Geiger v. State

• Decision Date: 29 July 2005
• Docket Number: No. 2D04-2474.,2D04-2474.
• Parties: Cletus GEIGER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

907 So.2d 668

Cletus GEIGER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 2D04-2474.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

July 29, 2005.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and John C. Fisher, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jonathan P. Hurley, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

SILBERMAN, Judge.

Cletus Geiger appeals the conviction and sentence entered following his no contest plea to sexual battery on a mentally defective person. He reserved the right to appeal the denial of his motion to dismiss and his motion challenging the constitutionality of section 92.565, Florida Statutes (2003), which addresses the admissibility of confessions in sexual abuse cases.

The State filed charges against Geiger after he made incriminating statements. We conclude that under section 92.565, the statements would have been inadmissible at trial due to the absence of corroborating evidence. Because the State had no other evidence establishing that a crime had occurred, the trial court should have granted Geiger's motion to dismiss. Therefore we reverse and remand for entry of an order of dismissal. Because this case can be resolved without determining constitutional issues, we do not address Geiger's constitutional challenge to section 92.565. See State v. Boyd, 846 So.2d 458, 459-60 (Fla. 2003)

; Matthews v. Weinberg, 645 So.2d 487, 488 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994).

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Geiger was a certified nursing assistant at Quality Healthcare Center in North Port. His duties included feeding, dressing, and bathing patients. In July 2003, Geiger told an elder at his church that he had exposed himself to one of the patients at the facility and that he had placed his penis into the mouth of another patient. The church elder reported these statements through the Florida Abuse Hotline, resulting in an investigation by the Florida Department of Children and Family Services. When the facility's administrator and its director of nursing learned of Geiger's statements they contacted Geiger, who repeated his statements to them. Geiger later spoke with a police detective, again admitting to improper conduct with the patients. The State charged Geiger with one count of sexual battery and one count of lewd or lascivious exhibition.

Geiger filed a sworn motion to dismiss, contending that apart from his statements there was no proof that he committed any crime. The motion asserted that there were no witnesses to the charged crimes; that the patients, who both suffer from Alzheimer's disease, were incapable of telling anyone about the incidents; and that there was no physical evidence to corroborate the charged crimes. The motion concluded that the undisputed facts did not establish a prima facie case of guilt.

Both the State and Geiger filed motions for a hearing to determine the trustworthiness of Geiger's statements for admission at trial pursuant to section 92.565. Geiger asserted and the State acknowledged that the patients were unable to tell anyone about what Geiger might have done and were unable to testify due to mental and physical disabilities; that there were no witnesses or physical evidence linking Geiger to the charged crimes; and that the only evidence that the alleged incidents occurred was Geiger's statements. The State added that "there is no known forensic evidence indicating that sexual contact took place" and that medical examinations on the victims were inconclusive.

SECTION 92.565 AND THE EVIDENTIARY HEARING

Section 92.565(2) provides that when a defendant is charged with committing a specified crime, including sexual battery,

the defendant's memorialized confession or admission is admissible during trial without the state having to prove a corpus delicti of the crime if the court finds in a hearing conducted outside the presence of the jury that the state is unable to show the existence of each element of the crime, and having so found, further finds that the defendant's confession or admission is trustworthy. Factors which may be relevant in determining whether the state is unable to show the existence of each element of the crime include, but are not limited to, the fact that, at the time the crime was committed, the victim was:

(a) Physically helpless, mentally incapacitated, or mentally defective, as those terms are defined in s. 794.011;

(b) Physically incapacitated due to age, infirmity, or any other cause; or

(c) Less than 12 years of age.

Section 92.565(3) addresses the need for corroborating evidence of the trustworthiness of the confession or admission as follows:

Before the court admits the defendant's confession or admission, the state must prove by a preponderance of evidence that there is sufficient corroborating evidence that tends to establish the trustworthiness of the statement by the defendant. Hearsay evidence is admissible during the presentation of evidence at the hearing. In making its determination, the court may consider all relevant corroborating evidence, including the defendant's statements.

Pursuant to section 92.565, the trial court held an evidentiary hearing to determine the trustworthiness of Geiger's statements. The State established that at the time of the alleged crimes, the victims suffered from total dementia and were unable to communicate rationally. Geiger was the sole caretaker of the victims during the night shift and would have had the opportunity to commit the charged crimes. The State introduced Geiger's recorded statement to the police in which he admitted to the incidents, described the incidents in detail, and claimed that the victims had communicated their desire to have sex with him. The State presented evidence that Geiger was not coerced and freely made each of his admissions.

The State also introduced into evidence a letter from Geiger to the facility's director of nursing that contained his request for a change from the night shift to the day shift due to "benifits [sic] to my health and family life." The State argued that Geiger sent the letter about ten days to two weeks before the alleged crimes took place and that it showed Geiger's state of mind. Based on Geiger's statements, the State contended that Geiger asked for the shift change because "[h]e knew that there was a temptation. He was having trouble resisting that temptation."

The defense elicited testimony from Dr. Eddy Regnier, a clinical psychologist who examined Geiger, reviewed his medical records, and spoke with his wife. Dr. Regnier determined that Geiger was competent to proceed in the case and that he was not insane at the time of the alleged offenses. However, Dr. Regnier diagnosed Geiger with major depression with psychotic features and anxiety disorder, and he noted that Geiger had abused alcohol, sedatives, hypnotics, and other drugs in the past.

Dr. Regnier noted that Geiger had a breakdown and was hospitalized in 1975 and diagnosed with schizophrenia. The diagnosis was later revised to major depression with psychotic features. Because of the "psychotic break" in 1975, Geiger was given antipsychotic medication. He had been on a range of medications, but he never consistently followed a medication regimen because of side effects. He had ceased the medication years before the alleged crimes. During the 1975 hospitalization, Geiger also began a "mucusless diet,"¹ which resulted in rapid weight loss.

Dr. Regnier testified that Geiger did not have another psychotic episode until just before or around the time that the alleged crimes occurred. He learned from Geiger's wife that Geiger had resumed the mucusless diet and had become more withdrawn and obsessed about his diet. Geiger had the idea that the women at the nursing home, who were unresponsive, were trying to communicate that they wanted sexual relations with him. Dr. Regnier stated that "[t]he idea that he was having these kinds of discussions or beliefs about people who were basically unresponsive is quirky and may, in fact, represent some psychotic thinking." Further, Dr. Regnier noted that together with "isolation at home, this abrupt change in his pattern of behavior suggests that something psychological is going on."

Dr. Regnier stated that a person making a false confession is "quite a common phenomenon." Persons with delusions, including those of a sexual nature, "firmly believe that these events are true and will tell others in a way to warn them, in a way to try to get help for themselves." He added that psychotic individuals tell the same story with amazing accuracy over and over again. He stated that Geiger's admissions could be a fantasy or the result of a mental disorder. Based on Geiger's having a prior mental disorder and breakdown that resulted in hospitalization, his purported behavior changes, and his belief that the women were communicating with him, Geiger's repeated statements could be due to a mental disorder or fantasy, or the "fabrication of a diseased mind."

At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court observed that no one knew that any crime had occurred apart from Geiger's statements. The court then stated that there was "quite a bit of indicia of reliability"² concerning Geiger's statements. The court observed that Geiger's statement, that the noncommunicative women had indicated they wanted the sexual contact, was a double-edged sword. The court indicated that this claim might somehow have legitimized what Geiger did: "He was doing something, quote, to satisfy these woman's [sic] sexual needs or desires, as bizarre as that might be, and it's quite possible that he would think of that as their consent or as being a defense."

The trial court commented that Geiger's statement to a church elder was because Geiger "thought, just like going into a confessional, you get right with God, but you don't necessarily expect to get right with the law or with the community." The court stated...