list her husband as a member of her household. Based upon the information she provided on these applications, she was granted childcare assistance. As was the case with medical assistance, she acknowledged her obligation to update DHS as to any change in her household circumstances, yet she never did. Then around May 2004, DHS received a tip and conducted an investigation that led the state to deduce that Paul was living in the household. When it concluded its investigation, the state brought charges against Susan and prosecuted her for welfare fraud and for providing false documentation to DHS.

At trial, there was conflicting evidence about whether Paul was a member of the household during the time that Susan received assistance. Clearly, the documentation Susan submitted did not disclose that Paul resided in the home. But, Raphael Martinez, an investigator with DHS, testified that around May 2004, he received an anonymous telephone call reporting that Susan's husband was living in the home. Martinez testified that after he received that tip, he reviewed Susan's applications and questioned her ability to pay her fixed expenses on her income alone, so he decided to investigate further. Martinez spoke with two neighbors, and from June 15, 2004, to June 29, 2004, he and his supervisor personally conducted a surveillance of Susan's home in Woonsocket. Martinez testified that on several occasions, he observed Paul leave the house early in the mornings, carrying a lunch bag, and get into a truck registered to him at the Woonsocket address. As a result of his investigation, Martinez concluded that Paul was living in the household. Martinez testified that if Paul was a member of the household, Susan would not have been eligible for daycare assistance because of Paul's income. Martinez further testified that the total daycare assistance that Susan had received amounted to $24,203. Two neighbors, Steven Girard and Robert Aubin, Jr., also testified at trial. They both said that they believed Paul was living in the family home from June 2003 to June 2004. Girard testified that he personally observed Paul leaving the home in the mornings at around 6:30 and that he occasionally saw his car in the driveway around 10:30 p.m. He also saw Paul playing outside with his children in the evenings and working in the yard. Aubin testified that he frequently saw Paul pulling out of the driveway in the mornings at 6:25.

On the other hand, Susan, Paul, and Paul's parents all testified that Paul was not living with his family from December 2002 until July 2004. Paul testified that he stayed with his parents during that period. He explained that in February 2003, the domestic-assault charges against him were dismissed and the no-contact order that had been issued by the District Court was dissolved. However, Susan then obtained a no-contact order from the Family Court, and Paul filed for divorce. The Family Court order allowed Paul to visit with his children in the family home on Tuesdays and Thursdays and also on weekends, if Susan agreed. Paul testified that on Tuesdays and Thursdays he would visit the children after 5 p.m. and stay until around 10 p.m., when the children went to bed. Susan testified that for much of this time, the relationship between Paul and her was strained. Indeed, she said that she renewed the no-contact order several times and that it remained in effect until August 13, 2003, when Paul terminated the divorce proceedings. Paul testified that after August 13, 2003, there were no restrictions on his visits with the children, and he and Susan began marriage counseling. Paul acknowledged that he visited his children at the family home almost every day, and Susan testified that the marital relationship between Paul and her began to improve. In an effort to explain Paul's presence at the domicile in the mornings, Susan testified that Paul would come to the home early to help get the children ready for school. To explain Paul's presence at the home during the period of DHS surveillance, Susan testified that on June 22, 2004, her son had his tonsils removed and that he was absent from school for a week. She said that to assist with their son's convalescence, Paul remained in the home overnight, sleeping in their son's room. According to Susan, she and her husband reconciled in July 2004, and it was not until then that he moved back into the family home.

Issue on Appeal

The sole issue before this Court on appeal is the contention that the trial justice erred when he denied a defense motion for a mistrial after a state's witness made an unexpected, but highly prejudicial, comment from the witness stand. During the first day of trial, the prosecution's third witness, Mr. Martinez, was asked to clarify what part of Susan's applications made him question the disparity in her expenses in relation to her income. Martinez responded, "[i]n the application I found information regarding the family-owned timeshares." It was undisputed that the prosecutor did not elicit this answer. In fact, she insisted to the trial justice that she had instructed all witnesses, including Martinez, not to mention the time-shares. The record further reveals that at a pretrial conference in chambers, the prosecutor and defense counsel discussed the time-shares, and the trial justice ordered the state not to educe this information from the witnesses. On the record, the trial justice acknowledged that he made this ruling because he believed "it would be unnecessarily prejudicial in light of the fact that the jury would learn that she did have other means * * * especially since we knew that timeshares might seem like a real asset but may not be much of an asset."

Immediately after Martinez's response, defense counsel objected and moved for a mistrial. He argued that the testimony was highly prejudicial because of the nature of the charges. Counsel argued that as a result of the jurors learning that Susan owned time-shares, they would believe she could afford vacations. This, he argued, presented a grave and unacceptable danger that the jurors would jump to the conclusion that she was running a "big scam." The prosecutor countered that the time-shares comment was not so prejudicial that a curative instruction could not cure any effect that it might have had on the jury. In...