Court Opinion

ID: 9771153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:34:21.189606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:26.191158
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from that part of the majority opinion which reverses the conviction of Mary Knox for complicity in first-degree rape. The evidence clearly indicates that Mary Knox, the mother of the victim, was fully aware of the criminal relationship between her husband and her daughter, and that she did not intervene on behalf of the child and took no actions to protect the child.
The conviction of the mother was pursuant to KRS 502.020(l)(c) which provides that a person is guilty of complicity if he has a legal duty to prevent the commission of an offense and fails to make a proper effort to do so.
KRS 199.335(2) provides that any person who knows that a child is an abused child has a duty to report such abuse, and upon such report shall be immune from any civil or criminal liability. This statute clearly imposes a duty on any person, including a parent, to report child abuse. The majority believes this obligation of reporting child *713abuse does not require an attempt to prevent the commission of the crime.
KRS 199.335 has been repealed by 1986 c 423, § 198, eff. July 1, 1987. The new section on dependency, neglect and abuse provides in the legislative purpose of Chapter 620, as set out in KRS 620.010, in part, that children have certain fundamental rights which must be protected to be free from sexual and physical injury or exploitation. It is absolutely illogical to legislate a duty to report and prevent child abuse for many other named professions who are in “loco parentis” and hold in this opinion that the parent has no duty whatsoever to prevent abuse. It defies common sense.
KRS 508.100 through 508.120 provide the offense of criminal abuse for a person who permits another person of age twelve or under, of whom he has actual custody, to be abused. There was certainly a legal duty to prevent child abuse imposed on the mother. Depending on the circumstances it would be obvious that the best method of such prevention would be reporting it to the appropriate police authorities. There is no call for a parent to be a hero but only to take reasonable measures to prevent the abuse of their child.
It has been held in Kentucky that any person neglecting to discharge his duty by withholding food or clothing or medical care for a child can be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. See Westrup v. Commonwealth, 123 Ky. 95, 93 S.W. 646 (1906). Also see Roberson, Ky. Criminal Law § 204.
It is my belief that the motion to dismiss the complicity charge on the basis of the absence of a legal duty was properly overruled by the trial judge. Consequently the conviction of Mary Knox should be affirmed.
LAMBERT, J., joins in this dissent.