Perera v. State
| Decision Date | 14 April 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 3D02-3056.,3D02-3056. |
| Citation | 873 So.2d 389 |
| Parties | Ismael Grillo PERERA, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Louis K. Nicholas, II, Special Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and Meredith L. Balo, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Before COPE, GREEN and RAMIREZ, JJ.
Ismael Grillo Perera appeals his judgment of conviction and sentence that originated from twenty-nine counts of sexual battery on a minor by an adult and resulted in twenty-two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment, without parole. We affirm because we do not find any abuse of discretion in the admissibility of the statement related to Perera's prior sexual abuse which he argues constituted irrelevant, immaterial, and improper character evidence. We also reject Perera's ineffective assistance of counsel claims.
At trial, sisters A.P. and M.A. testified, as well as their brother Enrique Del Vayo. Perera was the former boyfriend of the siblings' mother who lived with the family throughout most of A.P.'s and M.A.'s early childhood years. A.P. testified that Perera started touching her private parts and molesting her from a very young age. Perera threatened A.P. into silence. After a number of years, A.P. caught Perera performing anal sex on her sister M.A., and she became so upset that she ran downstairs, called her brother Del Vayo, screamed at her mother, and tried to explain to them what had been going on. When A.P. turned thirteen years of age, Perera moved out of the family's home and he stopped his sexual molestation of A.P. The two sisters eventually reported Perera's sexual abuse to the police.
M.A. testified that Perera sexually molested her, and he also performed anal and oral sex on her on numerous occasions. One day when Perera was molesting her, A.P. walked in on them and saw what Perera was doing. She did not tell anyone in her family what was happening because Perera threatened her. She did not tell anyone about the abuse because she thought that if she did not think about it, it would all just go away.
Del Vayo testified that in 1989 or in the early 1990's, A.P. telephoned him. He described A.P. as upset. When he responded to A.P.'s call, she told him that she was sick of what Perera was doing to her. Del Vayo then confronted Perera. Perera said that he was sorry, that he had been abused by his uncle in Cuba. At this time, the defense objected, and the trial court overruled the objection and requested that defense counsel state the grounds of his objection. Defense counsel again objected, but stated no grounds. The trial court overruled the objection. Del Vayo thereafter testified that Perera lowered his pants and he showed Del Vayo, as well as the siblings' mother, his private parts. Perera also reiterated that he had been sexually abused as a child in Cuba. The defense objected a third time, this time on the grounds that Del Vayo's statements constituted hearsay. The trial court overruled the objection, relying upon an exception to the hearsay rule.
During closing arguments, both sides mentioned the confrontation between Del Vayo, the mother, and Perera. The State also stated that Perera's apology was "his excuse for sexually assaulting [the] two girls."
Perera's main point on appeal is that the trial court improperly admitted his statement about his uncle's abuse of him in Cuba as pedophile profile testimony. This argument is entirely misplaced.
To preserve an issue for appeal, counsel must make a specific objection to the admission of the evidence. See Tillman v. State, 471 So.2d 32, 35 (Fla.1985). See also Filan v. State, 768 So.2d 1100, 1102 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000) (). Perera's defense counsel twice failed to state the specific grounds for his objections to the introduction of Perera's statements regarding Perera's apology and uncle abuse. The grounds were not readily apparent to the trial court and, once enunciated, the hearsay grounds could be easily dismissed as an admission by a party opponent. See § 90.803(18), Fla. Stat. (2002).
Even if counsel had raised the improper pedophile profile testimony objection, it would not necessarily have been sustained. Pedophile profile cases typically involve the presentation of expert witness testimony on the criteria of a pedophile profile evidence, as well as testimony that the defendant's traits qualify as a pedophile under the illustrated criteria. See Flanagan v. State, 625 So.2d 827, 829-30 (Fla. 1993). See also Gay v. State, ...
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...1991); Anderson v. State, 546 So.2d 65, 67 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989); see also § 90.104(1)(a), (b), Fla. Stat. (2006);2 cf. Perera v. State, 873 So.2d 389 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004). In this case, and at this stage in the development of the law and practice in this district, it was, and is, perfectly obv......
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