State v. Greene
| Decision Date | 08 June 1971 |
| Citation | 161 Conn. 291,287 A.2d 386 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Charles E. GREENE. |
Sabino P. Tamborra, Norwich, with whom, on the brief, was Lewis C. Maruzo, Norwich, for appellant (defendant).
Edmund W. O'Brien, State's Atty., for appellee (state).
Before HOUSE, THIM, RYAN, SHAPIRO and LOISELLE, * JJ.
On a trial to the court the defendant was found not guilty on a charge of indecent assault but guilty of the crime of carnal knowledge of a minor female under the age of sixteen years. He was represented by the public defender for New London County. He took an appeal and the court appointed a special public defender to process the appeal, pursuant to the constitutional requirements noted in Fredericks v. Reincke, 152 Conn. 501, 505, 208 A.2d 756. After reviewing the transcript, researching the applicable law, consulting with trial counsel and interviewing the defendant, the special public defender concluded that there was no substantial error which he could assign which might arguably support the appeal. In accordance with the procedure approved in Anders v. California, 386 U.S 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493, he filed a memorandum in which he reported to the court that in his opinion the only issue was the credibility of the witnesses, which was an issue of fact. He was thereupon permitted to withdraw his appearance for the defendant. Subsequently, the defendant retained private counsel to prosecute his appeal.
The defendant has filed numerous assignments of error. He has claimed error in the refusal of the court to find eleven paragraphs of his draft finding of facts and three paragraphs of the conclusions requested in his draft finding. In addition, his assignment of errors has attacked twenty-seven of the thirty-five paragraphs of the court's finding of facts on the ground that the facts were found without evidence to support them and, on the claim that the facts set forth in the finding do not support them, he has attacked all of the court's conclusions except the one finding the defendant not guilty of indecent assault. He has also claimed error in two rulings on evidence and error in the conclusion of the court, on all the evidence, that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of carnal knowledge of a minor female.
Seldom have we seen such an inexcusable wholesale and groundless attack on a court's finding. We have examined such of these assignments of error as were not subsequently abandoned and conclude that the finding is not subject to correction in any material respect.
The case disclosed by the evidence printed in the appendices to the briefs was a relatively simple, albeit sordid, one involving basically a question of credibility. The complaining witness, a step-daughter of the defendant, was fifteen years of age at the time of the offenses charged. She testified that the defendant had had sexual relations with her over a long period of time and was the father of her infant child. On January 26, 1968, she refused his advances, he got a knife which he laid on the table, a fight ensued, he started to strangle her and knocked her head against the wall and she raked his face with her fingernails. While they were having relations, the mother of the complaining witness returned to the house and the defendant ordered the girl to get up, go upstairs and not to come back down. Two days later the girl disclosed to her grandmother and to her sister-in-law the fact that the defendant had had relations with her and was in fact the father of her infant child. Both of them saw the marks on her neck and the grandmother saw the fingernail scratch marks on the face of the defendant. On Tuesday, January 30, 1968, the first day of school following the incident, the girl informed her guidance teacher of the relationship that existed between herself and the defendant and also informed her mother of the situation. On the next day, January 31, she complained to the police and the prosecution of the defendant followed. The defendant elected not to take the witness stand in his own behalf, and the only witnesses to testify at the short trial were the girl, her mother, her grandmother, her sister-in-law and the guidance teacher.
On the evidence we have summarized, the court was amply justified in finding the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of carnal knowledge of a minor female.
The first contested evidential ruling was one which permitted the complaining witness to testify that the defendant began having sexual intercourse with her when she was eleven years old and that it happened every week. The other permitted her sister-in-law to testify that the complaining witness had shown her the marks on her neck and told her about the fight with the defendant, that he was the father of her child and that they had had frequent sexual relations. We find no error in the rulings of the court, predicated on such cases as State v. Purvis, 157 Conn. 198, 207, 251 A.2d 178, cert. denied, 395 U.S. 928, 89 S.Ct. 1788, 23 L.Ed.2d 246; State v. Dziob, 133 Conn. 167, 169, 48 A.2d 377; State v Sebastian, 81 Conn. 1, 3, 69 A. 1054; State v. Byrne, 47 Conn. 465, 466; State v. Kinney, 44 Conn. 153, 155; State v. De Wolf, 8 Conn. 93; see also 1 Wharton, Criminal Evidence (12th Ed.), p. 547 and 1971 Cum. Sup., pp. 133, 134; 1 Wharton, op. cit. § 295; note, 77 A.L.R.2d 841, 852.
The defendant's counsel reserved his most vehement attack...
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