State v. Pompa
| Decision Date | 15 March 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. M2016-00193-CCA-R3-CD,M2016-00193-CCA-R3-CD |
| Parties | STATE OF TENNESSEE v. PETR POMPA |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from the Criminal Court for Davidson County
The Defendant, Petr Pompa, was convicted by a Davidson County jury of two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and two counts of statutory rape by an authority figure. On appeal, the Defendant argues that (1) the trial court erred in allowing inadmissible opinion, character, and hearsay testimony at trial; (2) the trial court erred in excluding evidence of the victim's motive to fabricate the allegations against the Defendant; (3) the trial court erred in allowing the victim to remain in the courtroom following her testimony; (4) the trial court erred in denying the Defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal as to counts five and six; and (5) the Defendant's sentence was unlawful. Upon review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.
Brent Horst, Nashville, Tennessee, for the Defendant-Appellant, Petr Pompa.
Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Leslie E. Price, Senior Counsel; Glenn Funk, District Attorney General; and Alyssa Hennig, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee.
OPINIONOn May 27, 2014, the Davidson County Grand Jury indicted the Defendant for sexual battery by an authority figure in counts one and two, statutory rape by an authority figure in counts three and four, and rape in counts five and six. The offenses were committed against the Defendant's minor stepdaughter, V.G.1 Trial. The victim's mother testified that she met the Defendant in 1994 when they were both living in the Czech Republic and that they dated for a couple months. The Defendant later moved to the United States, and the victim's mother and the Defendant remained friends. The victim was born in 1995 and her father, who was not identified at trial, still lives in the Czech Republic. The victim's mother and the victim came to the United States in 1999, and they stayed in California with the Defendant. A few months later, the Defendant and the victim's mother were engaged, married, and then had a daughter together, G.P., in 2002. Eventually, the Defendant lost his job and decided to move to Tennessee, where he had a friend who could hire him as a carpenter. The victim's mother decided to stay in California with her two daughters because she was in the middle of her green card application process and did not want to remove her daughters from school. After the Defendant moved to Tennessee, the victim made a disclosure to her mother that something inappropriate had happened with the Defendant, and her mother contacted the authorities. The victim's mother cut off all contact with the Defendant.
In 2010, the victim's mother began having financial difficulties in California and contacted the Defendant. The Defendant offered for the victim's mother and her daughters to move to Tennessee and live with him, and she eventually accepted the Defendant's offer. The victim's mother stated that she and the Defendant had agreed to "be separate as much as possible." When they moved to Nashville, the Defendant, the victim's mother, and her daughters shared a house. The victim's mother testified that she usually shared a bedroom with her daughters, although occasionally she would sleep on the sofa, and that the Defendant had his own room. Although the victim's mother was concerned about her daughters' safety living with the Defendant, she testified that she "didn't see any other option[s]." At the time of the move, the victim was in the ninth grade. The victim's mother and the Defendant began divorce proceedings in April 2013, and were officially divorced at the time of trial.
The victim, who was twenty years old at the time of trial, testified that she was born in the Czech Republic on March 5, 1995. She came to the United States when she was four years old to live in California with her mother and her stepfather, the Defendant. She testified that she was living in Nashville in January 2013, and was seventeen years old and a senior in high school.
One Saturday in January 2013, the victim was at home with her sister and the Defendant while her mother was at work. The victim testified that she was in the Defendant's bedroom with the Defendant while her sister was watching television in another room. The victim and the Defendant were talking while the Defendant sat in a chair at his desk and the victim sat nearby on his bed. The victim got up to leave and gave the Defendant a hug while he was sitting in his chair. The Defendant then placedhis hand on the victim's breast. The victim testified that "I think he caught himself at this point and he asked what am I doing" and that, "[f]or some reason, I couldn't say anything." The Defendant then placed his hand underneath the victim's shirt and fondled her breast. In Czech, he asked "'Moci[?],'" which means, "'Can I[?].'" Again, the victim testified that she "couldn't say anything." When asked why she could not say anything, the victim explained that
The Defendant then removed the victim's shirt and locked his bedroom door. He finished undressing the victim and laid her down on the bed. The victim testified that he then "put his tongue into my vagina, and he put his finger or two fingers into my anus." The victim recalled that the Defendant was kneeling on the floor by the bed and then got up, and she thought he was trying to kiss her. The victim then jumped off the bed, grabbed her clothes, dressed herself, and ran out of the Defendant's room and into the bathroom where she immediately took a shower.
The victim testified that, while she was in the shower, the Defendant came into the bathroom and told her that he was worried she would "report him." The victim told the Defendant that she would not report him. The victim testified that, "[a]t the time, he was my stepdad and I didn't imagine putting my family member in jail." The Defendant remained in the bathroom when the victim got out of the shower and then asked or told her "did you like it" or "I knew you liked it." The victim responded that she did not.
The victim maintained that she did not consent to the Defendant's actions. She testified that he did not threaten her during the incident, but that he had told her in the past that "if I knew someone was trying to rape me . . . it would be best to not fight back and not to, not to try to resist because if [sic] something worse could happen and you could end up dead or worse." The victim also recalled that when she was sitting in the Defendant's room with the Defendant he offered her some liquor and she "consumed between a sip and less than a cup." The victim did not tell anyone in her family what happened, but she told a friend from California because he was one of her "oldest friends," and she did not want to report the incident yet because she "didn't know what the consequences would be."
The following Friday, the victim told a friend from school, S.B., what happened. The victim identified text messages she sent to S.B. on January 17 and 18, 2013, and copies of the messages were introduced at trial. The victim texted S.B. and told him that "it happened again." The victim testified that S.B. "knew my stepdad had done something to me previous before this" and that it had occurred in California when she was thirteen or fourteen years old.
Regarding the previous abuse in California, the victim explained that her stepfather was "roughhousing and wrestling on the bed, on the carpet" with her and "occasionally he would touch my breast and touch in the pubic area." The victim testified that "[i]t was mostly over my clothes, but there were some moments when it was skin on skin." The victim recalled at least four separate times that the Defendant inappropriately touched her while they were in California. The victim did not tell anyone because she thought it was "normal" and that "this is just what parents are supposed to do when they're playing with their kids." The victim recalled that she was uncomfortable with the touching and would scream, bite, and scratch the Defendant to get away from him, but that it rarely worked. The victim explained that she eventually told her mother about the Defendant's actions after he moved to Tennessee.
The victim told S.B. that she was "drunk" and "half-conscious" when the abuse took place. However, the victim testified that she was not actually drunk or unconscious. She explained that S.B. told the victim to call the police and that, if she did not, he would. The victim testified that she needed to tell someone what happened but did not want to report the Defendant yet because "[the Defendant] was still [her] stepdad and [she] didn't want to break up the family." The victim asked S.B. not to contact the police and tried to convince him that she was alright, but S.B. reported the incident.
Following S.B.'s report to the police, the school resource officer at the victim's school, Officer Turner, removed the victim from class and took her to his office. Officer Turner asked the victim about the incident, and the victim "tried to reassure him that nothing was wrong, that whatever I was crying about was something else." The victim acknowledged that it is possible she told...
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