Opinion ID: 1478891
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Exceptions 3, 4 and 5.

Text: The testimony of the complaining witness had dated the specific offense charged in the indictment as having occurred at a time in November. Against the objection of the respondent the complainant and another boy were permitted by the presiding Justice to narrate that on an occasion during the previous August the respondent at his residence had taught them how to play strip poker and that the respondent, the complainant, the other young witness and a third lad had thereupon engaged in such a contest in the fortunes of which the complainant and the companion witness had become wholly denuded. The Justice admitted such evidence as relevant to explain the relation between the respondent and the complainant. The respondent protests that the Court thus acted erroneously to the irreparable prejudice of the respondent. This Court has held that in an indecent liberties prosecution proof of prior acts of a nature similar to the principal offense charged in the indictment is admissible. The respondent complains as to the admission of testimony that the female minor named in the indictment was permitted, over objection, to testify to acts of earlier happening between the parties, similar to the offense charged, and relies upon State v. Acheson, 91 Me. 240, 39 A. 570. The principle declared in that case is not applicable to the present.    In the instant case we have no exception to the charge nor could one have been taken, since the testimony was admitted only for the purpose of showing the relationship between the parties, for which it was entirely proper. State v. Witham, 72 Me. 531 (adultery); State v. Williams, 76 Me. 480 (adultery); State v. Bennett, 117 Me. 113, 102 A. 974 (indecent exposure); State v. Buckwald, 117 Me. 344, 104 A. 520 (accepting money from prostitute); State v. Morin, 126 Me. 136, 136 A. 808 (permitting tenement to be used for prostitution). In point of fact the danger of misapprehension was eliminated by a special instruction given to the jury after consultation with counsel to the effect that respondent was not being tried upon what occurred before the offense complained of' in the indictment. State v. Berube, 1942, 139 Me. 11, 13, 26 A.2d 654, 655. The evidence contested by these exceptions would not suffice, to be sure, to prove the equivalent of a prior act similar to the offense specified in the indictment. There is considerable gradation separating the loathsomeness of taking indecent liberties and the reprehensibility of playing strip poker even as described in this case. Yet the difference is not of kind but of degree in the logic of the subject now considered. The controverted evidence purported to attest that the respondent instructed the youths how to play the game and that the game was suffered by the respondent to progress beyond the limits of masculine and virile decency. The episode was not drole as recounted. Of the available recreations to have been fostered for the diversion of youth this became a sordid selection as related. The narrative told was not that of the behavior of a normal man. There is no question of intent involved in the crime of indecent liberties. The evidence here considered was offered as an instance of the prior conduct of the respondent to indicate emotion or lust in the respondent toward the complainant and as proof of undue familiarity. If such evidence was conceded credence by the fact finding jury, that body could understandably and within the bounds of right reason have considered it significant in deciding upon a verdict § 398. The prior or subsequent existence of a sexual passion in A for B is relevant,    to show its existence at the time in issue   . § 399.    (a) That, in general, a sexual desire of A for B is relevant to show the probability of A's doing that which will realize this desire cannot be and is not questioned; and no evidential difficulties arise at this point:       1878, Wheeler, J., in State v. Bridgman, 49 Vt. [202] 210: `The offense charged in this case (adultery) cannot ordinarily be committed till the restraints of natural modesty and the safeguards of common deportment and conventionality have been overcome by gradual approaches and the relations of the parties have been changed from those usually existing between the sexes to the most intimate   . Thus it appears that the true relation of the parties to each other in this respect is very material and proper to be shown.'       (b) That this desire at a prior or subsequent time is relevant to show the probable existence of the same desire at the time in issue is equally clear.       Sexual intercourse is the typical sort of such conduct but indecent or otherwise improper familiarities are equally significant   . Wigmore on Evidence, 3d Ed., Vol. 11. The presiding Justice very properly and fairly in his instructions delivered the following caveat to the jury: Now there was some evidence in regard to a strip poker game, and that testimony was only permitted for the purpose of showing that relationship between the parties. Now it is not a crime to play strip poker, if they did play strip poker. That has no bearing upon the guilt or innocence of the respondent for the crime with which he is charged, except that it does show to the jury, if you did find it to be true, the relationship between the parties, and you may only take into consideration in connecting that particular testimony up with the guilt of the respondent or the innocence of the respondent the bearing it has in so far as the relationship of the parties is concerned.    The evidence at issue in Exceptions 3, 4 and 5 was relevant and was submitted to the jury with every fit precaution.