State v. Ennis
| Decision Date | 18 March 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 36359-7-III,36359-7-III |
| Parties | STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. GORDON JAMES ENNIS, Appellant. |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
SIDDOWAY, J. — K.S.,1 a probationary officer with the Spokane Police Department, attended a small party at the home of Douglas and Heather Strosahl in October 2015 at which she claims she consumed too much alcohol and, while incapacitated, was raped by a superior officer, Gordon Ennis. A trial that began in June 2017 was declared a mistrial when pretrial publicity about the charge and allegedevidence destruction prevented selection of a jury. The parties agreed to seek a change of venue but in February 2018 decided to try again to empanel a jury in Spokane.
A jury was selected and following a nine-day trial, it found Ennis guilty of second degree rape. He replaced his lawyer and moved for a new trial, alleging instructional error, prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective assistance of counsel, including on the basis that his trial lawyer failed to develop evidence about Doug Strosahl that Ennis argued would have been helpful to his defense. The motion was denied.
Ennis appeals, renewing the arguments made in his new trial motion and making new allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct. We affirm.
K.S. was working as a probationary police officer for the Spokane Police Department in October 2015 when she was invited to a party to be held on Saturday night, October 24, at the home of Doug and Heather Strosahl.2 K.S. had graduated from Freeman High School in 2008 and obtained a criminal justice degree from Spokane Community College in 2012, with a view to becoming a police officer like her father.After working security jobs and volunteering as a reserve officer, she had been hired full-time by the police department in spring 2014.
Doug Strosahl had worked for 20 years in the Spokane Police Department and taught and mentored K.S. when she attended community college and participated in a reserve officer training program. Doug invited K.S. and Gordon Ennis to the party. Ennis was a Spokane police sergeant who had been a friend of both Strosahls for over 20 years. Ennis had served as a firearm instructor and taught K.S. while she was in training. Other guests at the Strosahls' party included Heather Strosahl's sister and several of her friends and coworkers. K.S. attended the party with her roommate, Callie Roseland.
Roseland did not consume alcohol at the party, but K.S. did, and like several others, became very intoxicated. She brought a six-pack of hard cider and estimated that she finished three of the hard ciders, each mixed with a shot of Fireball whiskey. She joined others in another shot of Fireball and vaguely recalls being offered a sip of Ennis's drink late in the evening, when guests had moved outside to the Strosahls' hot tub.
Ennis was one of the only people K.S. knew at the party. K.S. behaved warmly, and some guests would later say flirtatiously, toward him. Although K.S. has no recollection of it, at one point, she and Heather danced before Ennis, after which K.S. gave him a hug. Both she and Ennis would later testify that they had never had anythingbut a professional relationship, however, and K.S. testified that she had "zero interest" in anything else. Report of Proceedings (RP)3 at 835.
At around 11:00 p.m., most of the partiers moved out to the hot tub, where people continued to drink. By the time they came inside an hour or more later, alcohol consumption had taken its toll on several. Heather's coworker, Melissa Beaver, became ill and lay down on the floor of a bedroom in the basement. With the help of another of Heather's coworkers, Megan Weese, Heather got Beaver out of her swimsuit and into some dry clothes. Heather did not see Beaver again until the next morning. Beaver would later testify that her last recollection of the party was of being in the hot tub. When she awakened the next morning, she did not immediately know where she was. She was sick until around 7:00 on Sunday night.
Doug Strosahl had gone from the hot tub to his bedroom to change into dry clothes when he realized how intoxicated he was. He was lightheaded and nauseous, and when he lay down, the room was spinning. He fell asleep for a couple of hours and was hung over the next day.
K.S. does not recall leaving the hot tub but has a snapshot "vision" of throwing up into something. RP at 847. She had borrowed a swimsuit from Heather that she evidently removed, because she wandered naked into the living room, where Roseland,who was looking for her, saw her, stopped her, and led her to a bathroom. After K.S. lay naked on the bathroom floor, "completely incoherent" and "mumbling" according to Roseland, Roseland obtained help from Heather and Weese caring for K.S. as she vomited into the toilet. RP at 1063. Heather and Weese dressed K.S. in sweatpants and a T-shirt belonging to Heather and led her to a bedroom where Heather described the two women as "hoist[ing]" her into the bed. RP at 593. For clarity, we refer to this bedroom in which K.S. was intended to stay as "her" bedroom.
K.S. threw up again in her bedroom, using a bowl or bucket that Heather had left next to the bed. As Roseland sat with her, waiting for her to calm down and fall asleep, Ennis came in. Roseland describes K.S. as mostly incoherent and mumbling. The one thing she said to Roseland and Ennis that made sense was, "I don't want you guys to think I'm a bad cop." RP at 1068-69. Roseland and Ennis assured her they did not think she was a bad cop. The two of them conversed while they waited for K.S. to fall asleep. When she dozed off, they left her bedroom and joined Heather and Weese in the kitchen. Heather told Roseland that K.S. could spend the night, for which Roseland was grateful.
K.S. thereafter left her bedroom on two occasions that she does not recall. The first time she wandered into a nearby bedroom where Heather's sister, Gina Watkins, planned to spend the night. K.S. stumbled into the room holding the bowl she was supposed to use if she vomited again. Watkins called to her sister and Heather and Roseland responded to help. K.S. lay on the bed and vomited into the bowl. Heather andRoseland walked K.S. back to her bedroom and put her back in bed. Ennis was aware that K.S. needed help being returned to her bedroom from Watkins's room.
Roseland left for home a little after 1:00 a.m. Weese called her husband at 1:08 a.m. to let him know she was taking care of a couple of "drunk girls" and would be home shortly. RP at 766.
Sometime around 2:30 a.m., K.S. left her bedroom again, wandering into the kitchen where Heather, Ennis, and Doug, who had awakened and come downstairs, were the last partiers standing. A few minutes earlier, Heather, Ennis, and Doug had looked in on K.S. and teased her about not being able to hold her liquor. Heather, Ennis, and Doug would later testify that when K.S. wandered into the kitchen, she walked up to Ennis, put her arms around his neck, and lay her head on his shoulder. The Strosahls left to go to bed and Heather told Ennis to help K.S. get back to bed. The Strosahls saw Ennis and K.S. walk back toward her bedroom. Heather recalls it being 2:38 a.m. when she got in bed.
According to K.S., she awakened to the feeling of fingers in her vagina, thrusting aggressively. She was not sure where she was. Ennis was on the bed next to her. When she realized what was happening, she started crying and tried to move away. Ennis pulled his hand away, said, "I got to go" and quickly got up and left. RP at 853. K.S. waited a few moments and then took her cell phone and locked herself in an adjacent bathroom.
She tried to call Spenser Rassier, a fellow police officer, friend, and occasional date. He was out of town for military training. Her phone records reveal that she tried to call him four times between 3:05 a.m. and 3:07 a.m., and he answered the fourth call. He would later describe her as "very upset" and crying during the call. RP at 962. She told him she was at a party at the Strosahls, that she had too much to drink, and that she woke up in a bedroom to someone fingering her, which Rassier understood to mean fingering her vagina. She would not tell Rassier who it was, but he was left with the impression that it was a police officer and someone he would know. K.S. and Rassier spoke for 54 minutes. After getting off the phone with him, she went back to her bedroom and went to sleep.
She awakened again shortly after 7:00 Sunday morning and called Roseland, asking her to pick her up. She told her what had happened. On Roseland's arrival, they spoke further and agreed they should tell Doug what had occurred. K.S. texted Doug at 8:22 a.m., asking him to come chat with her. He came to her bedroom, where K.S. told him, in Roseland's presence, what Ennis had done. K.S. was surprised at his reaction, which she characterized as "downplay[ing] it." RP at 876. He asked if she needed any water and left the room. When he did not return, K.S. found and changed into her own clothing, and she and Roseland left. Upon arriving home, she threw up again, showered, and, feeling ill, crawled into bed. She would later explain that she showered because she "felt . . . gross," and "wasn't thinking about evidence collecting." RP at 880, 894.
That morning, Heather Strosahl laundered the clothing that she and Weese had dressed K.S. in the night before. She later testified she was unaware of K.S.'s allegation of assault and was simply cleaning up bath towels, swimsuits, and other laundry from the party.
On Sunday afternoon, K.S. contacted her former field training officer, Kyle Heuett, for help, telling him what had happened. He informed her sergeant. At 8:44 p.m. that night, Detective Brandon Armstrong was called and assigned to investigate K.S.'s allegation. K.S. went to the hospital to have a sexual assault kit done...
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