People v. Teicher
| Decision Date | 12 May 1981 |
| Citation | 52 N.Y.2d 638,439 N.Y.S.2d 846,422 N.E.2d 506 |
| Parties | , 422 N.E.2d 506 The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Marvin TEICHER, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
The present appeal arises out of nonjury trial of a dentist who stands convicted of sexually abusing two female patients while they were under the effects of sedation at defendant's office. A camera, which had been secreted in defendant's treatment room pursuant to a warrant, recorded one of the alleged incidents of sexual abuse. Several issues are raised on appeal, including the propriety of admitting into evidence a video tape of defendant's activities. In affirming defendant's conviction, we hold today that a warrant may issue to authorize the video taping of evidence to be admitted at a subsequent trial, provided certain procedures are followed and certain safeguards are observed.
The defendant, a dentist practicing in Manhattan, was convicted of two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree (Penal Law, § 130.65, subd. 2) for allegedly subjecting two female patients to sexual contact while they were "incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless". The indictment upon which defendant was tried contained three counts of sexual abuse predicated upon the complaints of three of defendant's patients: Susan Hyman, Randi Carson and Dorothy Beineix. Each of the complainants alleged that they were subjected to physical contact of a sexual nature as they were recovering from the effects of sedation administered by defendant.
Susan Hyman first went to defendant's office to have a wisdom tooth extracted. After she expressed her fear that novocaine would not sufficiently deaden her pain, Dr. Teicher offered to use another method. Then, presumably to determine if she would suffer any adverse effects from the administration of a general sedative, he performed several tests on his patient and thereafter injected a fluid into her arm causing her to lose consciousness.
At trial Hyman testified that she awoke from her state of unconsciousness when she heard someone calling her name and felt something was touching her face. She opened her eyes and saw an exposed penis directly in front of her. Closing her eyes again, she reopened them to see a pair of trousers being zipped shut. Defendant then slapped her face, touched her blouse and lifted her from the dental chair. Hyman was still groggy and could not control her arms and legs. Defendant told her to "ventilate" her arms and he then drew her close to him and kissed her. While the patient was still unable to stand, defendant, while supporting her body, moved his hands over her breasts and thighs.
Several days following this encounter Ms. Hyman reported the incident to the police. The police equipped her with a hidden microphone before her next visit to the dentist, but when she questioned defendant about his prior activities he refused to admit that he had sexually assaulted her. He did, however, ask Ms. Hyman to join him at his hotel room. She refused his invitation, agreeing instead to meet with him at a nearby bar. On this next rendezvous Hyman was once more equipped with a recording device, but once again defendant made no admission of illegal conduct.
The police also received a complaint from Randi Carson, who had initially gone to defendant's office for an examination and X rays and later returned for further treatment. As in Ms. Hyman's case, the defendant gave Ms. Carson a drug, which caused her to lose consciousness immediately. When she awakened she was assisted into a recovery room and, while she was resting there and still overcoming the effect of the drug which had been injected, defendant entered the room and closed the door behind him. No one else was present. Defendant at first tried to lift Carson to a standing position, but his efforts were unsuccessful. He then lifted her hand and placed it on his pants directly over his penis. Although she was still weak, Carson testified she was able to pull her hand away. Carson also testified that defendant kissed her during this encounter and made a remark which she understood as a request to perform an act of oral sex. In addition, according to Carson, he repeatedly asked her to meet with him at his hotel room. Later, upon arriving home, Carson noticed that her underwear was wet and that there was a soreness on the left side of her vagina which she had not felt before her visit to the doctor. That evening Carson brought her complaints to the police.
Carson later returned to defendant's office wearing a hidden microphone supplied by the police, but no further acts of sexual abuse were recorded or observed by the patient. After this visit defendant telephoned Carson several times at her home to ask her if he could visit with her. Finally, Ms. Carson again returned to defendant's office with a microphone. In response to her attempts to elicit admissions of sexual abuse from the dentist, however, defendant told her only that the drug he had injected had caused her to imagine the incident of which she later testified.
As a result of these complaints by Hyman and Carson and the unsuccessful efforts of the police to obtain additional incriminating evidence against the dentist, the District Attorney's office obtained a warrant authorizing the police to install a camera in defendant's office to monitor his treatment of patients who had consented to the taping. Pursuant to a prearranged plan, Police Officer Dorothy Beineix then went to defendant's office and made an appointment to have a wisdom tooth extracted at a later date. On the morning of Officer Beineix' appointment, the police entered defendant's office and installed the camera in a ceiling ventilator in one of defendant's examining rooms. The camera, which was focused on the dentist's chair, was connected to a video recorder and was monitored by police officers who were waiting in the basement of the building.
Later that morning, Ms. Beineix returned to defendant's office to keep her appointment. Defendant first checked her pulse and blood pressure and then lifted her blouse to examine her chest with his stethescope. During this preliminary examination he instructed her that if she began to have difficulty breathing she should stand, lift her arms and breathe deeply. Following the examination, defendant administered a drug which caused Beineix to lose consciousness. While Beineix was unconscious defendant extracted her tooth and, at one point during this procedure, lifted her blouse and again examined her bare chest with his stethescope. During this entire period, defendant and Ms. Beineix were alone in the treatment room. As Ms. Beineix began to regain consciousness, defendant asked her to stand and put her arms around him. Since she had no control over her body at this time, Beineix told the doctor that she was unable to stand. Defendant then lifted her out of the dental chair and pulled her towards him. While sitting on a stool in front of the dental chair with Ms. Beineix between his legs, defendant lifted her blouse and began moving his hands across the upper part of her back and around toward her breasts. He then slid both hands down across her back and grabbed her buttocks. While massaging her buttocks in a circular motion he drew her body toward his. All of these actions were recorded on the video tape which was later admitted into evidence.
At this point the officers who were monitoring the video tape in the basement signaled other officers to arrest defendant. Detective Brech and Investigator Dadona were the first to enter the treatment room. Dadona testified at trial that when he first opened the door he observed that defendant's hands were on Ms. Beineix' sides, and that his thumbs were massaging the nipples of her breasts.
At his subsequent trial defendant was convicted of two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree for the acts committed upon complainants Carson and Beineix. The count involving the complaint of Susan Hyman was dismissed, however, because the court found that defendant's guilt had not been established beyond a reasonable doubt. A divided Appellate Division affirmed defendant's conviction on both counts, and leave to appeal to this court was thereafter granted. Defendant now attacks the judgment of conviction on several grounds.
Defendant first contests his conviction on the count concerning the Carson incident on the ground that the evidence at trial was insufficient, as a matter of law, to establish his guilt. The statute under which defendant was convicted provides that a person is guilty of sexual abuse in the first degree when he subjects another person to sexual contact "the other person is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless" (Penal Law, § 130.65, subd. 2). Sexual contact is defined in the Penal Law as "any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person not married to the actor for the purpose of gratifying the sexual desire of either party" (Penal Law, § 130.00, subd. 3). Defendant claims that the evidence at trial was insufficient to establish that Ms. Carson was incapable of consenting to the touching and that there was no evidence to establish that this touching was for sexual gratification. Neither of these claims is supported by the record.
Carson was heavily sedated at the time the initial touching occurred and, as a consequence, she was in an extremely weakened condition. Thus, although she had enough control over her body to pull her hand away after defendant had placed it against his penis, the trier of fact was entitled to infer that she lacked capacity to consent to the original touching because of her generally weakened condition. Furthermore, we find defe...
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