State v. Shatney, 89-358-C

• Decision Date: 10 April 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-358-C,89-358-C
• Citation: 572 A.2d 872
• Parties: STATE v. Louis SHATNEY. A.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 872

572 A.2d 872

STATE v. Louis SHATNEY.

No. 89-358-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

April 10, 1990.

James E. O'Neil, Atty. Gen. and Jeffrey Greer, Asst. Atty. Gen., for plaintiff.

Richard Casparian, Public Defender, Paula Rosin, and Barbara Hurst, Asst. Public Defenders, for defendant.

OPINION

MURRAY, Justice.

This case is before the court on the appeal of the defendant, Louis Shatney (Shatney), from a conviction in Superior Court of one count of first-degree sexual assault, one count of first-degree child molestation, and three counts of second-degree child molestation. Shatney asserts that the trial justice erred in denying Shatney's motion to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the state had violated the requirements of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers by failing to bring the defendant to trial within 180 days. Shatney further asserts that the evidence was legally insufficient to support a finding that the defendant had unlawful sexual contact with the oldest child. Accordingly we advert to a brief precis of the factual situation in order to discuss these issues in depth.

On November 4, 1987, Shatney was indicted on sixteen counts of offenses including first- and second-degree sexual assault and cruelty to a child. Counts 1 through 8 and 16 were dismissed by the state on May 3, 1988. The dismissed counts were subsequently transferred to the Family Court.

On September 6, 1988, a jury-waived trial began before the trial justice. Shatney's three stepchildren, hereafter known by the fictitious names of Mary, Lisa, and John, testified. Lisa was eleven years old at the time of trial. She testified that her mother (Mother) started dating Shatney when she was four years old and her family was living in Connecticut. Mother eventually married Shatney. When she was six years old, her family moved to Johnston, Rhode Island. Lisa testified to the nature of various sexual acts in which Shatney engaged with her in Rhode Island. She testified that Shatney committed sexual acts with her brother and her sister and that Shatney took pictures of her and her siblings without any clothes on and made them pose in "nasty ways." She identified photographs at trial and testified that most of them were taken in Mother's room in Johnston, Rhode Island.

John, who was nine years old at the time of trial, testified that on different occasions while his family was in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Shatney touched his penis. On several other occasions both in Connecticut and in Rhode Island Shatney made John touch Shatney's penis. He further testified that both Mother and Shatney took pictures of him with his clothes off. John identified himself in one of the photographs.

Mary, who was thirteen years old at the time of trial, testified that Shatney touched her breasts and vagina and tried to have sex with her. She testified that this activity occurred in Rhode Island. Mary also identified several photographs of herself that were taken by Mother and Shatney while she was in Mother's room in Johnston, Rhode Island.

A sergeant from the Connecticut State Police testified that in late September 1985, after a hurricane, some people who were walking in a rural area found in a brook some sexually explicit photographs of children. These people turned the photographs over to the State Police. The Connecticut State Police identified the children as Mary, Lisa, and John. On November 1, 1985, Shatney was arrested in a motor home in Maine. At the time of his arrest a search revealed more photographs of the children and two Polaroid cameras that were identified by the sergeant. Mary later identified these cameras as those used by Shatney and Mother to take the pictures.

A detective from the Johnston police department, juvenile division, testified that the sergeant from the Connecticut State Police had advised him about the photographs. The sergeant further advised him that he had information that some of these photographs had been taken in Johnston, Rhode Island. On December 2, 1985, samples of wallpaper were taken from the family's apartment in Johnston, Rhode Island, in an attempt to identify where the photographs in question had been taken. The detective identified a number of the photographs as having been taken at the Rhode Island apartment.

Shatney's sister-in-law, hereafter known by the fictitious name of Visa, testified that she used to visit her sister, Mother, in Johnston, Rhode Island, two or three times a month. She identified photographs of the children and stated that they had been taken at her sister's apartment in Johnston, Rhode Island.

A child-protective investigator for the Department for Children and Their Families (DCF) testified for the defense. She stated that she met with the children in November 1985. At that time Lisa told her that Shatney had rubbed her vagina with his penis and committed several other sexual acts. The investigator further testified that Mary never specifically stated that the sexual acts committed upon her by Shatney occurred in Rhode Island.

Shatney testified that after meeting Mother in Connecticut, he was arrested for sexual assault on his previous girlfriend's daughter. While Shatney was serving three months in jail for this crime, Mary, Lisa, John, and Mother moved into his house in Connecticut. As part of his probation, Shatney was ordered to undergo counseling for sex offenders. While in counseling, he admitted that he was fondling the children. The Department of Children and Youth Services in Connecticut told Mother to remove the children from Shatney's home. The children and Mother eventually moved to Johnston, Rhode Island.

Shatney stated that he and Mother were married on February 2, 1985. Shortly thereafter, DCF removed the children from their Rhode Island home for a ninety-day period. Shatney further stated that the children were returned in May 1985, and a restraining order was issued to prevent Shatney from seeing the children. He testified that except for a few occasions, he never visited or stayed in Johnston, Rhode Island, after the court order had been issued. Shatney further testified that at no time between July 1, 1984, and November 30, 1985, did he either touch or penetrate any of the three children while in Rhode Island. Shatney was charged with various counts of sexual assault in Connecticut. He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault in the second degree on May 2, 1986.

On September 13, 1989, the trial justice found Shatney guilty of one count of first-degree sexual assault, one count of first-degree child molestation, and three counts of second-degree child molestation. He was found not guilty on counts 9 and 14. On November 22, 1988, the trial justice sentenced him as follows: on count 10 (first-degree child molestation) he was sentenced to life imprisonment, on count 12 (second-degree child molestation) he was sentenced to fifteen years, on count 15 (first-degree sexual assault) he was sentenced to life imprisonment, these three sentences to run concurrently. On counts 11 and 13 (two counts of second-degree child molestation) he was sentenced to fifteen years for each count, each to run consecutive to the sentences previously imposed. The trial justice further ordered that the sentences were to run consecutive to the Connecticut sentence. Shatney filed a notice of appeal on December 1, 1988.

Shatney asserts that the trial justice erred in denying Shatney's motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the state had violated the requirements of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD) by failing to bring Shatney to trial within 180 days.

The pretrial procedural history of this case is as follows. On February 19, 1988, after submitting the appropriate papers required by the IAD, Shatney was transferred to Rhode Island. On April 18, 1988, the state filed a motion for speedy trial, which was granted. On May 3, 1988, defense counsel filed a motion for a bill of particulars, which was denied on May 17, 1988, because defense counsel had not submitted a memorandum. Defense counsel requested another date "to put something together" in order to file a new motion. On June 3, 1988, both the state and defendant requested a continuance on different grounds. The state requested a continuance of the case until August 1, 1988. The prosecutor stated that she was starting hearings on pretrial motions in a sixty-count-indictment case before another trial justice. She also informed the court that she was court-excused for two weeks for the purpose of teaching at the National District Attorneys' College and thereafter she had to resume hearings on the pretrial motions in the other case. The defendant objected to an August 1, 1988 continuance. The defendant requested a continuance until July 1, 1988, because of a pending June 28, 1988 hearing on defendant's new motion for a bill of particulars and his motion to dismiss count 15 of the indictment. The trial justice granted the continuance and set August 1, 1988, as a date certain for the start of trial.

Shatney filed a motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the state had violated the IAD. A hearing was held before the trial justice on August 10 and 11, 1988, and the motion was denied. The trial justice found the following:

"I don't see, from what I've reviewed and what I've heard that there have been delays that have been necessarily caused by the prosecuting authorities. A continuance was requested by both parties. And the one requested by the state was made in good faith. It was acted upon after due consideration by a prior trial judge and he granted it. And I have to assume that the record would reflect that his reasons were sound, and that they were couched in the terms of the statute; that is to say, the continuance was granted because it was necessary and/or reasonable."

The trial justice further noted that because of the nature of this case, which involved the sexual...