People v. Reid
| Decision Date | 19 January 1999 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 190302 |
| Citation | 592 N.W.2d 767,233 Mich.App. 457 |
| Parties | PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Patrick REID, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, Susan K. Mladenoff, Prosecuting Attorney, and James B. Jenkins, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.
State Appellate Defender (by C. Joseph Booker ), for the defendant on appeal.
Before: WHITBECK, P.J., and MARK J. CAVANAGH and NEFF, JJ.
A jury convicted defendant of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC I), M.C.L. § 750.520b(1)(b)(iii); MSA 28.788(2)(1)(b)(iii), but acquitted him of a third CSC I count. The trial court sentenced defendant to ten to twenty-five years' imprisonment on each of his two convictions. We affirm. The convictions are based on charges that, while the then apparently fifteen-year-old complainant stayed the night of December 22-23, 1993, 1 at the home of defendant's parents, defendant performed fellatio on the complainant and had the complainant perform fellatio on him. 2
The complainant's father, who was a part-time reserve police officer, indicated that he knew defendant, who worked for an ambulance company, through interaction related to their respective work. The complainant's father testified that the complainant was having some problems in school and that he started to talk about these problems with defendant at some point before December 1993. Eventually, defendant offered to help by talking with the complainant:
[Defendant] said if you ever need someone to let him talk to or you know, someone that he can talk to that's willing to help, that he used to be a counselor at church and dealt with the kids and he would be willing to talk to him.
* * * * * *
[Defendant] kind of chuckled and said I can relate to [the complainant] because I was just like him when I grew up. He goes, I had a problem--he had problems when he was growing up. He didn't go into explanations, but he said he had problems when he was growing up, but he can relate to the kids and he seems to do really good with the kids, get a rapport going or whatever.
The complainant's father said that a few months thereafter, at some point several months before December of 1993, he availed himself of defendant's offered assistance and that the complainant spent time with defendant on three or four occasions including the night of the alleged incidents "[f]or the purpose of [defendant] talking to [the complainant] ... [o]r like being counseled or whatever you want to call it." The complainant's mother testified similarly that the complainant was seeing the defendant for "[a] type of informal counseling that [defendant] had offered to work with [the complainant] and try and find out what his problem was, why he wasn't being real cooperative." The complainant's mother also testified that defendant told her that he had done some counseling before through his church and "that he had been able to work with some of the other kids that he had talked to and help them out a bit."
According to the complainant's testimony, he met defendant through the complainant's father and probably spent time alone with defendant about four times over a two-month period. The first time, which was while the complainant was suspended from school, they went to a mall and a Taco Bell restaurant. The complainant talked with defendant about why he had been suspended from school and generally about what was going on in his life. The complainant explained that, when defendant picked him up, defendant told both the complainant and the complainant's father that "he [defendant] had counseled kids before, he was a counselor, I think, at his church." When asked why he thought he was with defendant, the complainant replied, "just because my dad didn't really want to leave me alone to sit there and watch TV because I was suspended, so he offered to take me for the day so I wouldn't be at home and have free run of the house." The complainant testified that during the second and third times he visited defendant, they went to defendant's residence in Hastings, but that they did not talk very much about what was going on in the complainant's life.
The complainant testified that, on December 22, 1993, he stayed with defendant at the house of defendant's parents. The complainant stated that defendant called him and asked him if he wanted to stay with him that night, told him that they "could stay up like all night playing the computer and games that he got," and mentioned that his wife would not be there. The complainant's mother testified that the complainant called her at work in the early evening of December 22, 1993, and asked if he could leave their house with defendant. However, the complainant was still home when the complainant's mother arrived home that evening. She testified that defendant arrived at about 9:00 p.m. and that she was concerned about the lateness of the hour at which defendant and the complainant were departing and about the approximate thirty-mile distance to defendant's residence. She said that "they decided if it got late that [the complainant] would just sleep on the couch there and he would come home the following morning."
The complainant testified that, on the way to the house of defendant's parents, defendant stopped at a gas station and asked him if he wanted a pack of cigarettes and that defendant then bought him a pack of "Marlboro reds" cigarettes. The complainant explained that defendant knew from their prior contact that the complainant smoked. Thereafter, they arrived at the house. Eventually, the complainant and defendant went downstairs to the basement where a computer and a bed were located. The two played with the computer for hours. At some point, after the complainant asked for something to drink, defendant went upstairs and apparently got some "7 Up" soda pop. Defendant gave the complainant a plastic glass that appeared to contain "7 Up." The beverage "tasted funny" to the complainant. However, he had not had "7 Up" for a long time and continued to drink it without any comment. After the complainant finished the first glass, he accepted defendant's offer of more glasses; the complainant thought that he probably had three or four glasses total, all of which had the same taste, in a period of about an hour to an hour and one-half.
After finishing either his first or second glass, the complainant saw defendant pour into the complainant's glass of soda pop a clear liquid from a tall bottle that had the word "vodka." At that point, the complainant described himself as feeling "[d]izzy, light-headed." Eventually, the complainant asked defendant what he had been pouring in the complainant's drinks, and defendant said, "oh, it's just some vodka." As time went on, the complainant felt "[d]izzy, hot, sweaty, light-headed." When asked if he knew what was going on around him, the complainant replied, "[n]ot very well, everything kind of looked like it was in slow motion."
The complainant indicated that, during the time they were in the basement, defendant instructed him to urinate in a two-liter bottle because he did not want the complainant to go upstairs and wake up his parents. The complainant thought that he urinated in the bottle twice.
According to the complainant, defendant eventually told him that he was drunk and that he should take off his shirt and pants so that if he got sick he would not get them dirty and his mother would not know. When the complainant stood up, he felt "really dizzy and off balance a lot." The complaint removed his shirt and pants and lay on the bed; he was still wearing his underwear. Defendant brought up pictures on the computer of males holding their genitals. Eventually, defendant got on the bed with the complainant. 3
The complainant indicated that while he was lying on the bed, defendant eventually rubbed the complainant's genitals through his underwear. The complainant described himself as feeling "[n]umb" at that point. Defendant eventually reached under the complainant's underwear, rubbed the complainant's genitals, and told the complainant to take his underwear off. The complainant rolled over on his side, and defendant removed the complainant's underwear and then all of his own clothes. Defendant then resumed fondling the complainant and told the complainant to fondle defendant, which the complainant did.
The complainant's testimony regarding time frames is somewhat confused. However, he indicated that at some point defendant went to tend to his baby, but then returned. According to the complainant, defendant eventually started to perform oral sex on him. The complainant testified that, at some point thereafter, defendant asked the complainant to perform oral sex on defendant and that he did so. The complainant described himself as feeling dizzy and light-headed while he performed oral sex on defendant.
Eventually, the complainant reported to his mother that defendant had sexually abused him, and this triggered a series of events that quite rapidly led to police involvement and investigation. The police searched the basement of the house where the complainant said he had been sexually abused. A police officer testified that he seized soiled "Kleenex tissues" that appeared to have a tacky "yellowish substance" on them. Detective David Walters testified that he found a twelve- or sixteen-ounce bottle that may have contained urine. Testimony from a state police laboratory analyst indicated that some of these tissues contained material that was consistent with having been emitted from a person with a B blood type, which was the complainant's blood type (and apparently also the blood type of defendant's wife), and that some of the tissues...
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