Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Paul E. LEPKOWSKI
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1975-07-25
Citations: 316 So. 2d 727
Docket Number: No. 56052
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Paul E. LEPKOWSKI.
Judges: TATE, J., concurs and assigns reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 316
Pages: 727–732

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Paul E. LEPKOWSKI.
No. 56052.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
July 25, 1975.
Wendell E. Tanner, Tanner & Lussen, Slidell, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Woodrow W. Erwin, Dist. Atty., Julian J. Rodrigue, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Opinion:
DIXON, Justice.
Defendant, Paul E. Lepkowski, was arrested February 18, 1974 and found guilty by a jury of attempted armed robbery on October 14, 1974; he was subsequently sentenced to five years at hard labor.
Before us defendant urges two errors to which he objected at the trial. However, defendant neither perfected bills of exceptions nor assignments of errors. Consequently, there is nothing before us for review except errors discoverable by inspection of the pleadings and proceedings. State v. Shillow, 310 So.2d 103 (1975). C.Cr.P. 884 and 920.
Nevertheless, we have examined the errors assigned by defendant, and find them without merit.
The first assigned error occurred during the State's examination of a deputy who had investigated the crime:
"Q: As a result of the information which you received from Mrs. Reimo-neng, did she tell you what kind of car [defendant] was driving?
"A: Yes, sir. She told me it was a Volkswagen.
"Q: As a result of the information which you received from her, what did you do?
"A: Well, I received my information from her: The subject was suppose (sic) to be a newspaper salesman. I went to the local two newspaper agencies in town, the Times and the Sentry, inquired if they had anybody selling subscriptions that matched this physical description. At the Sentry, Daily Sentry News I learned that they did have a subject that met the general description and did drive a Volkswagen.
"Q: Did you know anything else that led you to Mr. Lepkowski?
"A: Yes, sir. I learned at the Sentry that he had a previous conviction.
"Defense Counsel: Objection. I ask the jury be removed.
"The Court: Retire the jury."
A direct or indirect reference to another crime committed by defendant, as to which evidence would not be admissible, would require a mistrial upon motion of defendant. C.Cr.P. 770. A question by a prose cutor to a police officer designed to place before a jury inadmissible evidence of another crime would clearly be error. The trial judge did not find, however, and defendant does not argue, that the evidence of the other conviction was obtained by design of the prosecutor.
After argument and recess to examine the applicable statutes, the trial judge concluded the remark was not covered by C.Cr.P. 770: the witness was not a "court official;" State v. Howard, 283 So.2d 197 (La.1973); there was no other reference or explanation of the "other conviction," either as to time, place or nature (until the defendant, himself, took the stand). The judge correctly concluded that the matter was covered by C.Cr.P. 771, and admonished the jury to disregard the remark.
The second assigned error concerns a statement made by the district attorney during the closing arguments. The district attorney stated:
" . . . If her physical condition of hysteria, crying, excitement wasn't true, then all of you are reasonable men, you know that it takes something to trigger this in a human being. You heard the testimony about the condition of the little boy, the innocent little boy who was with his mother. It takes something to trigger this in a human being, even that small. And what did trigger it? If what Paul Lepkowski says is true, the lady dreamt up the story. She made it up. She fabricated it. For what purpose? To testify against a man she had never seen before in her life? To try to send a man to the penitentiary she didn't know? Do you believe that a human being of this lady's caliber would do something like that? For what purpose ? For what reason ?
"He has given you nothing to sink your teeth into. Why would somebody come up with a story of that unless it was true? You think we don't check into the background of stories like this ?
"Mr. Tanner: I am going to object. This is not a rebuttal.
"Mr. Rodrigue: I am allowed to argue, Your Honor.
"The Court: There is no restriction on rebuttal.
"Mr. Rodrigue: You think we would have prosecuted had we found anything in the investigation to reveal that it had not happened? Just think, gentlemen, of the witnesses from both sides and what they have to gain and what they have to lose by what she said on this witness stand."
The objection made at the trial was that the district attorney was exceeding the scope of rebuttal. In brief the defendant abandons this objection and argues instead that the argument was improper because the district attorney violated the rule, enunciated in State v. Cascio, 219 La. 819, 54 So.2d 95 (1951), that the district attorney is not allowed to argue his belief in the guilt of the defendant, based on matters not before the jury. In the case before us, however, the district attorney was merely arguing the probabilities of truthfulness of a witness, and the possible fabrication of the complaint by the use of rhetorical questions. In this context the references to checking the background and to the investigation were not improper.
Accordingly, the sentence and conviction are affirmed.
TATE, J., concurs and assigns reasons.
BARHAM, J., dissents and assigns reasons.