Commonwealth v. Kimball
| Decision Date | 27 May 1947 |
| Citation | 321 Mass. 290,73 N.E.2d 468 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH v. RALPH KIMBALL. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
April 7, 1947.
Present: FIELD, C.
J., QUA, DOLAN WILKINS, & SPALDING, JJ.
Evidence Admissions and confessions, Presumptions and burden of proof.
A conviction of indecent assault was warranted by testimony that the defendant had made a statement to the witness admitting commission of the assault, notwithstanding that there was no other evidence of the defendant's guilt and that the alleged victim testified that no assault was committed.
COMPLAINT, received and sworn to in the Municipal Court of the Dorchester District of the City of Boston on October 3, 1946.
Upon appeal to the Superior Court, the case was tried before Briggs, J., a District Court judge sitting under statutory authority.
W. G Hollingsworth, (T.
E. Dwyer with him,) for the defendant.
W. I. Hennessey Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.
The defendant was convicted upon a complaint that on or about September 4, 1946, he "did indecently assault and beat" Bertha E. Kimball. His exceptions to the denial of requests for instructions and of his motion for a directed verdict of not guilty raise the question whether he could be convicted upon his own uncorroborated admission of guilt.
In the Superior Court the testimony was given by three witnesses for the Commonwealth. Bertha E. Kimball testified that she was fourteen years of age on June 22, 1946 that the defendant was her father; that on September 4 her mother was in the hospital and that she was at home alone with her father, but that nothing happened to her; that prior to her testimony in the Superior Court she had spoken with Maurice McCarthy, a police officer; that she had testified in the Municipal Court of the Dorchester District; that since her testimony in the Dorchester court her mother had died and she had been living with an older sister; that she testified in the Dorchester court that on September 4 her father had taken her to bed with him; that the incident never happened; that she had testified in the Dorchester court that on September 4 her father had placed his hand upon her in an indecent manner; that in fact he had never done this to her; that her testimony in the Dorchester court was a mistake; that she had so testified because she was "mad at" her father; that she had previously told the same story to the clerk of the Dorchester court; that she had not spoken with anyone concerning changing her testimony; that, when she first made the accusations, she had not realized how serious it was going to be; and that her testimony in the Superior Court was given voluntarily.
Maurice McCarthy testified that he was a police officer of the city of Boston; that in September, 1946, he talked with Bertha Kimball and her mother; that he later talked with the defendant; that he told the defendant that his daughter "claimed" that he had been in bed with her and had put his hand upon her in an indecent manner; that the defendant replied that it was true, that he was lonesome, that it must have been in one of his weak moments, and that it happened once, and never happened again; that Bertha Kimball went to the Dorchester court in September and repeated the accusations to the clerk, whereupon the complaint issued; that she testified in the Dorchester court that on the day in question the defendant had taken her to bed with him and placed his hand upon her in an indecent manner; and that the defendant denied the accusations in that court.
Bertha Chapin testified that she was a representative of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; that she had spoken with Bertha Kimball in the latter part of September after Bertha Kimball had spoken with Officer McCarthy; and that Bertha Kimball had told her that "sometime previously" the defendant had asked her to go to bed with him, but that she did not want to, and ran out of the house.
The judge instructed the jury at the defendant's request that they could not consider as evidence against the defendant statements of witnesses made outside of court, but could convict him only on the testimony of witnesses produced during the trial; and that the...
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