State v. Antonaras, No. 33831.

• Decision Date: 28 August 2012
• Docket Number: No. 33831.
• Citation: 49 A.3d 783,137 Conn.App. 703
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Constantinos ANTONARAS.

137 Conn.App. 703

49 A.3d 783

STATE of Connecticut

v.Constantinos ANTONARAS.

No. 33831.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued June 1, 2012.

Decided Aug. 28, 2012.

Daniel J. Foster, special public defender, for the appellant (defendant).

Margaret Gaffney Radionovas, senior assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Gail P. Hardy, state's attorney, and Chris A. Pelosi, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

GRUENDEL, LAVINE and ALVORD, Js.

LAVINE, J.

The defendant, Constantinos Antonaras, appeals from the judgment of conviction,rendered following a jury trial, of five counts of sexual assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a–70 (a)(2), nine counts of sexual assault in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a–71 (a)(1) and fourteen counts of risk of injury to a child in violation of General Statutes § 53–21(a)(2). On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court improperly (1) admitted evidence of the defendant's uncharged sexual misconduct with two other minors, (2) instructed the jury that it could consider the uncharged misconduct as evidence of a common scheme or plan and (3) failed to inquire as to a potential conflict of interest involving defense counsel and the Hartford police department. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. In 1995, the victim, D,¹ who was nine years old, lived with his father and his father's girlfriend in East Hartford. D met the defendant when D and a friend were shoveling snow near a restaurant owned by the defendant. D approached the defendant and asked if he could shovel at the restaurant. The defendant agreed and paid D approximately $50. Thereafter, D occasionally helped the defendant at the restaurant and delivered flyers for him.

On June 18, 1996, D was sent to the Children's Home of Cromwell (children's home), a residential treatment facility, for behavioral issues.² In March, 1998, when D was eleven years old, he was discharged from the children's home and resumed living with his father in East Hartford. D's relationship with his father and his father's girlfriend soured,³ however, and in June, 1998, D moved in with his aunt, uncle and four cousins in Hartford.

At about this time, when D was eleven years old, he ran into the defendant again. D was playing basketball at a park across the street from the defendant's residence on Orange Street in Hartford. The defendant was cleaning his car and D approached the defendant. The defendant then took D to batting cages and for ice cream. Afterward, the defendant gave D his cell phone number, which D would call from time to time. During the next two months, the defendant took D shopping, bought him clothes and sneakers, gave him money and took him roller skating. Although the defendant took D's cousins to the roller skating rink as well, he did not pay for their admission; he only paid for D.

In August, 1998, the defendant asked D to come to his house on Orange Street to help him change a tire. D arrived with two of his cousins, but the defendant told the cousins to wait outside. The defendant told D to sit down in the living room and turned on the television for him. As D was watching television, the defendant sat down next to D and began rubbing D's leg and telling him that he liked him. The defendant also began “rubbing on [D's] private area.” The defendant then performed oral sex on D, placed D's hand on the defendant's penis and masturbated in front of him. Afterward, the defendant told D not to tell anyone and D began to cry. D left the defendant's house, discovered that his two cousins no longer were outside and ran home. Later that night, the defendant took D and his two cousins roller skating.

Approximately one week later, the defendant again took D and his two cousins roller skating. The defendant dropped the cousins off afterward and took D to get ice cream in West Hartford. The defendant then drove to a parking lot, pulled down his pants and began rubbing and kissing D. The defendant performed oral sex on D, and D performed oral sex on the defendant. Approximately one week after the first parking lot incident, the defendant took D back to the parking lot in West Hartford and had anal sex with him. The defendant then performed oral sex on D.

On Christmas day, 1998, the defendant took D back to the parking lot and gave him a CD player, sneakers and money as gifts. The defendant and D then performed oral sex on each other. That same day, the defendant took D, his two cousins and one of D's friends to a restaurant at the Mohegan Sun casino. The defendant paid for everyone's meal. Between August, 1998, and May, 1999, the defendant took D to the West Hartford parking lot for sex approximately ten times. On one occasion, while D's two cousins were roller skating, the defendant took D to a parking lot in Vernon, where the defendant had oral and anal sex with him.

On May 4, 1999, D was sent to the children's home a second time. ⁴ The defendant visited D there every time D was permitted visitors or had weekend passes. On four or five occasions when D had weekend passes, the defendant took D to Homewood Suites in Windsor Locks, where the two had sex. On one of these occasions, the defendant played a pornographic video for D “to get [D] off.” Also during D's second stay at the children's home, the defendant took D to the defendant's sister's apartment in Hartford, where the defendant performed oral sex on D.

D left the children's home on August 1, 2000, when he was fourteen years old, and moved in with the defendant, D's uncle and D's cousin. The defendant continued providing D with gifts and money. D and the defendant slept in the same room in separate beds and had oral sex with each other “[a] lot.” Whenever D would attempt to refuse the defendant's advances, the defendant would “work his way into it” by offering D favors. In October, 2000, the defendant rented an apartment on Barnard Street in Hartford, where only D and the defendant resided. At Barnard Street, the defendant and D had sex “about three or four times a week.” The defendant also played pornographic movies for D at the residence. On April 12, 2001, the defendant became D's temporary legal custodian.

On January 15, 2002, D was sent to the Long Lane School, a juvenile detention facility, for stealing a car and for truancy. On February 14, 2002, the defendant was appointed D's legal guardian, after D and the defendant convinced D's father to consent. On August 16, 2002, when D was sixteen years old, he left the Long Lane School and moved in with the defendant in Wethersfield. At the Wethersfield residence,the defendant and D continued having sex. Eventually, the sex occurred less often because D “didn't want to do it anymore.” The defendant reacted by refusing to buy D “stuff anymore, giving [him] money less, [and giving fewer] rides....” In January, 2004, D finally ended the sexual relationship by physically restraining the defendant during one of his advances. Thereafter, D and the defendant argued often, and D moved in with his aunt for one and one-half months before returning to the defendant's residence.

In May, 2004, D reported the defendant's sexual abuse to the department of children and families (department).⁵ Thereafter, D was interviewed by the Hartford, West Hartford, Wethersfield, Vernon and Windsor Locks police. The defendant was charged by information with five counts of sexual assault in the first degree, nine counts of sexual assault in the second degree and fourteen counts of risk of injury to a child. On May 9, 2007, the jury found the defendant guilty on all charges. On February 15, 2008, the court sentenced the defendant to a total effective term of forty-six years of imprisonment, suspended after thirty-six years, and twenty years probation. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary.

I

The defendant first claims that the court abused its discretion in admitting the testimony of two witnesses who alleged that he sexually abused them when they were younger. We disagree.

The following additional facts and procedural history are relevant to this claim. The state filed written proffers of the expected testimony of C and R regarding uncharged sexual misconduct perpetrated by the defendant. ⁶ The state contended that the uncharged misconduct evidence was admissible under the common scheme or plan exception to the rule against hearsay. The defendant filed a written objection and memorandum of law in opposition to the state's proffers, and the court held a hearing outside the presence of the jury on whether to admit the testimony.

At the hearing, C testified that he met the defendant when he was nine or ten years old at the park across the street from the defendant's residence, on Orange Street in Hartford. C lived near the park and played sports there. C and the defendant became friends, and the defendant drove C and C's brother to soccer games. C eventually worked for the defendant and the defendant's brother at their respective restaurants. The defendant took C to “the casino” once, played basketball with him, bought him a chain necklace from Greece and allowed him to eat for free at the restaurants. The defendant and C also talked on the telephone.

When C was between twelve and fifteen years old, he was riding in the defendant's vehicle after having worked at his restaurant. The two were traveling to the defendant's apartment, where C was staying for the night. As the defendant was driving, “[h]e slowly ran his hand down the side of [C's] leg until [C became] aroused,” and then he began rubbing C's penis with his hand underneath C's shorts and underwear. This continued for approximately ten minutes until they arrived at the defendant's apartment. C was “in shock,” and as soon as he entered the apartment he “grabbed a sheet” and wrapped it around himself. C stated that the defendant...