State v. Rigler

• Decision Date: 20 May 1970
• Parties: STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff, v. Louis A. RIGLER, Defendant.
• Court: Delaware Superior Court

Page 887

266 A.2d 887

STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff, v. Louis A. RIGLER, Defendant.

Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County.

May 20, 1970.

John P. Daley, Deputy Atty. Gen., Wilmington, on behalf of State.

L. Coleman Dorsey, Wilmington, on behalf of defendant.

McNEILLY, Judge.

This is an appeal from a non-jury trial in the Court of Common Pleas in which the defendant Rigler was adjudged guilty of the offense of assault and battery and threatening bodily harm.

The trial testimony discloses that on March 14, 1969 Kathy Paris, a fifteen year old high school student, left school and accompanied Rigler and two other young men to Rigler's apartment. Mrs. Alice Paris, Kathy's mother, discovered that her daughter was not in school, and she suspected that Kathy was in Rigler's company. She went to his apartment, and, upon hearing her daughter's voice coming from inside the premises, she knocked and a male companion of Rigler's opened the door and told Kathy that her mother was looking for her. Mrs. Paris walked into the apartment, where she found Kathy and ordered her daughter to leave the premises with her. Kathy resisted her mother's efforts to remove her and a pushing, pulling, screaming scuffle ensued until the two females were in the common hallway of the building at the top of a staircase. At that point, Rigler grabbed both of Mrs. Paris' wrists and threatened, by his own admission, to 'break her arm' if she did not let Kathy go. A friend, who had accompanied Mrs. Paris to the premises, then appeared coming up the staircase and Rigler immediately let go of Mrs. Paris. The mother and her companion each took hold of Kathy's arms and escorted her down the staris, and out to their automobile. They drove to police headquarters where Mrs. Paris charged Rigler with assault and battery and threatening bodily harm.

The trial judge refused to consider evidence that Mrs. Paris had used physical force in her efforts to discipline Kathy in the past. Rigler based his defense upon the theory that he was justified in defending Kathy against the physical force employed by her mother because, based upon information and belief of past actions, he had reason to suppose that Kathy was threatened with bodily harm. Kathy testified that she was afraid that her mother was about to 'push me down the stairs'.

This appeal raises the following issues:

1. Was it error to exclude evidence to show that Mrs. Paris had used physical force on Kathy in the past?

2. Was the force used by Mrs. Paris to remove Kathy from the premises So unreasonable as to make her the aggressor and justify the defendant's protective interference?

Under appropriate circumstances, in ordinary cases of criminal assault and battery where the accused pleads self-defense or the defense of another, the general community reputation of the victim for having a violent and dangerous character is admissible in evidence, particularly when there is a factual issue as to who was the aggressor in the circumstances. 6 C.J.S. Assault & Battery § 118; 6 Am.Jur.2d, Assault & Battery, § 105. However, evidence of specific prior violent or dangerous acts, or character evidence arising from facts which follow the crime charged, are inadmissible and irrelevant, on the issue of self-defense or defense of another. State v. Johnson, 185 Kan. 1, 340 P.2d 373 (1959). Several circumstances sufficiently differentiate the case at bar so as to make the...