Case Title: State v. Wojcik

Citation: 238 Neb. 863, 472 N.W.2d 732

Docket Number: 

State: nebraska

Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

Date: 1991-08-02T00:00:00Z

Document:
472 N.W.2d 732 (1991) 238 Neb. 863 STATE of Nebraska, Appellant, v. Laureen L. WOJCIK, Appellee. No. 91-127. Supreme Court of Nebraska. August 2, 1991. *733 James S. Jansen, Douglas County Atty., and Maria R. Leslie, for appellant. Thomas M. Kenney, Douglas County Public Defender, and Timothy P. Burns for appellee. HASTINGS, C.J., and BOSLAUGH, WHITE, CAPORALE, SHANAHAN, GRANT, and FAHRNBRUCH, JJ. SHANAHAN, Justice. Without a plea agreement with the State and on her nolo contendere plea entered while represented by counsel, Laureen L. Wojcik was convicted of knowingly and intentionally abusing her 3-month-old son, David, a crime under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 28-707(1) (Reissue 1989) of the Nebraska Criminal Code which, pertinent to Wojcik's case, provides: Intentional child abuse is a Class IV felony. See § 28-707(4). After Wojcik's nolo contendere plea on November 26, 1990, and a presentence report, the district court for Douglas County sentenced Wojcik to probation for 3 years. Pursuant to Neb.Rev. Stat. § 29-2320 (Reissue 1989), the State has appealed, claims that the sentence of probation is too lenient, and requests this court to set aside Wojcik's sentence and impose an appropriate sentence under the circumstances. See Neb.Rev.Stat. § 29-2323 (Reissue 1989) (sentencing alternatives available to the Nebraska Supreme Court when a sentence imposed is too lenient). When the State, pursuant to Neb. Rev.Stat. §§ 29-2320 et seq. (Reissue 1989), appeals and claims that a sentence imposed on a defendant is excessively lenient, the standard of review is whether the sentencing court abused its discretion in the sentence imposed. State v. Reynolds, 235 Neb. 662, 457 N.W.2d 405 (1990); State v. Stastny, 227 Neb. 748, 419 N.W.2d 873 (1988). At the time of the charged child abuse, Wojcik, an admitted alcoholic since she was 19 years of age, was 33 years old with a ninth grade education and was divorced. In addition to David, Wojcik had three other children at home: a 17-year-old son; one daughter, age 10; and another daughter, who was 6 years old. In 1976, rather than "going through the hassle" of a child abuse charge, Wojcik relinquished her then 3year-old son for adoption. David is hydrocephalic. In 1979, in the district court for Sarpy County, Wojcik was convicted of conspiracy to commit first degree murder and was sentenced to imprisonment for 5 to 15 years in the Nebraska Penal and Correctional Complex. However, Wojcik was paroled in 1983, but violated her parole by becoming intoxicated and in 1984 was returned to confinement in the women's penal facility at York, from which she was discharged in 1987. In December 1989, police investigated a child abuse complaint against Wojcik concerning her younger daughter, who was then 5 years of age. A member of Wojcik's family observed Wojcik hit the little girl with a "2x4" and, with a clinched fist, strike the child in the eye, resulting in the child's swollen eye. In a later interview *734 with a psychologist, the daughter stated that Wojcik "threw me against the wall." A child abuse charge was filed, but was later dismissed by the State in April 1990. On the evening of June 10, 1990, Wojcik brought David to the emergency room at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit. Physicians who admitted David at UNMC readily noted David's hydrocephalus and, additionally, observed severe swelling of David's head. On inquiry from a physician, Wojcik denied that David had sustained any recent injury. One of the physicians asked when the extraordinary swelling of David's head had begun. Wojcik at first said that the swelling started 2 days earlier, but then changed the time to approximately a week and, finally, to 10 days before bringing David to the hospital. Without any clarifying explanation, Wojcik had failed to keep a medical appointment for David on May 21, 1990. David was placed on oxygen with constant surveillance. Hospital records contained the remark that Wojcik was intoxicated at the time of David's admission. Hydrocephalus is a condition which may occur in infants and is marked by an abnormal increase in the cerebrospinal fluid normally present in small amounts in and around the brain. Normally, the human brain contains approximately 2 ounces of cerebral fluid, but in hydrocephalus the brain may contain several pints of fluid. Presence of the fluid is accompanied by an enlargement of the skull and cerebral ventricles, which are small chambers or cavities within the brain, and increased pressure of fluid between the brain and skull and within the ventricles. The increased pressure causes brain tissue to become thinner, even shrivel, and atrophy, while the head enlarges, with the result that mental deterioration follows and fatal convulsions may ensue. A pediatrician at UNMC rendered the following diagnosis: Hospital records prepared by David's attending and examining physicians included comments such as "marked megalocephaly probably secondary to trauma" and "[b]ilateral subdural hematomas secondary to shaken baby syndrome." A "Diagnostic Radiology Consultation Report" for David contained: "There are massive bilateral extra axial fluid collections, consistent with subdural hematomas, probably subacute. There are several small areas of increased density in the left subdural, which probably represents more recent hemorrhage. The brain is compressed symmetrically from both sides. The etiology is most likely secondary to trauma." To relieve the accentuated hydrocephalus, surgeons drilled into David's skull at a cranial horizontal midline just behind his right ear and, through the cranial opening, made a "small hole ... in the dura using electrocautery." After making an incision in David's abdomen, surgeons used a catheter as a ventriculoperitoneal shunt for passage *735 of cerebral fluid from David's brain to his abdomen for systemic absorption. Under the circumstances, David's physicians notified the Omaha Police Division, which commenced an investigation into possible child abuse. In the course of the investigation on June 12, after police officers obtained a "Rights Advisory" form, that is, Wojcik's acknowledgment that she had received the Miranda warning or admonition from the police officers, and after Wojcik's waiver of the rights expressed in Miranda, Wojcik told officers that on an afternoon between May 7 and 11, 1990, David was lying on his back in his crib and crying, while Wojcik's other children were downstairs. According to Wojcik, she went over to the crib, leaned over, picked up David, and "shook him a couple of times and then told him to be quiet so I could think." When an officer asked how long Wojcik had shaken David, Wojcik answered: "Just for a few minutes. Tryin' to get him to be quiet, because I was upset; I was tryin' to think. I couldn't think when he cried." Shortly thereafter, Wojcik's mother appeared on the scene, and Wojcik handed David to her mother, left the house, and went for a walk. Wojcik was charged under § 28-707(1) and convicted by her nolo contendere plea to the charge of intentional child abuse concerning David. Wojcik's children, except the 17-year-old son, are in temporary foster homes under jurisdiction of the separate juvenile court of Douglas County. As a Class IV felony, intentional child abuse is punishable by 5 years' imprisonment, a $10,000 fine, or both such imprisonment and fine, with no specified minimum penalty on conviction. Another possible sentence statutorily available to the sentencing court was probation pursuant to Neb.Rev.Stat. § 29-2260 (Reissue 1989), which provides in part: (4) When an offender who has been convicted of a crime is not sentenced to *736 imprisonment, the court may sentence him or her to probation. After the court sentenced Wojcik to probation for 3 years, the State appealed, claiming that the sentence imposed was too lenient. Section 29-2322 provides that when the State has appealed and claims that a sentence is excessively lenient, Regarding possible dispositions of the State's appeal based on a claim of excessively lenient sentence, § 29-2323 provides: The crime of child abuse frequently includes not only physical injury inflicted on a child, but mental trauma as well. Until experience teaches otherwise, a child looks to a parent for love, help, and a relationship of unlimited trust. At least in a child's early years, the child needs a nurturing parent for the very continuation of life itself. This is especially true in the case of David, who was both dependent and defenseless in his crib within his home, which ordinarily should be a child's sanctuary or refuge from the hurt waiting outside. David's mother, however, betrayed parental trust by making risk a very real part of David's life. Violence became not only a part of life, but a way of life taught and learned in the Wojcik home. What is learned today will be taught tomorrow. Child abuse cannot be a part of that education. We will not attempt a complete itemization of all the qualities of a good parent, but parental indifference, even apathy, to a child's injury inflicted by a parent would not be on that list anywhere. While violence has been a persistent part of Wojcik's life, inside and outside her home, that is not the type of force which ought to drive her children, or anyone's children, in their lives. Therefore, having considered the nature of the offense and its circumstances, Wojcik's character and history of violence, the seriousness of child abuse as a crime against those least able to protect themselves, and the need to deter Wojcik from future harm to her family, we conclude that a sentence to probation is inadequate punishment for the crime committed. Hence, we conclude that the district court abused its discretion by sentencing Wojcik to probation and, therefore, set aside the district court's sentence imposed on Wojcik. Under the circumstances, we find that a sentence to imprisonment is appropriate. Consequently, we sentence Wojcik to imprisonment at hard labor in a facility under the direction and jurisdiction of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services for *737 a term of 20 months to 5 years, with credit for Wojcik's custodial time, if any, spent during pendency of the final disposition of this cause. The State has convinced us that Wojcik's sentence is too lenient, which it was; therefore, we have corrected the sentence imposed on Wojcik. Much of the information which we have examined concerning Wojcik's sentence is contained in the presentence report. One might reasonably expect that a court will consider relevant information contained in the presentence report, whether a matter for the sentencing court or an appellate court reviewing the sentence imposed. In Wojcik's case, the presentence report consists of photographs and 350 pages offered in a looseleaf edition of unnumbered pages. The "PSR" was secured only by a thin rubberband, which broke, causing a cascade of papers and no small uncertainty regarding the proper sequence of the material reassembled for future use. In any event, perhaps some of the facts, buried in the presentence report, escaped the district court's detection, which is understandable in view of the disarray in which the presentence report came before the district court and us. In preparing its brief, the State is required to observe the rule: Neb.Ct.R. of Prac. 9D(1)f (rev. 1991). The State has disregarded the preceding rule. Although we are not required to search through the record to locate recitations of fact unannotated to the record, see State v. Biernacki, 237 Neb. 215, 465 N.W.2d 732 (1991), nevertheless, we have examined the record in Wojcik's case to ascertain the circumstances bearing on the claim that Wojcik's sentence is too lenient. Also, we point out that on November 1, 1990, at instruction from this court, Nebraska probation officers were directed that every presentence report shall consist of pagination numbered consecutively to facilitate examination and use of the report by a sentencing court and an appellate court as well. The presentence report in Wojcik's case was submitted on February 4, 1991, 3 months after issuance of the directive concerning pagination of every presentence report. Nevertheless, it is counsel's responsibility to prepare a brief in conformity with the rules of this court. If carrying out that responsibility requires some communication between counsel and those who prepare the record, including a PSR, for appellate review, then, as an admonition to be taken seriously, we suggest such communication. A word to the wise is sufficient. SENTENCE MODIFIED.