Opinion ID: 1160476
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: toe sucking

Text: During the period of time J.K. was being attacked, her attacker twice sucked on her big toe as if he were sucking on a thumb. At trial, the State called the defendant's ex-wife to testify. She testified that she married the defendant in August 1987 and the two were married for 1 year. She also testified that she and the defendant had sex on a regular basis during their marriage. She further testified that, on occasion, the defendant would suck on her big toe as if he were sucking on a thumb while they were engaged in sexual conduct. She stated that this toe sucking occurred approximately five times during their 1-year marriage. The toe sucking was initiated by the defendant and not encouraged by his ex-wife. In a pretrial motion in limine, the defendant requested that this evidence be excluded from the trial. The defendant argued that the evidence was not relevant and that it was character evidence which was being used in an improper manner. The State responded by arguing that the evidence was relevant to prove a habit of the defendant which identified him as the attacker. The district court denied the defendant's motion. The State introduced the ex-wife's testimony at trial. The defendant objected to the introduction of the testimony at trial, but the trial court overruled the objection. The admission or exclusion of evidence is within the sound discretion of the trial court. State v. Rowell, 256 Kan. 200, Syl. ¶ 2, 883 P.2d 1184 (1994). Thus, in reviewing the denial of a motion in limine, this court must use the abuse of discretion standard. Judicial discretion is abused when judicial action is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable, which is another way of saying that discretion is abused only when no reasonable person would take the view adopted by the trial court. If reasonable persons could differ as to the propriety of the action taken by the trial court, then it cannot be said that the trial court abused its discretion. Judicial discretion must thus be considered as exercisable only within the bounds of reason and justice in the broader sense and be considered abused only when it plainly overpasses those bounds. State v. Lumbrera, 257 Kan. 144, 148, 891 P.2d 1096 (1995). The defendant contends that K.S.A. 60-447, a statute which concerns character evidence, applies to the toe sucking evidence and should have prohibited its admission at the trial. Under K.S.A. 60-447, specific nonconviction instances illustrating a defendant's character trait are inadmissible if they tend to prove a trait is bad and prove that a defendant conducted himself in a certain way on a specified occasion. This statute does not apply here because toe sucking is not a specific instance of a character trait. See State v. Ralph, 217 Kan. 457, 459, 537 P.2d 200 (1975) (Drug addiction is not the type of `character' trait dealt with in 60-447. It cannot be shown to be `good' or `bad', but is simply a medical fact.). Toe sucking is not the type of character trait contemplated by 60-447. Rather, the statute refers to character traits such as violent, gentle, trusting, or angry. Toe sucking is not necessarily good or bad, but is simply a fact. Toe sucking is not a specific instance of character trait which tends to prove the trait is bad. As such, K.S.A. 60-447 does not apply and cannot be used to exclude the toe sucking evidence. The State contends that the toe sucking testimony was properly admitted under K.S.A. 60-449 and K.S.A. 60-450 as habit evidence. Under these statutes, evidence of specific instances of behavior is admissible to prove a habit and to prove that the defendant acted in conformity with the habit on a certain occasion. However, evidence of such specific instances is only admissible if there are a sufficient number of the instances to warrant a finding of a habit. The district court found that if the defendant participated in toe sucking with his ex-wife on several different occasions, then this constituted habit evidence. As such, the court found the ex-wife's testimony should be admitted to prove that the defendant had a habit of toe sucking which he probably acted in conformity with when he assaulted the victim and sucked on her toe. However, the district court made this ruling and overruled the defendant's objection to the evidence before it was clear just how many times the defendant had participated in toe sucking with his ex-wife. At trial, the defendant's ex-wife testified that the defendant sucked on her toe approximately five times during the course of their 1-year marriage. Habit is defined as an action which is so ingrained in one's character that it becomes mechanical or automatic. Pope v. Ransdell, 251 Kan. 112, 129, 130, 833 P.2d 965 (1992); see State v. Gonzales, 245 Kan. 691, 700-01, 783 P.2d 1239 (1989). Isolated or occasional instances of behavior will not prove habit. Pope v. Ransdell, 251 Kan. at 130. The defendant's ex-wife indicated that she had sex on a regular basis with the defendant during their 1-year marriage but only participated in toe sucking five times. This would indicate that toe sucking was not an automatic or mechanical reaction by the defendant whenever he engaged in sexual activity. The toe sucking evidence does not qualify as habit evidence. Thus, K.S.A. 60-449 and 60-450 are not applicable to this evidence and did not permit or exclude this evidence at trial. Another statute which is often used to admit evidence of prior specific acts which are similar to the crime at issue is K.S.A. 60-455. This statute allows the admission of evidence that the defendant committed a prior crime or civil wrong to prove motive, opportunity, or identity. This statute does not apply to the toe sucking evidence because toe sucking is not a crime or civil wrong. See State v. Sexton, 256 Kan. 344, 349, 886 P.2d 811 (1994). In Sexton, the defendant was charged with killing the victim by strangulation. In defense, he argued that he and the victim were participating in sexual bondage. According to the defendant, when he tied up the victim, he accidentally tied her up too tightly. Then she straightened out her legs, which pulled the ropes around her too tightly, and she accidentally strangled herself. At trial, the defendant's former wife was allowed to testify for the State that she and the defendant had engaged in sexual bondage 40 or 50 times over the course of their marriage. The State offered this testimony pursuant to K.S.A. 60-455 to prove lack of mistake or accident on the defendant's part when he tied the ropes around the victim too tightly. The court held that K.S.A. 60-455 did not govern the admissibility of this testimony because sexual bondage between consenting adults is neither a crime nor a civil wrong under Kansas law. 256 Kan. at 349. Thus, this court held the testimony was admissible, independent of 60-455, as long as it was relevant and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting it. Since toe sucking is not a crime or civil wrong, 60-455 does not apply to this evidence and does not govern its admissibility. Any relevant evidence having a tendency in reason to prove any material fact is admissible unless expressly excluded from evidence by the codified rules. Williams v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 204 Kan. 772, 780, 465 P.2d 975 (1970). None of the above exclusionary rules apply to this evidence. Thus, the evidence is admissible as long as it is relevant. The question of whether evidence is too remote to be relevant is left to the discretion of the trial judge, whose decision will not be disturbed unless a clear abuse of discretion has been demonstrated. State v. Milo, 249 Kan. 15, 26, 815 P.2d 519 (1991). The defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting this evidence because it is not relevant. Relevant evidence is defined as evidence having any tendency in reason to prove any material fact. K.S.A. 60-401(b). `Relevancy is more a matter of logic and experience than of law. Evidence is relevant if it renders the desired inference more probable than it would be without the evidence, or if it has any tendency in reason to prove any material fact.' State v. Sexton, 256 Kan. at 349 (quoting State v. Baker, 219 Kan. 854, Syl. ¶ 2, 549 P.2d 911 [1976]); see K.S.A. 60-401(b). According to the defendant, there is no relevance between what type of sexual conduct he consensually engaged in with his adult married wife and the type of conduct an attacker forces on a young girl in a street attack. The defendant asserts that there is no rational basis for the conclusion that rapists like to do the same things with their victims that they do or did with their wives. On the other hand, the State contends that the toe sucking evidence was relevant. The perpetrator in this case sucked on the victim's big toe as if he were sucking on a thumb. The toe sucking testimony by the defendant's ex-wife indicated that the defendant had exhibited this same behavior in the past. From this evidence, the State asserts that the inference can be made that the defendant, who engaged in toe sucking in the past, was the same person who attacked the victim and engaged in toe sucking when he attacked her. According to the State, the inference that the defendant is the man who attacked the victim is more probable with the admission of the toe sucking evidence than it would be without it. We agree. The toe sucking testimony by the defendant's ex-wife is relevant. Thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting this testimony into evidence. Affirmed.