Perez Hernandez v. United States

• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Easterly, Associate Judge
• Citation: Perez Hernandez v. United States, 207 A.3d 594 (D.C. 2019)
• Decision Date: 09 May 2019
• Docket Number: No. 15-CM-130,15-CM-130
• Parties: Winston Manuel PEREZ HERNANDEZ, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

207 A.3d 594

Winston Manuel PEREZ HERNANDEZ, Appellant,

v.UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 15-CM-130

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued September 27, 2016

Decided May 9, 2019

Lisa S. Resnikoff for appellant.

Ryan M. Malone, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Vincent H. Cohen, Jr., Acting United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and Elizabeth Trosman, Suzanne Grealy Curt, and Kamil Shields, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before Fisher, Beckwith, and Easterly, Associate Judges.

Opinion by Associate Judge Fisher, dissenting, at page 22.

Easterly, Associate Judge:

In this appeal, we consider for the first time whether a single unwanted touching of another person on the arm, without any evidence that the touching was attempted (or achieved) with force or violence, can support a conviction for simple assault under an attempted-battery theory. We hold it cannot.¹

I. Facts and Procedural History

Although our focus in this appeal is on an unwanted touch on the arm, that was not the government's interest at trial. The government's theory of the case, which it set forth in its opening statement to the trial court, was that appellant, Winston Perez Hernandez, had violently attacked complainant, Alimamy Tarawallie, after the two friends watched a 2014 World Cup soccer match² together. The prelude to this attack was Mr. Tarawallie's request that Mr. Perez Hernandez stop touching him. The government said that the evidence would show that Mr. Perez Hernandez, in response to Mr. Tarawallie's request, first put his finger in Mr. Tarawallie's eye and then, after Mr. Tarawallie pushed him away, hit Mr. Tarawallie over the head with a beer bottle.

In support of this narrative, the government called Mr. Tarawallie as its main witness. Mr. Tarawallie testified that he had invited a group of friends, including Mr. Perez Hernandez, over to his home to watch the match, and, after the game, the group moved outside. Mr. Perez Hernandez, who was drinking beer from a bottle, came over to talk to Mr. Tarawallie. While Mr. Perez Hernandez spoke, he touched Mr. Tarawallie. Mr. Tarawallie did not specify where exactly Mr. Perez Hernandez touched him, and the government did not ask a follow-up question to elicit this information, but it appears Mr. Perez Hernandez touched Mr. Tarawallie somewhere on his arm.³ Mr. Tarawallie did not like that physical contact⁴ and asked Mr. Perez Hernandez not to touch him. But Mr. Perez Hernandez "did not seem to listen ... [a]nd he started saying stuff against" Mr. Tarawallie and asking if he did not want Mr. Perez Hernandez to touch him because Mr. Perez Hernandez is black. Mr. Tarawallie explained that it was "nothing about color," and told Mr. Perez Hernandez "to stop touching me if you talk. Just talk and I'll listen to you." Mr. Perez Hernandez then asked Mr. Tarawallie: "If I touch you, what you going to do to me?" Mr. Tarawallie responded, "if you touch me, I'll push you." According to Mr. Tarawallie, Mr. Perez Hernandez disregarded this warning and "touched" Mr. Tarawallie again, "put[ting] his finger [or fingers] on [Mr. Tarawallie's] face," specifically in both of his "eyes."⁵

Mr. Tarawallie testified that, in response to Mr. Perez Hernandez's actions, he pushed Mr. Perez Hernandez, and Mr. Perez Hernandez then hit him on the forehead with a beer bottle. Somehow both men ended up on the ground. Mr. Perez Hernandez was on top of Mr. Tarawallie and banged Mr. Tarawallie's head against the sidewalk. Mr. Perez Hernandez then "ran away" from the scene of the incident. Mr. Tarawallie testified that he was bleeding as a result of the attack and was also bruised on the back of his head.

On cross-examination, the defense challenged Mr. Tarawallie's account of the incident, eliciting an admission from him that he had said he would "punch"—not push—Mr. Perez Hernandez if Mr. Perez Hernandez touched him again. The defense highlighted the inconsistency between Mr. Tarawallie's statement to the police and his testimony on direct examination on the subject of where and how Mr. Perez Hernandez had touched Mr. Tarawallie after being asked not to—specifically whether he put his finger or fingers in Mr. Tarawallie's eye or eyes.⁶ The defense also established that the beer bottle Mr. Perez Hernandez allegedly used as a weapon had been found under a bush, some twenty to thirty feet away from the incident, even though Mr. Tarawallie maintained that neither he nor Mr. Perez Hernandez had touched the bottle after it fell to the ground.⁷ Lastly, the defense established that Mr. Tarawallie had no visible injuries to the back of his head.

The government also called Officer William Schoppman and Detective Savoy to the stand. Officer Schoppman testified that he had responded to the scene but had not seen the fight in progress; Detective Savoy spoke to Mr. Perez Hernandez after he turned himself in and agreed to be interviewed by police. Through Officer Schoppman, the defense confirmed the location of the beer bottle and the minimal extent of Mr. Tarawallie's injuries. Through Detective Savoy, the defense elicited testimony that Mr. Perez Hernandez told the police that Mr. Tarawallie had attacked him and that he had acted in self-defense.

In addition to eliciting evidence in the government's case-in-chief that undercut the government's theory, the defense called Bismark Enrique Serrano Baez, who was present at Mr. Tarawallie's home to watch the World Cup game and saw the fight. Mr. Baez testified that Mr. Tarawallie "wasn't happy" when Brazil lost to Germany. He saw Mr. Perez Hernandez talking to Mr. Tarawallie outside, telling him he should not feel badly about Brazil's defeat because he had not lost any money on the match. Mr. Baez then heard Mr. Tarawallie say "don't touch my arm or you're going to see what is going to happen to you." Mr. Tarawallie also warned Mr. Baez that there would be an issue if Mr. Perez Hernandez touched him again. Mr. Perez Hernandez "touched [Mr. Tarawallie's] arm again," at which point Mr. Tarawallie "reacted violently and ... punched" Mr. Perez Hernandez. Mr. Perez Hernandez ended up on the sidewalk with Mr. Tarawallie on top of him. When he flipped Mr. Tarawallie onto the ground to extricate himself, Mr. Tarawallie's head hit the ground. Mr. Perez Hernandez, who was himself bloodied by the incident, then walked away.

In closing argument, the government stated that it "want[ed] to be crystal clear. The touch by Mr. Perez Hernandez is not why we are here." The government explained:

That isn't assault, it's an unwanted touching. But the Government submits that the assault that is here, that is present, is where Mr. Perez Hernandez hit Mr. [Tarawallie] with a bottle. So his reaction about being touched, even if it may have been extreme, even if he got a little upset. That's not why Mr. [Tarawallie] called the police, that's not what landed Mr. [Tarawallie] with a scrape on his head, it is the bottle.

(Emphasis added.) Previewing its doubt about the government's theory, however, the trial court asked the government, "[y]ou said that the reason we're here has to do with the bottle. Do you, are you arguing at all that that initial touching, or at least the second touching is an assault?" The government then backtracked: "It is an assault, Your Honor.... [A]n unwanted touching is standard textbook assault."

After continuing the case to allow the parties to file supplemental briefs discussing whether an unwanted touch alone could sustain a simple assault conviction, the court announced its verdict. The trial court found that the government had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt either that Mr. Perez Hernandez had hit Mr. Tarawallie with a bottle or that he "poked [Mr. Tarawallie] in the eyes." But the court did find that the government had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Perez Hernandez had touched Mr. Tarawallie "somewhere [o]n his body."⁸

The trial court acknowledged that a simple assault charge based solely on a touch "is something that we would not usually see in the courts. I mean, there's a reason why there's not a lot of case law here." The court further acknowledged that, in the cases that it had reviewed discussing "offensive touching," the "contact was ... significantly more than what we have here," and the particular facts made it "really more offensive" or "more threatening." Nevertheless, focusing on the fact that the touch in question had followed Mr. Tarawallie's admonition to Mr. Perez Hernandez not to touch him again, the court concluded that the touch was "objectionable and offensive" and thus a criminal act punishable as simple assault. Accordingly, the court found Mr. Perez Hernandez guilty.

II. Analysis

Mr. Perez Hernandez challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction for simple assault under D.C. Code § 22-404(a)(1) (2013 Supp.) (originally enacted as part of "an Act to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia," ch. 854, § 806, 31 Stat. 1189, 1322 (Mar. 3, 1901)). Our review is de novo, and the legal question we must answer is whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, "any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Rivas v. United States, 783 A.2d 125, 134 (D.C. 2001) (en banc) (emphasis in original, citation omitted).

The essential elements of simple assault do not appear in D.C. Code § 22-404 ; instead they have been defined in this court's case law. Ray v. United States , 575 A.2d 1196, 1198 (D.C. 1990) ; Robinson v. United States , 506 A.2d 572, 573–74 (D.C. 1986). We have recognized three types of assault in this jurisdiction: attempted-battery, intent-to-frighten, and nonviolent sexual touching. See Alfaro v.United States , 859 A.2d 149, 156 (D.C. 2004). The government prosecuted this case as an attempted-battery assault (in fact completed⁹ ).

Attempted-battery assault derives from...