Edmonds v. State

• Decision Date: 04 June 1973
• Docket Number: No. 521,521
• Parties: Curley EDMONDS et al. v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 55

18 Md.App. 55

305 A.2d 205

Curley EDMONDS et al. v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 521.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

June 4, 1973.

Certiorari Denied Sept. 10, 1973.

John R. Toston, Oakland, Assigned Public Defender for appellant Curley Edmonds.

John R. Toston, Oakland, Assigned Public Defender for appellants Norman Henry McCarthy and Robert Owens, Brumfield, on brief.

David B. Allen, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom were Francis B. Burch, Atty. Gen., and Fred A. Thayer, State's Atty., for Garrett County, on the brief, for appellee.

Argued before ORTH, C. J., and MORTON and THOMPSON, JJ.

MORTON, Judge.

The appellants, Curley Edmonds, Norman Henry McCarthy and Robert Owens Brumfield, were convicted in a non-jury trial in the Circuit Court for Garrett County of unnatural and perverted sex practices. Each was sentenced to a term of eight years. In this appeal they contend that (1) their trial on the merits before the same judge who presided over their juvenile waiver hearing constituted a denial of due process, and (2) their judgments of convictions were clearly erroneous.

Clement Anthony, an eighteen year old youth, testified that he arrived at the Backbone Mountain Forestry Camp, a detention center for young males, on May 19, 1972. According to Anthony, 'that afternoon, I was asked to go to the gym to have-to give Robert Brumfield and McCarthy a beat-off job and a blow job.' When asked, 'what was your response to this?', he replied: 'Well, I didn't-at first, I didn't want to go over, but after-after about fifteen or twenty minutes, I did go over, and I was-was forced to do that.' He stated that they showed him a card which indicated '(t)hey could issue contracts for people to be killed.' When asked what that meant to him, he replied: 'Well, that they could-that they would happen to me.'

Upon arrival at the gym there were some nine boys gathered there and according to the victim, he was not only compelled to perform acts of masturbation and fellatio upon appellants McCarthy and Brumfield, but upon 'all nine of them.' Anthony explained: 'Well, they-they was acting like they was playing basketball, and one boy was watching-watching the door, and all-all along, they were taking turns. There was no way possible I could get out of the gym.' He specifically exonerated the appellant Edmonds as a participant on this occasion.

Anthony did not report this attack to the authorities because as 'a new boy at the camp', 'I was-I was scared.'

The following week, according to Anthony, 'I was out by the back of the dorm, and a couple of the-couple of the boys came up and said give me a beat-off and up the-up the rectum, so-* * * And at that time, I did not give a beat-off job, but instead of a penis going up my rectum, the boys put a mop handle up my rectum.' He could not identify the individual or individuals who wielded the mop handle.

After this episode Anthony reported the attack to the authorities who initiated the investigation leading to these cases and Anthony was transferred to another detention center.

Derrick Moody, an inmate at the detention center, testified that on May 19, 1972, he and several other boys, including Anthony and Brumfield, were watching television when Brumfield 'grabbed the boy by-by his neck and well,-told him to suck his privates, would he suck his privates for him that night.' Moody did not accompany the boys to the gym. He continued to testify: 'Then-then the next time I saw something happen to Anthony was that Curley Edmonds, right over there, stuffed a mop handle up his rear.' When asked: 'You didn't do anything to stop this?', he replied: 'No, sir, 'cause there was a big crowd around there and everybody was jumping and laughing and hollering and everything, and then one of the counselors-they thought that Mr. Perry would come along and then everybody ran.'

Jackie Wilmer, another inmate of the detention center, testified that he was not present at the first attack upon Anthony in the gym on May 19 but he was present the following week and observed the mop handle attack. 'The only thing I seen was when he was on the side the of the building * * * Somebody stuck a broomstick up his rectum.' When asked who it was, he first replied: 'It was Curley (Edmonds) there, I think.' Later he was asked: 'Are you uncertain it was Curley?', he replied: 'It was Curley.'

While McCarthy and Brumfield did not testify, Edmonds took the stand and when asked: 'You did not put a broom handle up Mr. Anthony's rectum?', he replied: 'That's right.'

The appellants' first contention is not properly before us since no objection was interposed to the trial judge presiding at the trial below and he was not asked to disqualify himself on the ground that he had also presided at their waiver hearing. The issue simply was not preserved for review by this Court. Maryland Rule 1085. Moreover, the record of the waiver proceedings is not before us and we cannot speculate or presume that evidence produced at the waiver hearing in any way influenced the judgment of the presiding judge in reaching the guilty verdicts. See State v. Hutchinson, 260 Md. 227, 271 A.2d 641.

We can find no merit in the...