State v. Reeder

• Decision Date: 28 June 2005
• Docket Number: No. ED 84507.,ED 84507.
• Citation: 182 S.W.3d 569
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Ronnie REEDER, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

182 S.W.3d 569

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Ronnie REEDER, Appellant.

No. ED 84507.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Division Two.

June 28, 2005.

Case Transferred to Supreme Court August 19, 2006.

Case Retransferred to Court of Appeals November 20, 2005.

Original Opinion Reinstated February 15, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

N. Scott Rosenblum, Clayton, MO, for appellant.

Deborah Daniels, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO, for respondent.

PATRICIA L. COHEN, Presiding Judge.

Ronnie Reeder ("Defendant") appeals from the trial court's judgment entered in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis upon his conviction by a jury of three counts of statutory rape in the first degree and one count of attempted child molestation. Defendant contends that the trial court erred in: (1) restricting Defendant's use of the victims' prior false allegations; and (2) improperly joining the charges against Defendant into a single indictment and denying Defendant's Motion to Sever. We affirm.

Statement of the Facts and Proceedings Below

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence adduced at trial established that, in November of 1999, Defendant lived sporadically at 2017 Agnes in the City of St. Louis with his sister, Theresa, Theresa's two children and Tanya Wright, Defendant's niece by another sister. Sometime prior to Thanksgiving, Defendant entered the basement where Tanya slept, shook her arm to wake her, picked her up underneath her arms, placed her on a dresser, pulled her legs apart and forced his penis into her vagina. Tanya was thirteen years-old.

Tanya attempted to push Defendant off of her and threatened to go upstairs and tell someone. Defendant informed her that no one was home and warned that it would just hurt a little because it always hurts the first time. Tanya alleged that penetration lasted somewhere between one and two minutes, but she could not say if he ejaculated. The next day, Tanya told her grandmother what had occurred. In response, Tanya's grandmother, Defendant's mother, warned Tanya not to tell anyone and assured Tanya that she would take care of the situation.

On New Years Eve 2001, Misty Owens, then thirteen years-old, spent the night with Lisa Webb, another niece of Defendant's, and Lisa Webb's sister, at Lisa's house at 1420 St. Louis Avenue. The girls drank wine that they found and when one of the girls vomited, Misty agreed to go next door to Lisa's grandmother's home to borrow shampoo and conditioner. After approximately fifteen to twenty minutes Misty returned and told Lisa that she and Defendant had sex on the couch.

Misty returned to spend the night at Lisa's house on the weekend of February 2-3, 2002. Defendant stopped by and found Lisa and Misty watching a movie. Defendant asked Lisa for cigarettes and Lisa left the living room to find them. Meanwhile, Defendant sat next to Misty on the couch and penetrated her vagina with his fingers. That night, Lisa and Misty slept in separate beds in the same room. Misty awoke to find Defendant on top of her. Defendant kissed and fondled Misty and had intercourse with her.

Defendant was indicted on four counts of statutory rape in the first degree, three counts of statutory sodomy in the first degree, one count of the class B felony of child molestation in the first degree and one count of the class C misdemeanor of assault in the first degree. Defendant filed a Motion to Sever. Specifically, Defendant requested one trial on counts relating to Misty Owens, one trial on the statutory rape count relating to Tanya Wright and one trial on the assault charge as it related to a third cousin and victim. The trial court denied Defendant's Motion to Sever the charges related to sexual acts with Tanya Wright and Misty Owens and reserved ruling regarding the assault charge against the third victim. Ultimately, the State filed an order of nolle prosequi on the assault charge. Defendant was tried before a jury of his peers.

The State presented the testimony of four witnesses at trial, including Tanya and Misty. During cross-examination, defense counsel sought to establish through extrinsic evidence that Tanya and Misty engaged in a pattern of false allegations to the police or the Division of Family Services ("DFS") whenever an authority figure angered them. The State objected and, after a lengthy discussion on the record, but outside of the presence of the jury, the trial court decided to allow questions regarding whether the witnesses made accusations against family members in the past, but limited the testimony to false allegations of sexual misconduct. The trial court specifically denied defense counsel the opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses regarding any non-sexual prior allegations that occurred after the Fall of 2000.

The State called Detective Janet McKern from the Sex Crimes Unit of the St. Louis City Police Department to testify. Detective McKern testified that Misty's mother brought Misty to the Sex Crime Unit on February 6, 2002 to report that Misty had been raped by a family friend. Detective McKern interviewed Misty regarding her sexual encounters with Defendant on December 31, 2001 and February 2, 2002. On cross-examination, Detective McKern admitted that lab reports disclosed no seminal fluid on the shorts Misty claims she wore during intercourse.

Defendant called his mother and his sister to testify in his defense. Defendant's sister, Tina Marie Pulley, testified that when her daughter, Tanya, was mad at her, she would call the authorities. Specifically, Pulley testified that Tanya became angry when Pulley decided to move out of the neighborhood and contacted the police to accuse Pulley of beating her and having drugs in the house. Pulley attempted to testify that Tanya faked numerous pregnancies and once called "Children and Family Services" and made false allegations against Pulley, but the trial court excluded this testimony.

Pulley explained that Tanya and her cousins often made allegations against people in positions of authority. When Pulley and her sister had a problem with boys loitering around their front porch looking for Tanya, her cousins and her friends, they enlisted Defendant to "run the boys off" several times a day. Pulley testified that the fact that Defendant consistently forced the boys to leave angered the girls and in response "they'd lie on him." Pulley likewise testified that Tanya and her cousins previously accused several men with whom Pulley and her sister were in relationships with of raping them because the girls disliked the fact that these men were extremely strict.

At the close of all the evidence, the trial court dismissed one count of statutory rape and two counts of statutory sodomy. Further, the State amended the child molestation charge to attempted child molestation. Accordingly, the court submitted three counts of statutory rape, one count of statutory sodomy and one count of attempted child molestation. Two counts of statutory rape and one count of attempted child molestation involved Misty Owens and one count of statutory rape involved Tanya Wright.

The jury found Defendant guilty of: (1) two counts of statutory rape in the first degree with respect to Misty Owens occurring on December 31, 2001 and the weekend of February 2-3, 2002; (2) attempted child molestation in the first degree with respect to Misty Owens on February 2-3, 2002; and (3) statutory rape in the first degree with respect to Tanya Wright occurring in November, 1999. The trial court sentenced Defendant to ten years each on the two statutory rape counts to run concurrently with each other and seven years on the attempted child molestation count, concurrent to the ten years on the statutory rape counts. The court also sentenced Defendant to fifteen years on the third count of statutory rape to be served consecutive to the other sentences for a total of twenty-five years. This appeal followed.

Discussion

In his first point on appeal, Defendant contends that the trial court erred when it restricted his use of the victims' prior false allegations. Specifically, Defendant argues that he suffered a deprivation of his constitutional right to present a defense as a result of the trial court's prohibition against the use of extrinsic evidence generally and false, non-sexual allegations that occurred after Fall of 2000.

As a preliminary matter, we note that Defendant did not include any claim of error related to this issue in his Motion for New Trial and therefore this issue is not properly preserved for appellate review. Mo.R.Crim.P. 29.11. Where an appellant fails to properly preserve an issue for appeal, appellate review is discretionary and only for plain error. State v. Presberry, 128 S.W.3d 80, 85 (Mo.App. E.D.2003). To warrant relief under this standard, appellant must establish a manifest injustice or a miscarriage of justice. State v. Dudley, 51 S.W.3d 44, 53 (Mo.App. W.D.2001).

Plain error review is used sparingly and is limited to error that is "evident, obvious and clear." State v. Santillan, 1 S.W.3d 572, 578 (Mo.App. E.D.1999). We will only grant relief under the plain error standard when alleged errors "so substantially affect a defendant's rights that a manifest injustice or a miscarriage of justice results if left uncorrected." Presberry, 128 S.W.3d at 85. The defendant bears the burden of proving a manifest injustice or miscarriage of justice. State v. Louis, 103 S.W.3d 861, 864 (Mo. App. E.D.2003). Because this is a direct criminal appeal, we note that plain error cannot serve as the basis for granting Defendant a new trial, as requested, unless we find that the alleged error was outcome determinative. Deck v. State, 68 S.W.3d 418, 427 (Mo. banc 2002).

Defendant alleges that he suffered a deprivation of his constitutional rights when, during his cross-examination of Tanya, defense counsel sought to introduce extrinsic evidence to establish that...