Mansfield v. State

• Decision Date: 30 September 2011
• Docket Number: Sept. Term,2010.,No. 53,53
• Citation: 29 A.3d 569,422 Md. 269
• Parties: Christopher MANSFIELDv.STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

422 Md. 269

29 A.3d 569

Christopher MANSFIELD

v.STATE of Maryland.

No. 53

Sept. Term

2010.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Sept. 30, 2011.

Renee M. Hutchins (University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, MD), on brief, for Petitioner.Brenda Gruss, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Douglas F. Gansler, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD), on brief, for Respondent.Argued before BELL, C.J. HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, MURPHY, ADKINS and BARBERA, JJ.BELL, C.J.

I.

The petitioner, Christopher Mansfield, was tried in a bench trial at the Circuit Court for Caroline County on five counts, charging statutory sex related offenses,¹ arising out of his alleged sexual assault of a minor years earlier. At the close of all of the evidence, the petitioner having testified in his own defense, the trial judge, sua sponte and over the petitioner's objection, “declare[d] a mistrial on herself,” intending to set the case in for a new trial before another judge. This decision was upheld by both the motions judge, from whom the petitioner initially sought relief, in the form of dismissal of the indictment on the ground of double jeopardy, and by the Court of Special Appeals, to which he appealed the adverse rulings.² This Court granted the petitioner's petition for writ of certiorari to determine whether, under the facts and circumstances sub judice, there was “manifest necessity” for the trial judge's declaration of mistrial, thus permitting the petitioner's retrial.

Before the start of this trial, the petitioner had been convicted in two separate, unrelated cases of sexual offenses involving young women who were minors, “under the age of 17 or 16.” Those judgments of conviction were being appealed at the time. The trial judge was aware of these convictions and, as to at least one of them, so too were the prosecutor and defense counsel. Indeed, the trial judge had presided over one of the unrelated sexual offense cases, a jury trial, in which both the prosecutor and defense counsel in this case had participated. In addition, she was aware of the other case involving a different minor, which had been presided over by a retired, recall judge. These convictions were not discussed prior to trial; although she mentioned the convictions during the trial, after jeopardy had attached, thereby acknowledging that she was aware of them, the trial judge did not mention them before jeopardy attached.

Prior to trial, it was clear that the complaining witness had not reported the sexual offenses she accused the petitioner of committing promptly or within a reasonable time of their commission. The charging documents alleged that the offenses occurred in 2005 but that they were not reported by the complaining witness until 2008. In fact, in preliminary discussions of the case, the State advised the trial judge that the complaining witness had not reported immediately the sexual offenses lodged against the petitioner and that it expected her to testify that, nearly three years after the event, after she heard a sermon at the church she attended, she decided to come forward with the sexual assault allegations against the petitioner. The State also apprised the court that it intended to call five other witnesses, none of whom had personal knowledge of the alleged offenses or would provide forensic evidence.

For the defense, defense counsel informed the court that it intended to call the petitioner, and only the petitioner, to testify. Moreover, during its brief opening statement, the defense made clear what its defense would be and what the petitioner would testify to, that the alleged incident “did not happen.”

As expected, consistent with the preliminary discussions, the State's case consisted of the complaining witness, her mother, a former friend to whom it was alleged the complaining witness related the sexual offense during the summer in which it occurred and three other witnesses.³ The complaining witness testified that she had been sexually assaulted by the petitioner, a friend of the family, in August of 2005, when she was thirteen years old and that she reported the incident in 2008. She explained the circumstances: the petitioner had been hired by her parents to do work on the family's house, which was located next to the trailer where the family resided. After she delivered the glue that the petitioner had requested, she said that the petitioner asked her whether she had ever had sex. When she did not respond, the complaining witness testified that the petitioner told her that, unless she had sex with him, he would tell her parents that she was sexually active. She concluded that, after she had performed fellatio on the petitioner for a brief time, she and the petitioner engaged in sexual intercourse.

The complaining witness's mother testified that, in May of 2005, the petitioner was hired to redo the family's kitchen but quit, without notice, before completing the job. She further testified that, after a June 2008 meeting with her husband, their pastor, two former youth leaders, and the complaining witness, at which the complaining witness first alleged that she had been raped by the petitioner in the summer of 2005, she then went to the police to report the incident. The complaining witness's former friend was offered to corroborate her testimony that the sexual assault occurred. She testified that the complaining witness told her, during the summer in which it allegedly occurred, that the complaining witness had “sex with the guy that was working on the house.” She also said that the complaining witness did not say “it was rape or anything.” None of the State's other witnesses had any knowledge of the alleged offense until some years later.

The subject of the petitioner's prior sexual convictions was brought up three times, each time by the trial judge, before the defense presented its case. During the testimony of the complaining witness, the trial judge inquired whether the complaining witness and her parents had ever discussed “the fact that [the petitioner] had been charged in two other cases involving alleged rape.” Subsequently, she asked the complaining witness's mother directly, whether she was aware of the “other allegations involving” the petitioner and whether she had “any recollection of having conversations about [the] allegations” involving petitioner. Finally, prior to the petitioner being called to give testimony, the trial judge asked the State if it intended to use the petitioner's two prior sexual convictions to impeach his testimony. ⁴

When the petitioner took the witness stand, he testified as counsel, in opening statement, said he would: he denied ever having sexual contact with the complaining witness. He did, on the other hand, corroborate the complaining witness's testimony that, in August 2005, he was engaged to, and did, perform repairs to the complaining witness's family home.

At the close of the evidence and after a brief recess, the trial judge, over the petitioner's objection, sua sponte declared a mistrial. She explained, first, “the dilemma that I have”:

“This case basically comes down to a he said/she said situation and if one chooses to believe [the complaining witness's] version of what happened, which was certainly credible, then a fact finder can make a finding beyond a reasonable doubt that [the petitioner] is guilty. Now if the fact finder elects not to believe [the complaining witness] and finds [the petitioner's] version more credible, then the Court would then have to return a verdict for, of not guilty. This is the dilemma that this Court has. Not placed into evidence, either by way of an impeachable conviction or evidence if admissible of other past wrong acts, this Court has knowledge that [the petitioner] has two convictions, sexual-related convictions involving young women under the age of 17 or 16. I did the first case .... and Judge Cal Sanders did the second case....”

Then she explained why she believed that it—her knowledge of the petitioner's prior convictions and the partiality it engendered—made it manifestly necessary for her to declare a mistrial:

“I cannot extract out of my brain and my analysis of whether to believe [the petitioner] what I know from those other two cases. Now had there been other evidence in this case, forensic evidence, if, if perhaps [the complaining witness] had made a, a prompt report of the sexual assault, if [the petitioner] had made a statement in admission, all those things would alter my decision today, but I'm basically left as a fact finder for deciding who I'm going to believe just based upon their testimony. And it's a moral dilemma to me and I told counsel I don't take this lightly.... [I]f this had been a jury trial, I wouldn't be in this dilemma, cause the jury's the fact finder, not the Court. I'm the fact finder and I'm not able to do it, knowing what I know about [the petitioner]. So that's why I'm declaring a mistrial....”

The petitioner subsequently moved to dismiss the indictment on double jeopardy grounds. He argued that “there was not manifest necessity for the granting of the mistrial where [the trial judge] had knowledge of the prior [sexual assault] cases well before the trial began.” The motion's judge denied the petitioner's motion. Relying on this Court's decision in Cornish v. State, 272 Md. 312, 322 A.2d 880 (1974), he concluded that the trial judge “had no choice but to declare a mistrial” once she had “ perceived that the trial of [the] case could not proceed because of some prejudice to” the petitioner. According to the motions judge, it is inconceivable that the trial judge could have known, prior to jeopardy attaching, that, to resolve the case, she would be required to weigh the credibility of the complaining witness against that of the petitioner, that the case would devolve into, in the words of the trial judge, a “he said/she said situation.” He elaborated:

“[The trial judge] had no way of knowing how ...