Bridges v. State

• Decision Date: 11 September 1945
• Citation: 247 Wis. 350,19 N.W.2d 529
• Parties: BRIDGES v. STATE.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

247 Wis. 350

19 N.W.2d 529

BRIDGES

v.STATE.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

June 28, 1945.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 11, 1945.

See 19 N.W.2d 862.

Writ of error to review a judgment of the Circuit Court for Dane County; Alvin C. Reis, Judge.

Affirmed.

Prosecution of Robert Bridges on an information charging him with the violation of sec. 351.34, Stats., by taking indecent liberties on February 26, 1945, with the person of Sharon Schunk, a female under the age of 16 years. Defendant pleaded not guilty, but was found guilty upon a trial by jury; and upon its verdict the court adjudged defendant was guilty and imposed sentence. Upon his petition a writ of error was granted. Joseph G. Hirschberg, Martin M. Morrissey, and Lucius A. Squire, all of Madison, for plaintiff in error.

John E. Martin, Atty. Gen., William A. Platz, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Norris E. Maloney, Dist. Atty., and John A. Lawton, Deputy Dist. Atty., both of Madison, for defendant in error.

FRITZ, Justice.

The defendant is 33 years of age and a corporal in the United States Army. On February 26, 1945, and for some time before and after that date, he was stationed at Truax Field as a permanent party, and he resided at 125 East Johnson Street in the city of Madison. He is off duty on Mondays, and on the trial of this action he testified—and also a corroborating witness—that he and his wife were at that home all day on Monday, February 26, 1945. Under evidence, which was largely uncontroverted on the trial—but the truth of which is not admitted by defendant—it was within the province of the jury to be satisfied beyond any reasonable doubt and to find that on February 26, 1945, between 4 and 5 P. M., a man wearing a soldier's uniform committed an assault, under circumstances which clearly constituted the taking of indecent liberties with the person of the complaining witness, Sharon Schunk, a 7 year old girl (hereinafter referred to as Sharon). She testified that upon leaving school at about 3:30 P. M. on February 26, 1945, she walked westward toward her home about 6 blocks away at 721 West Washington Avenue in the city of Madison. While en route, when she reached the corner of Washington Avenue and Bedford Street—known to her as ‘Billy's Corner’—the soldier, who had been walking behind her, caught up to her and said ‘Let's go across,’ and took her by the hand. While walking with her several blocks the soldier said he had some funny books and wanted her to do something for him; and finally he had her enter a house and go into a second floor room in which he then committed the assault. Defendant testified on the trial that he did not see or speak to or walk with Sharon, and denies that he is the man who committed the assault testified to by her. And in support of that denial he relies principally upon testimony by himself and Mrs. Kitty Blood that during the entire morning and afternoon of February 26, 1945, he and his wife, Peggy Bridges, were alone in the second floor front room at 125 East Johnson Street, which they used as their home and rented from Mrs. Blood, who owned and also resided in the house. In view of defendant's denials and his testimony, and Mrs. Blood's corroboration thereof, the crucial issue is whether there was otherwise competent evidence which, if considered credible by the jury, was sufficient to establish beyond any reasonable doubt that defendant was the man wearing a soldier's uniform, who committed the crime in question; and the identification of the defendant as that man depends, in turn, under the evidence herein, largely upon whether the house and room to which Sharon was taken by the man who assaulted her was the house and room at 125 East Johnson Street in which defendant resided.

In relation to particularly those issues there was testimony on the trial to the following effect. Sharon testified, in addition to that stated above, that she and the man, whom she identified on the trial as the defendant, walked 15 or 16 blocks to the soldier's home. There they went up a wooden steps to a porch and entered the left one of two doors and went up a stairway and into the room. She had on her coat and snowpants, mittens and hat, and had her lunch bucket. Inside the room the man gave her a quarter which she put on a chair. She remembered (on the trial) that there were in the room a dresser, chest of drawers, bed, and by the latter a big shelf with some pictures and other little things like that on it, and also a chair with a clock and radio on it; that there was a table with a lamp on it and a lady's picture, which the soldier said was of his wife; and that there were two dolls, a boy and a girl, with cloth faces and there were two little windows and a big one. The soldier gave her some funny books and she looked at the covers. Then he committed the acts constituting the taking of indecent liberties with her person. After she put on her clothing she took the quarter and went outside, but forgot to take her lunch bucket until the soldier called to tell her and she went back for it. Upon leaving the house she turned to her left (westward) and went up the street 3 or 4 blocks to where there was a policeman (at West Johnson and State Streets). She asked him whether this is where the Wingra Park bus comes. He said it was not and put her on another bus on which she went a little ways and then transferred to a Wingra Park bus to take to her home.

Sharon's mother, Mrs. La Vern Schunk, testified that Sharon arrived home at about 5 minutes to 5 on that afternoon, and while she was being questioned as to the lateness of her arrival and where she was so long she began to cry and gave each of her brothers a nickel, and said she got the money from a soldier and that she had gone to his house; and when asked where the house was she said she did not know, it was a long way. Mrs. Schunk on examining Sharon noticed what appeared to be semen on her panties, and upon further questioning her, she told the mother some of the particulars of the indecent liberties. Mrs. Schunk and her husband then went to the police station and Detective Nee and Police Marton Clark went to the Schunk residence to investigate the case. They took Sharon and Mrs. Schunk along in a police car to look for the soldier and the house where Sharon had been taken. While they were driving around Sharon mentioned having seen in the room where she had been taken a bed and a chest of drawers, a dresser, and table with a picture of a lady on it and a chair by the bed with a radio and alarm clock on it. And on cross-examination by defendant's counsel, Mrs. Schunk testified to the following effect: While riding in the police car looking for the house, Sharon described it as having wooden steps which were grey and had bricks on the side of the steps, and that as she got on top of the steps on a porch there were two doors going into the house; but Mrs. Schunk testified she could not recall whether there was anything said that the porch was enclosed.

Detective Nee testified that while riding in the police car on the night of February 26, 1945, they drove to the point near the corner of West Washington Avenue and Bedford Street, where Sharon said she started out with the soldier. From there as she directed the course of travel, they proceeded northward on Bedford to West Mifflin Street and eastward on the right side. Sharon had given them a description of the house and Nee told her to say if she observed a house that looked like it. After proceeding (apparently about 5 blocks) without Sharon pointing out any house, Nee turned around and retraced and stopped at a house in the first block in which there was only one house on the right hand side which answered the description Sharon had given. Nee took Sharon into the house and up to the second floor to determine, if he could, if that was the place. When they got to the top of the stairs she shook her head and indicated it was not, and said there were a lot of toys and articles that children would play with on the top landing and those she said were not there in the house she had gone to with the soldier. That night she did not remember any objects in the vicinity of the house where she had been taken.

Detective Nee further testified that before the next afternoon, when he and Detective Fleming took Sharon and her mother with them again, they had learned that Sharon had travelled 4 blocks until she had met the police officer who had put her on the bus. So to place the position of the house they asked her some questions, and if she could tell them about where the house was located in the block. She said it was near the middle of the block, the third or fourth house from the corner. They asked her if there was anything in the neighborhood, anything distinguishing that she could remember about that neighborhood that might place this house and make it easier for them to find it. She said she remembered there was a little house like a play house or doll's house, she called it, setting back from the street, and that there was a white fence around it. They looked for a house of that nature, but did not find any at that time.

It appeared on the trial, without dispute, that upon the arrest of defendant in relation to another matter, he consented on March 27, 1945, to let the police enter his room at 125 East Johnson Street; and Fleming testified that on that date he and Detective Milsted took Sharon and her mother in the police car and drove eastward past 125 East Johnson Street and Sharon was told to notice the houses in that block. Fleming and also Mrs. Schunk testified Sharon was looking for the house to which she had been taken by the soldier, but did not recognize any of the houses in the block; so they turned around at the end of the block and drove back and parked approximately across the street from 125 East Johnson Street, and then Sharon said the house at that number looked like the house. Mrs. Schunk testified Sharon then pointed...