US v. Batton

• Decision Date: 23 April 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-8079.,09-8079.
• Citation: 602 F.3d 1191
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William BATTON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

602 F.3d 1191

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William BATTON, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 09-8079.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

April 23, 2010.

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Submitted on the briefs:

Michael J. Krampner, Krampner, Fuller & Associates Attorneys At Law, L.L.C., Casper, WY, for Appellant.

Stephanie I. Sprecher, Assistant United States Attorney, David A. Kubichek, Assistant United States Attorney, and Christopher A. Crofts, United States Attorney, District of Wyoming, Office of the United States Attorney, Casper, WY, for Appellee.

Before LUCERO, BALDOCK, and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges.

TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.

William J. Batton was prosecuted and convicted for transporting a fourteen-year-old family friend to Chicago, where he sexually assaulted him. After receiving a sentence of 360 months under the Interstate Transportation of a Minor for Unlawful Sexual Relations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a), Batton appeals, raising three trial errors.

Batton contends the district court erred when it: (1) admitted evidence of a past conviction of a sexual offense against a fourteen-year-old family friend; (2) gave an improper jury instruction regarding the relevancy of the prior sexual assault; and (3) allowed an expert witness to testify regarding the methods sex offenders use to recruit and groom victims.

Having jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we find the district court did not err. The evidence of Batton's prior sexual assault against a fourteen-year-old boy was strikingly similar to the charged offense and helped the jury determine the validity of the victim's accusations; the jury instructions as a whole were not misleading; and the expert testimony explained the characteristics and techniques of sex offenders in a way helpful to the jury.

Accordingly, we AFFIRM Batton's conviction.

I. Background

Trial testimony shows Batton's interaction with the victim began several years before the crime occurred. In 2000, the victim's parents moved to Douglas, Wyoming, with their two sons. They purchased a townhouse, and their neighbors were William Batton, his wife, Liz, and Liz's son. The two families formed a solid friendship, and over the next two years, they spent a great deal of time together, including holidays. The victim's mother often spoke with both Batton and his wife about day-to-day life, as well as more personal matters.

Some time in 2002, the victim's parents moved 30 miles west of Douglas to Glenrock, Wyoming. The parents then went through a divorce. During and after the divorce, the Battons continued to have a close friendship with the victim's mother and her children. In particular, the Battons maintained regular contact with the mother's eight-year-old son, J.D., who seemed especially troubled by his parents' separation. Batton suggested to J.D.'s mother that it might benefit J.D. to get away on occasion from the circumstances surrounding his parents' divorce, and he asked for permission to spend time with J.D. every once in a while. The mother agreed.

Over the course of several years, Batton and his wife took J.D. to the movies, the state fair, dinner, and their places of employment. J.D. also spent the night at the Battons' house on several occasions. During the summer of 2006, Batton told J.D.'s mother that he wanted to reward J.D. for earning good grades by taking him on a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota. The mother consented, and J.D. traveled with Batton and his wife to South Dakota, where they visited monuments and explored various sights.

From 2006 to 2007, J.D.'s mother and her children regularly met with the Battons. J.D. continued to do well in school, and Batton once again offered to take J.D. on a congratulatory trip, this time to Chicago. Batton's wife and her business partner would be attending a conference, and Batton wanted to bring J.D. along, hoping to take him to various sights in the city while his wife attended her meetings. J.D.'s mother again agreed, feeling J.D. would enjoy the trip, especially since he had never been to Chicago.

In late July, 2007, Batton, his wife, her business partner, and J.D. traveled to Chicago, returning a week later. J.D.'s mother thought nothing of the trip until January, 2008, when Batton called her and informed her, for reasons that are not clear, that he had been in prison the previous weekend for failing to register as a sex offender. Although Batton tried to convince J.D.'s mother that it was nothing of consequence and that a family in Ohio was merely trying to extort money from him because of something that had happened long before, J.D.'s mother decided not to allow Batton to visit with J.D. in the future unless she or her fiancé were present.

Several days later, her worries still lingering, J.D.'s mother searched on-line for information relating to Batton and his Ohio offenses. What she found disturbed her: a number of newspaper articles detailing Batton's 1995 conviction for sexual assault on a 14-year-old boy. She immediately left work and drove to J.D.'s school, where she pulled him from class. She drove J.D. home, explained that Batton had been in trouble, and asked J.D. if Batton had ever touched him in a sexual way. J.D. answered in the affirmative.

After conferring with her fiancé, J.D.'s mother phoned the Converse County Sheriff's Office to report what J.D. had told her. That phone call resulted in an investigation, which eventually led to Batton's prosecution.

At trial, J.D. testified that Batton had touched his genitalia on a number of occasions from the time J.D. was in second grade until he finished sixth grade. He also testified that on the second and third days of the Chicago trip, Batton had engaged in sexual contact with him.

Over Batton's objections, the trial court allowed the jury to hear (1) evidence of Batton's 1995 Ohio conviction, including testimony from the victim in that case; (2) Instruction 36, which read, in part, that the government "offered the evidence regarding the 1995 conviction for its bearing on any matter to which it is relevant, including ... the improbability that the Defendant has been falsely or mistakenly accused of these crimes," R., Vol. I, Doc. 68 at 39; and (3) testimony from Dr. Heineke, the government's expert who testified regarding the general methods of sex offenders.

II. Discussion

Batton appeals his conviction and charges the trial court erred in admitting the prior crime's evidence, the jury instruction, and the expert testimony. We discuss each in turn.

A. Batton's 1995 Conviction

1. The Applicability of Rule 413

Batton first contends the district court erred in admitting evidence of his 1995 conviction in Ohio. We review legal interpretations of the Federal Rules of Evidence de novo. United States v. Guardia, 135 F.3d 1326, 1328 (10th Cir.1998). Evidentiary rulings are reviewed for an abuse of discretion, which means we will not disturb the district court's ruling "absent a distinct showing it was based on a clearly erroneous finding of fact or an erroneous conclusion of law or manifests a clear error of judgment." United States v. Stiger, 413 F.3d 1185, 1194 (10th Cir.2005) (quotations omitted).

The district court admitted the evidence of the 1995 conviction under Federal Rule of Evidence 413, which addresses propensity evidence in the context of sexual assault. See United States v. Benally, 500 F.3d 1085, 1089 (10th Cir.2007). In general, the rules of evidence prohibit "the admission of evidence for the purpose of showing a defendant's propensity to commit bad acts." Id.; see FED.R.EVID. 404(a).

But Rule 413 provides an exception: "In a criminal case in which the defendant is accused of an offense of sexual assault, evidence of the defendant's commission of another offense or offenses of sexual assault is admissible, and may be considered for its bearing on any matter to which it is relevant." FED.R.EVID. 413(a). To establish admissibility under Rule 413, the prosecution must show (1) the defendant is currently accused of an offense of sexual assault; (2) the proffered prior acts evidence is "of the defendant's commission of another offense of ... sexual assault," FED.R.EVID. 413(a); and (3) the proffered evidence is relevant. See Guardia, 135 F.3d at 1328 (10th Cir.1998).

Rule 413 defines "an offense of sexual assault" as, among other things, (1) "contact, without consent, between any part of the defendant's body or an object and the genitals or anus of another person," FED. R.EVID. 413(d)(2); (2) "an attempt or conspiracy to engage in such conduct," FED. R.EVID. 413(d)(5); or (3) "any conduct proscribed by 18 U.S.C. §§ 2241-2246."¹ FED.R.EVID. 413(d)(1). 18 U.S.C. §§ 2241-2246, in turn, prohibits any conduct proscribed in an enumerated series of sexual assault crimes.

Just as Rule 413 permits the introduction of prior offenses of sexual assault evidence, Rule 414 similarly allows the admission of evidence of prior offenses in child molestation cases. As we noted in United States v. Enjady, 134 F.3d 1427 (10th Cir.1998), Congress enacted these rules because these types of cases often raise questions regarding the victim's credibility and a defendant's prior conduct can be especially probative. Id. at 1431. Additionally, the rules are "based on the premise that evidence of other sexual assaults is highly relevant to prove propensity to commit like crimes." Id.

The district court properly concluded that both Batton's prior conviction and the crime with which he is charged in this case qualify as sexual assault for Rule 413 purposes. Because 18 U.S.C. § 2243 clearly proscribes the conduct that led to Batton's 1995 conviction—oral sex with a fourteen year old boy—the conviction meets Rule 413's definition of a sexual assault. Section 2243(a) provides:

Whoever ... knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who—(1) has attained the age of 12 years but has not attained the

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