STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. JOSE SALAZAR
(AC 35153)
Appellate Court of Connecticut
Argued March 11—officially released July 8, 2014
DiPentima, C. J., and Beach and Keller, Js.
Appeal from Superior Court, judicial district of Waterbury, Prescott, J.
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Emily D. Trudeau, deputy assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Maureen Platt, state’s attorney, and Elena Palermo, assistant state’s attorney, for the appellee (state).
BEACH, J. The defendant, Jose Salazar, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of two counts of sexual assault in the fourth degree in violation of
The following facts, as reasonably could have been found by the jury, and procedural history are relevant. At trial, the victim1 testified that in January, 2006, when she was ten years old, she met the defendant, who at that time wаs her mother’s boyfriend. She testified that the defendant had, on various occasions, entered her bedroom at night and sexually molested her by touching her breasts and vagina. She testified that the defendant threatened to hurt her mother if she told anyone about the abuse. The victim also testified that she did not want to ‘‘ruin her mom’s happiness’’ by reporting the abuse; her mother had not been happy since her father’s death years prior. The mother’s relationship with the defendant ended in late 2006.
At a later time, however, the victim did report the abuse to several people. Sarah McLeod, a therapist,2 conducted a group therapy exercise in which the victim and other participants were asked to make time lines of important moments in their lives. The victim indicated on her time line that she had been ‘‘touched.’’ After speaking to the victim about the abuse, McLeod referred her to another therapist, Gira Valentin Cuffee. The victim told Cuffee that she had been sexually assaulted by her mother’s former boyfriend, the defendant. The police were notified, and Detective Cathleen Knapp contacted the victim, who did not feel comfortable providing details of the abuse at that time. The victim later approached Knapp, described the abuse, and identified the defendant as the perpetrator.
The victim testified at trial about the facts of the assault and identified the defendant as the assailant. She testified about her reporting of the assault to several people. The state then elicited testimony from three constancy of accusation witnesses: McLeod, Cuffee, and Knapp. The defendant was found guilty on all counts and was sentenced to a total effective term of twelve years incarceration, execution suspended after four years, and ten years probation. This appeal followed.
I
The defendant claims that he was deprived of his due
‘‘In analyzing claims of prosecutorial impropriety, we engage in a two step analytical process. . . . The two steps are separate and distinct. . . . We first examine whether prosecutorial impropriety occurred. . . . Second, if an impropriety exists, we then examine whether it deprived the defendant of his due process right to a fair trial. . . . In other words, an impropriety is an impropriety, regardless of its ultimate effect оn the fairness of the trial. Whether that impropriety was harmful and thus caused or contributed to a due process violation involves a separate and distinct inquiry. . . .
‘‘In determining whether the defendant was denied a fair trial . . . we must view the prosecutor’s [actions] in the context of the entire trial.’’ (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Fauci, 282 Conn. 23, 32, 917 A.2d 978 (2007). ‘‘[W]hen a defendant raises on appeal a claim that improper remarks by the prosecutor deprived the defendant of his constitutional right to a fair trial, the burdеn is on the defendant to show . . . that the remarks were improper . . . .’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Otto, 305 Conn. 51, 77, 43 A.3d 629 (2012).
‘‘[P]rosecutorial [impropriety] of a constitutional magnitude can occur in the course of closing arguments. . . . [B]ecause closing arguments often have a rough and tumble quality about them, some leeway must be afforded to the advocates in offering arguments to the jury in final argument. [I]n addressing the jury, [c]ounsel must be allowed a generous latitude in argument, as the limits of legitimate argument and fair comment cannot bе determined precisely by rule and line, and something must be allowed for the zeal of counsel in the heat of argument. . . . Nevertheless, [w]hile a prosecutor may argue the state’s case forcefully, such argument must be fair and based upon the facts in evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom.’’ (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Necaise, 97 Conn. App. 214, 229–30, 904 A.2d 245, cert. denied, 280 Conn. 942, 912 A.2d 478 (2006).
The defendant claims that the state improperly argued before the jury that constancy of aсcusation evidence could be used substantively for proving the truth of the accusation, rather than merely as corroboration of the victim’s testimony. There is no claim, in this context, that the evidence itself was improperly admitted. Our Supreme Court summarized the previously existing law as follows: ‘‘In sex-related crime cases, we have long recognized that a witness, to whom a victim has complained of the offense, could testify not only to the fact that a complaint was made but
The court went on to modify the constancy of accusation doctrine and explained the need to protect against the preconception ‘‘that women who do not complain [shortly after the crime] have not really been raped.’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., 302. But the court also recognized that defendants may be unfairly harmed by the admission of substantive hearsay evidence. The prejudice is ‘‘magnified if the victim has reported the alleged offеnse to a number of persons, all of whom are permitted to testify about the details of the complaint. In such circumstances, there is an enhanced risk that the jury may be unduly swayed by the repeated iteration of the constancy of accusation testimony.’’ Id., 302–303. The court then stated that its ‘‘evaluation of these competing considerations persuades us that the scope of our current [constancy of accusation] doctrine is broader than necessary to protect against the unwarranted, but nonetheless persistent, view that a sexual assault victim who does not report the crime cannot be trusted to testify truthfully about the incident. Although we are not yet willing to reject the constancy of accusation doctrine completely due to biases still extant in our society, we are persuaded that restricting the evidence adduced thereunder to testimony regarding the fact of the complaint provides a more reasonable accommodation of the intеrests of the defendant, the state and the victim than does our current rule.’’ Id., 303.
Our Supreme Court concluded ‘‘that a person to whom a sexual assault victim has reported the assault may testify only with respect to the fact and timing of the victim’s complaint; any testimony by the witness regarding the details surrounding the assault must be strictly limited to those necessary to associate the victim’s complaint with the pending charge, including, for example, the time and place of the attack or the identity of the alleged perpetrator. In all other respects, our current rules remain in effect. Thus, such evidence is admissible only to corroborate the victim’s testimony and not for substantive purposes. Before the evidence may be admitted, therefore, the victim must first have testified concerning the facts of the sexual assault and the identity of the person or persons to whom the incident was reported. . . . In addition, the defendant is entitled to an instruction that any delay by the victim
The holding in Troupe was later codified in
A
The defendant argues that the prosecutor improperly used constancy of accusation testimony during closing and rebuttal arguments not only to bolster the victim’s credibility by corroborating her testimony, but also to suggest that the disclosures were themselves true. He contends that this use of constancy of accusation testimony was improper because the sole permissible use of such testimony under Troupe is to counteract a perhaps false perception that a victim’s credibility is dubious because she did not disclose the incident promptly to the authorities.
1
The defendant argues that the prosecutor improperly suggested to the jury that the victim’s statements to McLeod and Cuffee were true because of the circumstances under which they were given. He claims that the prosecutor argued that because the victim did not know that McLeod would ask her to create a timetable, this disclosure was spontaneous and therefore credible, and that because the victim initially did not want the therapist, Cuffee, to call the police, the victim’s statements to Cuffee were correspondingly more credible, as they were made reluctantly and not with an eye to prosecution.3
The defendant also argues that the prosecutor urged that the victim’s statements to Knapp were credible by stressing Knapp’s credentials in talking to children. The prosecutor stated in closing argument: ‘‘Detective Knapp is in the sex crimes unit. She has experience talking to children.’’
These arguments of the prosecutor were not improper. They stressed details surrounding the victim’s disclosure rather than details of the actual misconduct. Pertaining to the circumstances of the victim’s disclosures, the arguments stressed the context of the disclosures for an understanding, perhaps, of the approximately three year delay in disclosure. The cir
2
The defendant further argues that the prosecutor improperly bolstered the credibility of the victim’s complaints when she stated during closing argument that the victim did not hеsitate in identifying the defendant as the assailant from a photographic array because ‘‘[s]he knew that he sexually assaulted her. Hard thing to forget.’’4
Under Troupe, constancy of accusation testimony properly is limited to details that are ‘‘necessary to associate the victim’s complaint with the pending charge, including, for example, the time and place of the attack or the identity of the alleged perpetrator. . . . [S]uch evidence is admissible only to corroborate the victim’s testimony and not for substantive purposes.’’ State v. Troupe, supra, 237 Conn. 304. The prosecutor argued that the reason that the victim did not hesitate when identifying the defendant as her assailant was that the victim ‘‘knew that [the defendant had] sexually assaulted her’’ and that such an event is a ‘‘[h]ard thing to forget.’’ The victim’s identification of the defendant to Knapp was admitted for the purpose of corroborating the victim’s testimony pursuant to the constancy of accusation doctrine. The prosecutor’s comments in this respect, however, еncouraged the jury to use the evidence of the victim’s identification of the defendant to Knapp substantively. Although the evidence was properly admitted at trial, it ‘‘may not be used for a purpose for which it was not admitted.’’ State v. Camacho, 282 Conn. 328, 377, 924 A.2d 99, cert. denied, 552 U.S. 956, 128 S. Ct. 388, 169 L. Ed. 2d 273 (2007). Accordingly, the prosecutor’s comments urging the evidence to be used substantively were improper. See State v. Kelly, 106 Conn. App. 414, 432–33, 942 A.2d 440 (2008) (prosecutor’s use during closing argument of constancy evidence for substantive purposes improper).
The defendant also argues that the following statement made by the prosecutor during closing argument was improper: ‘‘And the witnesses that you heard, Sarah McLeod, Gigi Valentin [Cuffee] . . . Detective Knapp, all said she said it was her mom’s ex-boyfriend. He was identified as [the defendant]. It was on [a certain street] in [town].5 . . . No conflicts about who it was, where it occurred, what he did.’’ (Emphasis added.)
Constancy of accusation testimony can properly be used to corroborate the victim’s testimony. State v. Troupe, supra, 237 Conn. 304–305. The fact that there were no conflicts in thе testimony of the constancy of accusation witnesses was properly used to corroborate the victim’s testimony. The statements, however, were subject to ambiguity because they could also have been interpreted as encouraging the jury to use the constancy testimony for substantive purposes. ‘‘[C]losing arguments of counsel . . . are seldom carefully constructed in toto before the event; improvisation frequently results in syntax left imperfect and meaningless than crystal clear. While thеse general observations in no way justify prosecutorial [impropriety], they do suggest that a court should not lightly infer that a prosecutor intends an ambiguous remark to have its most damaging meaning or that a jury, sitting through lengthy exhortation, will draw that meaning from the plethora of less damaging interpretations.’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Luster, supra, 279 Conn. 441. We do not conclude that there was error simply because the meaning of an isolated statement was unclear. See State v. Schiller, 115 Conn. App. 189, 196, 972 A.2d 272, cert. denied, 293 Conn. 910, 978 A.2d 1113 (2009).
4
The defendant also argues that the following statement made by the prosecutor during rebuttal argument was improper: ‘‘[T]here was no relationship in 2009 with [the victim] and the defendant. The mother wasn’t involved in the defendant’s life in 2009. There was nothing going on with [the defendant]. He had long been out of their lives. There was . . . no motive to lie. What she did was told the truth.’’ (Emphasis added.)
‘‘[I]t is not improper for a prosecutor to remark on the motives that a witness may have to lie, or not to lie, as the case may be.’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Stevenson, 269 Conn. 563, 585, 849 A.2d 626 (2004). The comments related to the victim’s lack of motive to lie were followed by a statement that the victim ‘‘told the truth.’’ This statement is ambiguous because it is not clear whether the statement referred to the victim’s lack of motive to lie in her testimony to the jury or her lack of motive to lie in the substance of her statements to the constancy witnesses. If the statement were interpreted to mean that the victim ‘‘told
B
Having determined that some of the prosecutor’s remarks were improper, we now turn to an analysis of whether those remarks deprived the defendant of a fair trial. ‘‘[A] determination of whether the defendant was deprived of his right to a fair trial . . . involve[s] the application of the factors set out . . . in State v. Williams, 204 Conn. 523, 540, 529 A.2d 653 (1987). As [the court] stated in that case: In determining whether prosecutorial [impropriety] was so serious as to amount to a denial of due process, this court, in conformity with courts in other jurisdictions, has focused on several factors. Among them are the extent to which the [impropriety] was invited by defense conduct or argument . . . the severity of the [impropriety] . . . the frequency of the [impropriety] . . . the centrality of the [impropriety] to the critiсal issues in the case . . . the strength of the curative measures adopted . . . and the strength of the state’s case.’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Fauci, supra, 282 Conn. 33–34.
Here, the state’s case was not particularly strong; there was no physical evidence and it was the victim’s word against that of the defendant. The issue of the victim’s credibility, then, was a central issue at trial. The improprieties were infrequent and were limited to relatively minor isolated statements during closing argument; they did not pervade the proceeding. See State v. Jenkins, 70 Conn. App. 515, 542, 800 A.2d 1200, cert. denied, 261 Conn. 927, 806 A.2d 1062 (2002). Furthermore, the comments were not severe enough to jeopardize the defendant’s right to a fair trial, and the defendant did not object to the comments at trial. ‘‘To the extent that defense counsel failed to raise an objection, that fact weighs against the defendant’s claim that the improper conduct was harmful. . . . A failure to object demonstrates that defense counsel presumably [did] not view the alleged impropriety as prejudicial enough to jeopardize seriously the defendant’s right to a fair trial. . . . Given the defendant’s failure to object [to the majority of the improprieties now alleged], only instances of grossly egregious misconduct will be severe enough to mandate reversal.’’ (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Wilson, 308 Conn. 412, 449, 64 A.3d 91 (2013).
Before any witness testified regarding constancy of accusation, the court instructed the jury that it was not to consider the statements made by the victim to the constancy witnesses for the truth of the matter asserted,
Accordingly, we conclude that the defendant has not shown that ‘‘the trial as a whole was fundamentally unfair and that the [impropriety] so infected the trial with unfairness as to make the conviction a denial of due process.’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Singh, 259 Conn. 693, 723, 793 A.2d 226 (2002).
II
The defendant next claims that this court should modify the constancy of accusation doctrine so that it does not apply to sexual assault cases involving minors.7 The defendant is challenging thе constancy of accusation doctrine as modified by State v. Troupe, supra, 237 Conn. 284, and as codified by
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.