COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Laurel June CAMPBELL, Appellee. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Wayne Arnold CAMPBELL, Appellee.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania.
Sept. 28, 1990.
580 A.2d 868
Argued Dec. 7, 1989.
I would affirm judgment of sentence.
Before DEL SOLE, KELLY and HESTER, JJ.
DEL SOLE, Judge:
These are appeals by the Commonwealth from an order granting, Appellees, Wayne and Laurel Campbell, a motion in arrest of judgment1 following their jury conviction of Endangering the Welfare of a Child,
Appellees’ thirteen year old daughter, Stephanie, met an eighteen year old young man named Chad sometime in July of 1988. He was permitted to visit Stephanie at Appellees’ home while they were present. During July, Stephanie and Chad engaged in sexual intercourse on various occasions in
The Commonwealth claims that it presented sufficient evidence for a jury to convict the appellees of endangering the welfare of a child.
In reviewing an appeal from a trial court‘s granting of motion in arrest of judgment, we must determine whether the evidence offered by the Commonwealth was legally sufficient to support the verdict. To reach this determination, we accept all of the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom, upon which the fact-finder could have based the verdict; we can affirm the granting of a motion in arrest of judgment if, viewed in that manner, the evidence was nonetheless insufficient in law to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt as to the crimes charged. Commonwealth v. Robinson, 351 Pa.Super. 309, 505 A.2d 997, 998 (1986). [Citations omitted.]
A parent, guardian, or other person supervising the welfare of a child under 18 years of age commits a misdemeanor of the first degree if he knowingly endangers the welfare of the child by violating a duty of care, protection or support.
In Commonwealth v. Mack, 467 Pa. 613, 359 A.2d 770 (1976), our Supreme Court held that this statute will be given meaning by reference to the common sense of the community and the broad protective purposes for which it was enacted. The facts in Mack had not been established and, therefore, were not set forth on the record. The Supreme Court determined that it could only decide whether the statute contained an ascertainable standard and whether standard infringes upon first amendment rights. The Court held that
The common sense of the community, as well as the sense of decency, propriety and the morality which most people entertain is sufficient to apply the statute to each particular case, and to individuate what particular conduct is rendered criminal by it. [Citing Commonwealth v. Marlin, 452 Pa. 380, 386-87, 305 A.2d 14, 18 (1973).]
The Official Comment to Section 4304 provides further guidance with respect to the statute, it states “The offense involves the endangering of the physical or moral welfare of a child by an act or omission in violation of legal duty even though such legal duty does not itself carry a criminal sanction.” (Purdon‘s 1986)
In the case sub judice, the Commonwealth cites the following inapposite cases for the very unique fact scenario we have before us. In Commonwealth v. Taylor, 324 Pa.Super. 420, 471 A.2d 1228 (1984), the defendant, the father of one of the two teenage girls he abused, was convicted under
The Commonwealth also cites Commonwealth v. Cardwell, 357 Pa.Super. 38, 515 A.2d 311 (1986), where this court held that evidence is sufficient to prove the intent element of the offense of Endangering the Welfare of a Child when the accused is aware of his or her duty to protect the child, is aware that circumstances exist that threaten the child‘s physical or psychological welfare and has either failed to act or has taken actions so lame or meager that such actions cannot reasonably be expected to be effective to protect the child‘s physical or psychological welfare.
In Cardwell, we determined that the crime of endangering the welfare of a child is a specific intent crime and the intent required is the knowing violation of a duty of care. We then looked to the definition of culpability under
(2) A person acts knowingly with respect to a material element of an offense when:
(i) if the element involves the nature of his conduct or the attendant circumstances, he is aware that his conduct is of that nature or that such circumstances exist; and
(ii) if the element involves a result of his conduct, he is aware that it is practically certain that his conduct will cause such a result.
In Cardwell, the mother was charged with endangering the welfare of her daughter for failing to take sufficient steps to protect the child from the child‘s stepfather. For a period of four years, beginning when the child was eleven years of age, the stepfather sexually abused her, twice resulting in the child becoming pregnant. The Commonwealth provided evidence that the mother had direct knowledge of her husband‘s sexual intercourse with her daughter but failed to remove the child from the situation or to protect her.
With the exception of Cardwell, the above cases are easily distinguished from the present case since they all involve physical abuse by the parents or guardian. In this case, the person who took sexual advantage of Stephanie was not a parent or guardian. Cardwell is somewhat similar to this case in that the mother was prosecuted for failing to intervene to prevent abuse. However, in Cardwell, the mother did in fact know that her husband had impregnated her child twice and had continued with a pattern of abuse but she did not remove her from the home. In the instant case, the relationship between Stephanie and Chad with the ensuing pregnancy all occurred within a span of less than a month.
Admittedly, Appellees have an obligation to protect their child from any physical or psychological harm known to them. The Commonwealth alleges that Appellees had a duty to prevent their thirteen year old daughter from becoming pregnant, if they knew the sexual activity was continuing in their home while they were present. The Commonwealth contends that if Appellees were aware of Stephanie‘s sexual activity and failed to prevent it from
Stephanie Campbell testified that she did not tell her parents that she engaged in sexual activity and that she and Chad would sneak upstairs while her parents were home. After the first pregnancy test in July, obviously, the Appellees were aware that Stephanie had engaged in sexual activity. A caseworker from the Children and Youth Services testified that Mrs. Campbell told him that she knew Stephanie had engaged in sexual activity after the first pregnancy test, and, she was promoting the marriage of Stephanie to Chad. Further, Mr. Campbell advised that he had not discussed with his daughter the appropriateness of her being sexually active with an adult male.2
Viewing this evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict winner, in this case the Commonwealth, and drawing the proper inferences from the evidence in the Commonwealth‘s favor, we do not believe that the Commonwealth submitted sufficient evidence to prove that the Appellees endangered the welfare of their child. Section 4304 requires that a parent intentionally violates a duty of care, protection or support. However, this section does not contemplate that parents shall be found guilty because their children have become sexually active or pregnant. We hold that merely establishing that a teenage child has engaged in sexual activity or, has become pregnant is not sufficient to establish a violation of the statute on the part of the parents of that child. Even a parents’ knowledge that a child is sexually active is not sufficient to impose criminal responsibility.
Order of the trial court affirmed.
KELLY, J., files a dissenting opinion.
KELLY, Judge, dissenting:
While I agree with many of the concerns expressed by the majority, I find that I am constrained to respectfully dissent.
This case involves a Commonwealth appeal from a post-verdict order vacating appellees’ convictions of reckless endangerment based upon the trial court‘s conclusion that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict. I find the limited scope of the trial court‘s authority in such matters critical to my analysis of this case.
The law in such matters is well-settled. The Commonwealth has a right to appeal from a post-verdict order vacating a conviction based upon an alleged insufficiency of the evidence. On appeal, we are constrained to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth must be given the benefit of all
The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to Commonwealth as we must, establishes the following. Appellees were aware that their thirteen year old daughter was engaging in sexual intercourse with an eighteen year old man in their home (N.T. 1/24/89 at 21-22); that appellees were aware of the dangers involved in a thirteen year old‘s pregnancy (Id. at 6-7); that appellees failed in any way to prevent their daughter from continuing to have sexual relations in their home (Id. at 21-22); that appellees failed to talk to their daughter about the consequences of her sexual activities (Id. at 6); that appellees allowed their daughter to go unsupervised into her bedroom alone with the man whom they knew was having sexual intercourse with her while appellees were home (Id. at 11 and 22); and that appellees’ daughter became pregnant as a result of these sexual relations. The jury found this evidence to be sufficient to convict the appellees under the relevant statute. Due to our narrow scope of review, I find the trial court exceeded its authority and in this particular case, and I feel compelled to dissent.