State v. Fitzgerald
| Decision Date | 24 July 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 88-572,88-572 |
| Citation | 238 Mont. 261,776 P.2d 1222 |
| Parties | STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Maurice FITZGERALD, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
Allen Beck, Billings, for defendant and appellant.
Marc Racicot, Atty. Gen., John Paulson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Helena, Harold Hanser, County Atty., Brent Brooks, Deputy County Atty., Billings, for plaintiff and respondent.
Defendant appeals his conviction in the District Court for the Thirteenth Judicial District, Yellowstone County, of four counts of sexual intercourse without consent. We affirm.
The issues are:
1. Did the District Court violate the defendant's right of confrontation by limiting his cross-examination of the victim named in Count I of the information?
2. Did the District Court err in admitting evidence of other crimes or wrongs as to Count II of the information?
Defendant was charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, each count alleging a separate incident and a different victim. After a five-day jury trial, he was found guilty on all four counts and sentenced to a prison term of 40 years on each count, the terms to be served concurrently. He appeals on issues relating to two of the four counts against him. He argues that the errors relating to those two counts tainted the entire case.
Did the District Court violate the defendant's right of confrontation by limiting his cross-examination of the victim named in Count I of the information?
Count I of the information alleged an incident of sexual intercourse without consent on October 4, 1987, from 12:00 to 1:30 a.m. The victim testified at trial as follows: During the late evening hours of October 3, 1987, she was at the Machine and Pool Palace in Billings, Montana, with her roommate Collette. Defendant, to whom she had been introduced before, asked her to go outside and talk with him. When they were outside, the defendant stated that he wanted to move his car across the street, and asked the victim to get in the car so that they could continue their conversation. She did so. Instead of driving across the street, the defendant drove to a deserted industrial area and stopped. He refused her requests to take her back to the Machine and Pool Palace. He then fondled her and forced her to perform oral sex. Afterwards, the defendant dropped the victim off near her home and threatened to get revenge if she told anyone.
The victim waited for her roommate Collette to get home, told Collette what had happened, and decided to make a police report. On the way to the police station, the two stopped at Collette's boyfriend's house and at the house where the defendant was staying. During both brief stops, the victim remained in the car.
Defendant attempted to elicit from the victim on cross-examination that Collette was a prostitute and that her "boyfriend" was actually her pimp. The defense's theory was that the victim was also a prostitute, that the acts between the defendant and the victim were consensual, and that the victim fabricated the rape story so that she would not have to face her pimp with no earnings for the evening. The District Court refused to allow this line of questioning.
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that a criminal defendant shall enjoy the right "to be confronted with the witnesses against him." The Montana Constitution also guarantees the right of the criminally accused to meet the witnesses against him face to face. Art. II, Sec. 24, Mont. Const. Defendant argues that in the absence of physical evidence or other evidence corroborating the victim's testimony, his proposed line of questioning was relevant to the victim's veracity and essential to his right of confrontation.
Section 45-5-511(4), MCA, provides:
No evidence concerning the sexual conduct of the victim is admissible in prosecutions under this part except:
(a) evidence of the victim's past sexual conduct with the offender;
(b) evidence of specific instances of the victim's sexual activity to show the origin of semen, pregnancy, or disease which is at issue in the prosecution.
Neither of the two statutory exceptions applies in this case.
This Court has considered whether the restrictions codified at Sec. 45-5-511(4), MCA, deny a defendant his constitutional right to confront witnesses. State v. Higley, (1980), 190 Mont. 412, 621 P.2d 1043. There the Court stated that the "rules limiting inquiry into sexual conduct of the victim are essential to preserve the integrity of the trial and to prevent it from becoming a trial of the victim," and found no denial of a defendant's rights in these limitations. Higley, 621 P.2d at 1050-51.
Defendant maintains that the line of questioning he wishes to pursue is permissible under State v. Anderson (1984), 211 Mont. 272, 686 P.2d 193. In that case, this Court stated that:
[d]espite the general policy against sordid probes into a victim's past sexual conduct, we conclude that the policy is not violated or circumvented if the offered evidence can be narrowed to the issue of the complaining witness' veracity.
Anderson, 686 P.2d at 200. (Citation omitted.) In Anderson, the offered evidence was that the child victim had made a prior false charge of sexual assault. The Court concluded that the trial court correctly excluded this evidence as unduly prejudicial compared to its value probative of the victim's truthfulness, under Rule 403, M.R.Evid. Anderson, 686 P.2d at 201.
In the present case, although the defense argues that the testimony about prostitution would go toward the victim's veracity and motivation to fabricate a rape story, we conclude that the District Court did not err in ruling that the prejudicial effect of that testimony on the credibility of the victim would outweigh its probative value. As the State points out in its brief, the defense did not offer any witnesses, other than possibly the defendant, who could testify that the victim and Collette were prostitutes. It did not offer testimony that the victim had solicited defendant to engage in sexual intercourse for money. Further, even if it were proven that the victim was a prostitute, that would not have proven consent. We hold that the District Court did not violate the defendant's right of confrontation by refusing to allow the desired cross-examination.
Did the District Court err in admitting evidence of other crimes or wrongs as to...
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State ex rel. Mazurek v. District Court of Montana Fourth Judicial Dist.
...pregnancy or disease, and the victim's sexual conduct is probative on that issue. Section 45-5-511(2), MCA. In State v. Fitzgerald (1989), 238 Mont. 261, 263, 776 P.2d 1222, 1223, the defendant wanted to present testimony that the victim was a prostitute. Fitzgerald argued that he and the v......
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State v. Johnson
...rights under the rape shield statute. See State v. Rhyne (1992), 253 Mont. 513, 521, 833 P.2d 1112, 1118; State v. Fitzgerald (1989), 238 Mont. 261, 263-64, 776 P.2d 1222, 1223-24; State v. Laird (1987), 225 Mont. 306, 310, 732 P.2d 417, ¶25 In a pretrial motion, Johnson proposed to introdu......
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Fitzgerald v. Gamble, 93-35354
...the evidence of domestic assaults was sufficiently similar to the alleged sexual assault to have been admissible. See Montana v. Fitzgerald, 776 P.2d 1222, 1225 (Mont.1989). The district court denied this claim on habeas review because it was based upon errors of state law and therefore not......
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Fitzgerald v. State, No. DA 06-0086 (Mont. 12/7/2006), DA 06-0086
...years on each count, running concurrently. In July of 1989, Fitzgerald appealed his conviction to this Court in State v. Fitzgerald, 238 Mont. 261, 776 P.2d 1222 (1989), arguing that the District Court violated his right of confrontation by limiting his cross-examination of the victim named......