2015 Ohio 4134
Ohio Ct. App.2015Background
- Plaintiff Kayla Burton sued Donald Dutiel alleging he raped her on July 8, 2010, asserting claims for assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and punitive damages. A civil jury found Dutiel liable and awarded compensatory and punitive damages; the trial court reduced noneconomic damages under Ohio statutory cap and awarded attorney fees.
- Dutiel (incarcerated) moved for change of venue and to be conveyed to court; venue motion was reserved for voir dire and denial of conveyance was upheld. The court excluded evidence of Burton’s sexual history and excluded reference to Dutiel’s no-contest plea/conviction. Portions of evidence and records were redacted. Dutiel’s deposition was read; he invoked the Fifth on some bedroom facts.
- Evidence included Burton’s testimony, medical records and rape-kit/DNA reports, nurse examiner, BCI and LabCorp analysts, a counselor who diagnosed PTSD, lay witnesses describing Burton’s changed demeanor, and a neighbor who saw Burton and Dutiel together. Jury awarded $350,000 compensatory (reduced to $275,303 post-cap), $175,000 punitive, and attorney fees; final judgment ~$628,684.
- Dutiel moved for JNOV, new trial, and remittitur on multiple grounds: prejudicial venue/pretrial publicity, inflammatory/plaintiff counsel misconduct in argument, denial of his presence/ability to present defense (including excluded evidence), insufficiency/weight of evidence for damages and liability, chain-of-custody for DNA, and improper attorney-fee award.
- The appellate court reviewed venue, evidentiary rulings, counsel argument, admission/authentication of medical records and bills, sufficiency/weight of evidence on liability and damages, future damages, punitive damages, chain-of-custody for lab tests, and the lodestar attorney-fee analysis.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Change of venue / juror bias from pretrial publicity | Burton: extensive voir dire cured prejudice; seated jurors could be impartial | Dutiel: pretrial publicity tainted panel; jurors biased; alternate juror issue | Denied change; court properly conducted voir dire and dismissed biased jurors; no abuse of discretion |
| Counsel's opening/closing statements ("send a message", inflammatory remarks) | Burton: arguments were proper advocacy and within latitude; jury instructed arguments not evidence | Dutiel: statements appealed to passion, improperly invited punishment in compensatory phase | No reversible error; lack of contemporaneous objections and jury instructions cured; not so inflammatory as to taint verdict |
| Defendant's right to be present / admission of defendant-deposition and excluded character/sexual-history evidence | Burton: presence not required; excluded sexual-history evidence would be unfairly prejudicial and irrelevant | Dutiel: incarceration denied his ability to defend; exclusion prevented presentation of consent/credibility evidence; plea was constructively used | Denial of conveyance not abuse of discretion; plea not constructively used; exclusion of sexual-history evidence proper under Evid.R.403 and trial court discretion |
| Sufficiency/weight of evidence and damages (including future damages), DNA chain of custody, attorney fees | Burton: evidence (medical exam, DNA, witnesses, counselor) supported liability and awards; fees determined by lodestar/Bittner factors | Dutiel: testimony incoherent; medical records/bills unauthenticated; future damages unsupported; DNA chain broken; fee award improper given contingency agreement | Liability and most damages supported; medical records and bills authenticated; DNA admissible; attorney fees properly calculated by lodestar; but award for future physical pain ($30,000) and future pain & suffering ($50,000) lacked expert support and was vacated/remitted — case remanded to adjust those amounts |
Key Cases Cited
- Pariseau v. Wedge Products, Inc., 36 Ohio St.3d 124 (Ohio 1988) (standard for judgment notwithstanding verdict/review scope)
- Texler v. D.O. Summers Cleaners & Shirt Laundry Co., 81 Ohio St.3d 677 (Ohio 1998) (jury-verdict sufficiency principles)
- Wagner v. Roche Laboratories, 77 Ohio St.3d 116 (Ohio 1996) (review of JNOV and jury-function limits)
- Osler v. City of Lorain, 28 Ohio St.3d 345 (Ohio 1986) (reasonable-minds sufficiency standard)
- State v. Treesh, 90 Ohio St.3d 460 (Ohio 2000) (requirement to show actual juror bias for prejudice from publicity)
- Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539 (U.S. 1976) (pretrial publicity does not inevitably require venue change)
- Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412 (U.S. 1985) (deference to trial judge on juror voir dire and bias assessments)
- Blakemore v. Blakemore, 5 Ohio St.3d 217 (Ohio 1983) (abuse-of-discretion standard)
- Pang v. Minch, 53 Ohio St.3d 186 (Ohio 1990) (limits on closing-argument conduct and appellate review)
- Bittner v. Tri-County Toyota, 58 Ohio St.3d 143 (Ohio 1991) (lodestar and factors for attorney-fee awards)