Case Name: STATE of Vermont v. Vernon T. SHIPPEE
Court: Vermont Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Vermont
Decision Date: 2003-11-05
Citations: 176 Vt. 542
Docket Number: No. 02-081
Parties: STATE of Vermont v. Vernon T. SHIPPEE
Judges: 
Reporter: Vermont Reports
Volume: 176
Pages: 542–550

Head Matter:
2003 VT 106
STATE of Vermont v. Vernon T. SHIPPEE
[839 A.2d 566]
No. 02-081
November 5, 2003.

Opinion:
¶ 1. Defendant Vernon T. Shippee appeals his conviction after a jury found him guilty of lewd and lascivious conduct in violation of 13 V.S.A. § 2601. He argues on appeal that: (1) he was subjected to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement because he was charged under 13 V.S.A §2601, a felony, rather than under 13 V.S.A. § 2632, a misdemeanor; (2) the trial court erred by admitting, as signature evidence, a videotape and testimony regarding defendant's prior conduct at another store; (3) it was plain error for the court to admit a police officer's testimony because it impermissibly bolstered the credibility of the hearsay statements made by the child victim; and (4) the court erred in denying defendant's motion to require the State to produce the child victim as a witness. We hold that the trial court failed to exercise its discretion under V.R.E. 403 when it admitted the evidence regarding defendant's prior conduct and, therefore, reverse and remand.
¶ 2. The State charged defendant with lewd and lascivious conduct for exposing himself and masturbating in front of a young child at a department store. The charge was based on the following alleged facts. On May 31, 1998, T.P. (mother) was shopping at Wal-Mart with her five-year-old daughter, E.P., when a man, later identified as defendant, approached them. According to the testimony, defendant followed them closely throughout the store. Subsequently, on July 19, 1998, the family was watching a news story on television that showed defendant's picture in connection with a court case. E.P., who was playing in the room during the news story, approached mother and said to her unexpectedly that the man on television was a "bad man" who "had his private parts sticking out" and "was scratching himself' when they were at Wal-Mart. Mother promptly notified the police, and a police detective and SRS investigator interviewed E.P. at the police special investigations office. Defendant was then arrested and eventually charged under 13 V.S.A. § 2601.
¶ 3. Prior to trial, the State moved to introduce hearsay statements of E.P., pursuant to V.R.E. 804a. Specifically, the State sought to introduce statements made by E.P. to her mother and the detective during the police interview. In ruling that the child's statements were admissible hearsay under Rule 804a, the court noted the presence of "substantial indicia of trustworthiness sufficient to allow the jury to consider, weigh and dispose of the information."
¶ 4. In February 2000, the State filed a "Notice of Prior Bad Acts" in which it stated its intent to introduce testimony by a loss prevention specialist at Ames Department Store that, on May 3, 1998, he observed, and recorded on closed circuit video, defendant approach a young child in the store and "play" with himself. The court denied the motion, subject to further motion for introduction at trial, finding that the "unfair prejudicial effect [of the evidence] is not outweighed by its probative value."
¶ 5. One week before trial, the State informed defendant's counsel by letter that the State was uncertain as to whether it would call E.P. to testify and that, therefore, defendant's counsel would have to subpoena E.P. if he wished to ensure her presence at trial. Defendant requested that E.P. be required to testify on the morning of trial, and the court denied the motion as untimely. During the jury trial, held on October 18, 2000, the State again sought to introduce the videotape and testimony of the Ames employee. After reviewing the tape, the trial judge granted the request, and allowed the State to admit the tape and testimony. The jury returned a verdict of guilty.
¶ 6. On October 20, 2000, two days after trial, defendant filed a motion to dismiss based on his argument that the State should have charged him with a prohibited act under 13 V.S.A. § 2632, a misdemeanor, instead of lewd and lascivious conduct under 13 V.S.A. § 2601, a felony. The court denied the motion, and this appeal followed.
I.
¶ 7. First, defendant claims he was subjected to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement because he was charged with a felony under 13 V.S.A. § 2601 instead of a misdemeanor under 13 V.S.A. § 2632, and that the court therefore erred by denying his motion to dismiss. This argument lacks merit. When there are overlapping criminal offenses with which a defendant could be charged based on the facts, it is within the prosecutor's discretion to choose among them. State v. Perry, 151 Vt. 637, 641, 563 A.2d 1007, 1010 (1989); United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114, 123-24 (1979) ("This Court has long recognized that when an act violates more than one criminal statute, the Government may prosecute under either so long as it does not discriminate against any class of defendants.").
¶ 8. Defendant further argues that, under the void-for-vagueness doctrine, 13 V.S.A. § 2601 lacks "sufficiently precise standards to avoid arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement." See State v. Purvis, 146 Vt. 441, 442, 505 A.2d 1205, 1206-07 (1985). Because First Amendment interests are not implicated here, we must base our examination of the statute on its application to defendant and the facts presented, and not on the statute's possible application to others. State v. Dann, 167 Vt. 119, 128, 702 A.2d 105, 111 (1997). Section 2601 provides that "[a] person guilty of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior shall be imprisoned not more than five years or fined not more than $300.00, or both." 13 V.S.A. § 2601. Defendant was charged with violating 13 V.S.A. § 2601 based on facts that he exposed himself and masturbated in front of a young child at a department store. As we found in Purvis, 146 Vt. at 443, 505 A.2d at 1207, "the statute is sufficiently certain to inform a person of reasonable intelligence that this type of conduct is proscribed." Thus, the court did not err by denying defendant's motion to dismiss.
II.
¶ 9. Second, defendant argues that the trial court erred by admitting, under Vermont Rule of Evidence 404(b), a videotape and testimony regarding defendant's prior conduct at another department store as signature evidence. Defendant also claims that the court failed to exercise its discretion under V.R.E. 403.
¶ 10. In order to claim error on appeal, a defendant is required to make a timely objection to the admission of evidence, and if it is not apparent from the context, he or she must state the specific ground for the objection. V.R.E. 103(a)(1). One of the primary purposes behind this rule requiring specific objections is to sufficiently alert the trial court to the theory behind the objection so that the judge can rule intelligently and quickly. State v. Bissonette, 145 Vt. 381, 392, 488 A.2d 1231, 1237 (1985); Bryant v. Consol. Rail Corp., 672 F.2d 217, 220 (1st Cir. 1982). In this case, prior to trial in September 2000, the court denied the State's proffer of the prior act testimony and videotape under Rule 404(b) because its probative value did not outweigh its unfair prejudicial effect. One month later at trial, when the State again moved to admit that evidence, defendant objected to its admission on the grounds that it was "propensity" evidence.
¶ 11. Rules 403 and 404(b) "go hand in glove" because 404(b) "describes a particular form of evidence that might create the 'unfair prejudice' anticipated under [Rule] 403." United States v. Currier, 836 F.2d 11, 17 (1st Cir. 1987). Thus, even where the single issue on appeal was whether the trial court erred in improperly admitting a prior bad act pursuant to 404(b), we have proceeded to examine the admissibility under Rule 403: "[A]ssuming that the proffered evidence meets the requirements of. Rule 404(b), the evidence must also pass the Rule 403 balancing test, in which the probative value of the evidence is compared to any unfair prejudicial effect." State v. Winter, 162 Vt. 388, 399, 648 A.2d 624, 631 (1994).
¶ 12. Given the necessary interaction between 404(b) and 403 in determining the admissibility of prior acts evidence, the context in which the objection was made, and the court's pretrial 404(b) ruling on Rule 403 grounds, the defendant's "propensity" objection was sufficiently specific to alert the trial court to defendant's theory behind the objection and to preserve the objection for our review. Cf. Bissonette, 145 Vt. at 392, 488 A.2d at 1237 (finding that defendant's objection to prior bad acts evidence on grounds that it was "collateral" and not on 404(b) grounds was not sufficient to preserve objection for review under V.R.E. 404(b) because it did not draw the court's attention to defendant's concerns under Rules 403 and 404). Therefore, we first turn to the discretionary action of the trial court in making a decision under the 403 test because our decision on this issue is determinative.
¶ 13. The discretion of the trial court is broad when reaching a decision based on the balancing test under Rule 403. State v. Wheel, 155 Vt. 587, 604, 587 A.2d 933, 944 (1990). To prevail on his claim, defendant must prove the court either completely withheld its discretion or exercised it on grounds clearly untenable or unreasonable. State v. Dorn, 145 Vt. 606, 616, 496 A.2d 451, 457 (1985).
¶ 14. While we have not required the trial court to specify the precise weight it accords each factor in the balancing test, there must be some indication — especially in cases like this one where the potential for unfair prejudice is high — that the court actually engaged in the balancing test and exercised its discretion under V.R.E. 403. State v. Der-ouchie, 153 Vt. 29, 35, 568 A.2d 416, 419 (1989) (holding that record was sufficient to show exercise of discretion by trial court). We find no such indication here. The court admitted the evidence during trial, stating:
I did just review that tape . it's remarkable that the child is in the shopping cart and the mother is pushing the shopping cart and is immediately behind the child. But because it's in a department store with the racks, in effect, Mr. Shippee is around a corner from the child's mother and in the tape they are within a few feet of one another, Mr. Shippee and the child's mother, but the mother can't see Mr. Shippee. The child can, and Mr. Shippee is obviously playing with himself as charged. So I view this as signature evidence. I don't think this is propensity. This is a specific manner of committing this offense so I'm — I have to agree with [the State] that this is admissible for that reason because the argument has been made to the jury where the mother being right there, you know, it couldn't happen that way but, in fact, here's a tape that tells me this is precisely what happened — it has happened before and how this person has done it. So for that reason I am going to find that that's admissible. So you can — you can put on that testimony to show that tape.
Although we accord a court "wide discretion" in balancing the probative value of the evidence against the danger of unfair prejudice, we have found abuse of discretion notwithstanding a showing that the trial court performed the balancing. Winter, 162 Vt. at 399-400, 648 A.2d at 631 ("The trial court performed the balancing here____[but] [e]ven accounting for the court's wide discretion, we conclude that probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice."). Here the court reviewed the admissibility of the evidence under V.R.E. 404(b), but there is no sign that it weighed the evidence under V.R.E. 403, despite the high risk of unfair prejudice.
¶ 15. We are not persuaded by the dissent's view that defendant "opened the door" to admission of the tape. First, we note that the trial court did not indicate that it was admitting the evidence on that basis. Second, the pretrial ruling balanc ing the danger of unfair prejudice created by admission of the tape against its probative value concluded that the risk of prejudice was too great absent "developments at trial" that presumably would lead to a different outcome only if an increase in the probative value of the evidence outweighed the danger of prejudice. No such weighing took place, and we do not share the dissent's view that the probative value of the evidence was clear and the unfairness of its prejudicial impact not apparent. Cf. In re Nash, 149 Vt. 63, 66, 539 A.2d 989, 991 (1987) (holding that there was no abuse of discretion in admitting evidence where trial court considered the appropriate factors of unfair prejudice, the "probative value of the evidence [was] clear, and the unfairness of any claimed prejudice [was] not readily apparent").
¶ 16. In light of our disposition of defendant's argument regarding the admission of evidence, it is unnecessary to address defendant's other arguments on appeal.
Reversed and remanded.
Rule 403 provides that:
evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.
Rule 404(b) states that:
Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.