Chase v. State

• Decision Date: 15 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. S09G0139.,S09G0139.
• Citation: 681 S.E.2d 116,285 Ga. 693
• Parties: CHASE v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

681 S.E.2d 116

285 Ga. 693

CHASE v. The STATE.

No. S09G0139.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

June 15, 2009.

Reconsideration Denied June 30, 2009.

Victor Hawk, Augusta, for Appellant.

Daniel J. Craig, Dist. Atty., Charles R. Sheppard, Asst. Dist. Atty., for Appellee.

SEARS, Chief Justice.

This appeal presents a straightforward question of law. The question is whether, in November 2006, consent of the alleged victim was a defense to the crime of sexual assault of a person enrolled in school. We have concluded that it was, as long as the student had reached the legal age of consent. Accordingly, the trial court erred in preventing the defendant from presenting a consent defense at trial, and we reverse the contrary judgment of the Court of Appeals.

1. In November 2006, 28-year-old Melissa Lee Chase was a highly regarded teacher and coach at Harlem High School in Harlem, Georgia. The alleged victim was a 16-year-old junior, Christy Elaine Garcia. Garcia had been in one of Chase's classes the previous year, but by November 2006, she was no longer one of Chase's students. Nevertheless, on occasion, Garcia was subject to Chase's authority, such as when Chase would be assigned to oversee the cafeteria along with several other teachers during lunch period. In addition, Garcia was expected, as a student at the school, to obey Chase's instructions because of Chase's position as a member of the faculty.

Between August and November 2006, Garcia and Chase developed a friendship that eventually turned romantic and, on one occasion, sexual. Garcia's father and stepmother, with whom Garcia lived, had been letting Garcia spend time with Chase outside regular school hours and had even invited Chase to their house for cookouts. On four or five occasions, Garcia was allowed to spend the night at Chase's house. On the last occasion, the relationship between Chase and Garcia became sexual.¹ Soon after, Garcia's mother found notes in Garcia's purse written to Garcia by Chase. Disturbed by their romantic content, Garcia's mother contacted the police, and Chase was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a person enrolled in school.

Chase waived her right to a jury trial. At the one-day bench trial, Garcia testified on cross-examination that she initiated the relationship with Chase because she "had feelings for her" and that she was the one who "pushed" the relationship. The State objected on grounds of relevance, arguing that consent of the alleged victim was no defense to a charge of sexual assault of a person enrolled in school under OCGA § 16-6-5.1(b). The trial court sustained the State's objections to all further attempts by Chase to present a consent defense. The trial court found Chase guilty as charged and sentenced her to fifteen years in prison, with ten years to serve behind bars and five years on probation. The trial court also sentenced Chase to register as a sex offender. The trial court denied Chase's motion for new trial, and she filed a timely notice of appeal.

The Court of Appeals affirmed, agreeing with the trial court that consent is not a defense to the crime of sexual assault of a person enrolled in school under OCGA § 16-6-5.1(b), and holding that the trial court therefore did not err in preventing Chase from presenting her consent defense.² We granted Chase's petition for certiorari and directed the parties to address the following question:

Did the Court of Appeals err in ruling that subsection (c)(3) of OCGA § 16-6-5.1 applies to prosecutions under subsection (b) of the statute?

2. It is elementary that "[i]n all interpretations of statutes, the courts shall look diligently for the intention of the General Assembly."³ In so doing, "the ordinary signification shall be applied to all words."⁴ Where the language of a statute is plain and susceptible to only one natural and reasonable construction, courts must construe the statute accordingly.⁵ In fact, "[w]here the language of a statute is plain and unambiguous, judicial construction is not only unnecessary but forbidden."⁶ Moreover, Georgia law provides that the express mention of one thing in an act or statute implies the exclusion of all other things.⁷ In our reading of a statute, this Court "is not authorized to disregard any of the words [used therein] unless the failure to do so would lead to an absurdity manifestly not intended by the legislature."⁸

In addition, when we are interpreting a statute, we must presume that the General Assembly had full knowledge of the existing state of the law and enacted the statute with reference to it.⁹ We construe statutes "in connection and in harmony with the existing law, and as a part of a general and uniform system of jurisprudence," and "their meaning and effect is to be determined in connection, not only with the common law and the constitution, but also with reference to other statutes and the decisions of the courts."¹⁰

The age of consent in Georgia is 16.¹¹ In other words, generally speaking, it is a crime to have physical sexual contact with a person 15 years of age or younger. The converse is also true. Thus, generally speaking, it is not a crime in Georgia to have physical sexual contact with a willing participant who is 16 years of age or older.¹² This is the legal backdrop against which the General Assembly acted when, in early 2006, it repealed the existing version of OCGA § 16-6-5.1 entirely and replaced it with the current version effective July 1, 2006.

The trial court convicted Chase of one count of violating OCGA § 16-6-5.1(b). As relevant here, subsection (b) reads as follows:

A probation or parole officer or other custodian or supervisor of another person referred to in this Code section commits sexual assault when he or she engages in sexual contact with another person ... who is enrolled in a school ... and such actor has supervisory or disciplinary authority over such other person.

Conviction under the statute carries a sentence of 10-30 years in prison, but if the student is under 14, the sentencing range jumps to 25-50 years.¹³ The special sentencing provisions of OCGA § 17-10-6.2 apply.

The plain language of the statute does not in any way indicate that the General Assembly intended to remove consent as a defense to a charge of violating subsection (b). The General Assembly knows full well how to eliminate the consent defense when it wishes to do so. Indeed, the General Assembly eliminated consent as a defense to three crimes in the very next subsection of OCGA § 16-6-5.1.

Subsection (c)(1)(A)—(B) makes it a crime for a person with supervisory or disciplinary authority over another person to engage in sexual contact with the other person when the other person is "[i]n the custody of law" or "[d]etained in or is a patient in a hospital or other institution." Subsection (c)(2) makes it a crime for an actual or purported practitioner of psychotherapy to engage in sexual contact with another person he or she "knew or should have known is the subject of the actor's actual or purported treatment or counseling, or, if the treatment or counseling relationship was used to facilitate sexual contact between the actor and said person." Then, in subsection (c)(3), the statute provides that "[c]onsent of the victim shall not be a defense to a prosecution under this subsection."

The trial court reasoned, and the Court of Appeals agreed, that subsection (c)(3)'s provision eliminating consent of the victim as "a defense to a prosecution under this subsection" removed the consent defense for prosecutions brought under subsection (b) as well. We think not. This "construction" of the statute is not so much judicial interpretation as it is judicial sleight of hand.

The words "[c]onsent of the victim shall not be a defense to a prosecution" in subsection (c)(3) are followed directly by the phrase "under this subsection." (Emphasis supplied.) Those three words can mean only one thing: the General Assembly intended to eliminate consent as a defense to the crimes created by subsection (c) only. Thus, subsection (c)(3) did not, as the trial court and Court of Appeals reasoned, remove consent of the alleged victim as a viable defense to a charge of sexual assault of a person enrolled in school, because that crime was created by subsection (b) of the statute, not subsection (c).

The District Attorney defends the trial court and Court of Appeals' interpretive legerdemain on public policy grounds. The District Attorney concedes that a "literal reading" of the statute might allow for a consent defense and acknowledges that "criminal statutes should be strictly construed against the State and in favor of an accused." Nonetheless, the District Attorney points to the State's compelling interest in protecting children and the vulnerable status of students involved in secondary education programs and below and argues that "no court, either trial or appellate, should recognize any kind of `consent' defense to the criminal conduct proscribed by OCGA § 16-6-5.1(b)." The District Attorney urges us to look past the plain language of the statute and the canons of statutory construction applicable to criminal laws because "[m]anifestly, the State must have an absolute `zero tolerance' policy towards sexual liaisons between educators and students, regardless [o]f whether such relationships are of a heterosexual or a homosexual nature." In the District Attorney's view, enforcing the statute as written by the General Assembly would result in "absurdity or injustice or would lead to contradictions."

The District Attorney's passion for protecting school-age children is admirable. However, to accept these arguments would be to legislate by judicial fiat, and to do so ex post facto to boot. We will not usurp the General Assembly's legislative role by engrafting onto subsection (b) of OCGA § 16-6-5.1 language the General Assembly placed in subsection (c) and specifically limited to that subsection only.

The ...