State v. Mucie
| Decision Date | 12 January 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 54317,No. 1,54317,1 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Dr. Richard P. MUCIE, Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Dale L. Rollings, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.
Lawrence F. Gepford, R. Bruce Sears, Kansas City, for defendant-appellant.
HIGGINS, Commissioner.
Dr. Richard P. Mucie, a licensed osteopathic physician and surgeon, was convicted by a jury of manslaughter by abortion; his punishment was assessed at 10-years' imprisonment in custody of the Department of Corrections, and sentence and judgment were rendered accordingly. Section 559.100, V.A.M.S.
The victim of the crime charged against Dr. Mucie was a 19-year-old student at Oklahoma University. Around Thanksgiving vacation in 1967, she advised her boy friend that she might be pregnant and they decided to seek an abortion because she did not wish to have the baby. She enlisted the help of her boy friend who, in turn, discussed the matter with his father in January, 1968, at Norman, Oklahoma. The father was advised of the pregnancy; that the girl, although engaged to the boy, did not wish to marry at the time, and that the girl did not want to have the baby.
On January 30, 1968, the boy's father called Dr. Mucie in Kansas City, Missouri, and told him that his son and his fiancee had a problem in connection with her pregnancy. Dr. Mucie advised the boy's father to have the girl examined by a doctor to determine the length of the pregnancy. The father learned from his son that the onset of pregnancy was the first or middle of October, 1967, and, upon relaying this information to Dr. Mucie, was told by Dr. Mucie that 'it was too late to do anything about it.' This advice was relayed by the father to his son and the father was then told that the girl had not been examined. The father again told his son to have the girl examined and, subsequently, the son called his father and advised that his fiancee was then 13 to 14 weeks pregnant. This information was relayed to Dr. Mucie, who advised the son's father to have the girl come to Kansas City on the evening of February 7, 1968. The father understood that the cost would be 'about four.'
The father told his son of the advice received from Dr. Mucie and, on February 7, 1968, the son and his fiancee flew to Kansas City, arriving at 6:30 p.m. They went by taxi to 1924 East 31st, Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, where they met Dr. Mucie in his Kansas City Sinus Clinic. They waited in the lobby for ten or fifteen minutes before the girl went into the inner office. After about fifteen more minutes the girl came out with Dr. Mucie. 'He said he couldn't do anything at the time, but he would take us, he had made arrangements for us to have a room at the Ambassador Hotel, and that he would take us there, and then call us about 11:30 and come pick us back up.' During the interim the couple ate and attended a show.
At 11 p.m., Dr. Mucie called, and about forty minutes later arrived at the hotel to take the couple back to the Sinus Clinic. Dr. Mucie took the girl to the inner office and the boy waited in the outer office. In 20 to 30 minutes Dr. Mucie came to the outer office dressed in a surgeon's gown and asked the boy if he would like to pay him before he started, and the boy paid Dr. Mucie $400 in one hundred dollar bills. That was the last the boy saw of Dr. Mucie for several hours except when he came to the outer office every half hour or so to change music records.
At about 7:30 a.m., February 8, 1968, Dr. Mucie asked the boy if he wished to see the girl. He went to the inner office and saw his fiancee lying on a couch with a cover over her. Dr. Mucie said she was under sedation. He said 'hello' and, although she did not speak, she smiled and seemed to move her hand. Dr. Mucie gave him some tomato juice and he went back to the outer office and slept until around 11:30 a.m.
About 11:30 a.m., he was awakened by Dr. Mucie's porter and a little later Dr. Mucie came in and
On February 8, 1968, at about 11:30 a.m., Charles William Sievers, an ambulance driver went with his attendant to the Sinus Clinic and found the girl lying on a doctor's cot. Dr. Mucie advised that he detected a heartbeat and instructed them to take the girl to Osteopathic Hospital and give her oxygen enroute. They were not advised what treatment the girl had been given; they noted blood on the girl's fingers, stiffness of the arms, and the hand was in a 'clawed' position. Dr. Mucie wiped some blood from between the fingers of the clawed hand. Upon lifting the patient, the attendant noted that the girl's legs did not bend down, and when in the ambulance he was unable to detect a pulse or heartbeat.
When the ambulance arrived at Osteopathic Hospital at 1:00 p.m., Dr. Richard Frederick Spavins, an osteopathic physician and surgeon, examined the girl. He found no pulse and concluded she had been dead about four hours. Dr. Spavins called Dr. Mucie and was advised by him that he had given the girl cardiac resuscitation and an injection of Vistaril, a tranquilizer, and that he had been treating her for two weeks for a heart condition. When advised by Dr. Spaving that he was going to call the coroner, Dr. Mucie told him he could and would sign the death certificate. There was no mention of abortion, uterine hemorrhage or of any treatment other than the cardiac treatment in the conversation.
The body was taken by the same ambulance to the morgue at General Hospital.
Detective James W. Smith observed the girl's body at the Osteopathic Hospital at about 1:40 p.m., February 8, 1968, and noted needle marks on her arms, buttocks, and left breast. He later took photographs of the body showing the needle marks. He was present at the autopsy performed on the body at General Hospital by Dr. Raymond J. Caffrey, a pathologist and deputy coroner, and took custody of part of a fetus removed from the girl's uterus and the uterus from the girl's body, both of which were put into preservative bottles.
Detectives Kenneth Riddell and Floyd Foster went to the Sinus Clinic at 6:30 or 7:00 p.m., February 8, 1968, and, upon examining a trash container, 'a dumpster,' on the premises, found numerous items and what appeared to be part of a fetus.
Dr. Andrew McCanse, medical doctor and coroner of Jackson County, viewed the body at General Hospital about 2:30 p.m., February 8, 1968, and appointed his deputy, Dr. Caffrey, to perform an autopsy. Dr. McCanse called Dr. Mucie and was told by him that he had seen the girl the previous evening with complaints of chest pain and nervousness, and he thought she might have some cardiac condition which he treated with Vistaril by injection. He said later that evening she reported she was feeling all right again, and then early the following morning she came to his office complaining again of chest pain. He said he gave her some more Vistaril and that she went to sleep. Later he checked the girl and was unable to arouse her. He said he gave her Coramine and thought he could detect a faint heartbeat. He said he also gave oxygen, adrenalin, and cardiac resuscitation by massage and mouth-to-mouth breathing. About noon he sent her to Osteopathic Hospital. He said he thought she had a cardiac condition that was complicated by shock which was the apparent cause of her death. 'I asked him whether she had said she was pregnant or whether there was any suspicion by him she was pregnant, and he told me that she had not said so, that he had not asked her, and that he had not examined her for pregnancy.'
Dr. Caffrey, in performing the autopsy, noted needle punctures on the girl's arms, buttocks, and over the third rib interspace on the left side. He saw blood smudges on her fingertips and left heel. A pink staining material resembling Merthiolate was present on the perineum space between the legs. He also noted that the breasts were unusually tense and the nipples were heavily pigmented, indicative of pregnancy. The uterus was found to be substantially enlarged and softened, and had the general characteristics of a pregnant uterus. The cervix was markedly dilated or opened and did not have the consistency of a non-pregnant cervix. He could feel a hole in the middle of the cervix consistent with a recently evacuated uterus. There was a defect in the uterus, a rent, surrounded by a moderate amount of hemorrhage. The rent was half an inch in length, one-half inch in thickness, one thirty-second inch maximum width. The abdominal cavity contained 1200 cc's (in excess of a quart) of fluid and clotted blood, and there were two or three ounces of blood inside the uterus. The only source of bleeding was the hole in the uterus. The skull and the upper half of the spinal column of a fetus were found in and removed from the uterus. Dr. Caffrey also examined the fetal parts found in the dumpster at the clinic which he identified as a scapula or shouler blade, upper part of the arm including shoulder joint,...
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