People v. Barlow

• Decision Date: 06 May 1982
• Citation: 451 N.Y.S.2d 254,88 A.D.2d 668
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Hugh J. BARLOW, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 254

451 N.Y.S.2d 254

88 A.D.2d 668

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Hugh J. BARLOW, Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division Third Department.

May 6, 1982.

Raymond M. Schlather, Ithaca, for appellant.

Benjamin J. Bucko, Tompkins County Dist. Atty., Ithaca, for respondent.

Before MAIN, J. P., and CASEY, YESAWICH, WEISS and LEVINE, JJ.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Tompkins County, rendered October 28, 1980, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of rape in the first degree, rape in the second degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, reckless endangerment in the second degree, and coercion in the second degree.

Defendant was charged with raping and sodomizing his 14 and 13-year-old daughters. The incidents allegedly occurred over a two-year period prior to defendant's arrest. At trial, Anita, the 14-year-old, testified that she was kept out of school beginning November 19, 1979, after her father untruthfully reported her missing. In the ensuing period, before she escaped the household on January 22, 1980, she claimed that her father raped and sodomized her repeatedly. She recounted an incident on January 7, 1980, when after she attempted to resist his demands the father forced her to write a suicide note and then threatened her with a shotgun before raping her. Trudy, defendant's 13-year-old daughter, also described numerous instances of forced intercourse and sodomy with her father. Another child, Joseph, aged 12, testified that he had observed intercourse between his father and Trudy. The children testified that they were extremely afraid of their father, who weighed over 300 pounds; other witnesses stated that they had observed defendant visiting threats and violent discipline on his children.

The defense endeavored to show that the complainants had concocted this story in an effort to get their father out of the house in retaliation for his excessive and harsh discipline. Two apparently disinterested neighbors testified that Trudy had told them that she had lied to investigators when accusing her father, but was now afraid to retract her earlier statements. Defendant's wife and his oldest son also testified that the girls had admitted that the incidents never occurred. After lengthy deliberations, during which the foreman twice informed the court that the jury was deadlocked, defendant was convicted as charged only on the count of first degree rape of Trudy Barlow. It found defendant either not guilty or guilty of lesser included charges on the remaining counts.

Defendant contends that a reversal is warranted because the indictment was both factually insufficient and jurisdictionally defective for duplicity and lack of specificity. We find this argument unpersuasive, for repeated acts of sexual molestation of one's own young children have been treated as one continuous crime (People v. Yonko, 34 N.Y.2d 825, 826, 359 N.Y.S.2d 54, 316 N.E.2d 338). Furthermore, defendant has not shown that the indictment failed to...