Court Opinion

ID: 9720175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:19:02.255869+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:13.967370
License: Public Domain

BEST, J.
I dissent from that portion of part III of Justice Martin’s lead opinion holding that the prosecution presented evidence sufficient to prove each of the nine acts of sodomy charged in counts IV, V, VI, XV, XVI, XVII, XXVI, XXVII, and XXVIII; each of the six acts of oral copulation charged in counts VII, VIH, XVIII, XIX, XXIX, and XXX; and each of the nine acts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under age fourteen charged in counts IX, X, XI, XX, XXI, XXII, XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII. For reasons set forth in this court’s opinions in People v. Van Hoek (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d 811 [246 Cal.Rptr. 352], review denied August 18, 1988, and People v. Atkins (1988) 203 Cal.App.3d 15 [249 Cal.Rptr. 863], I would hold that, except for two acts of sexual intercourse in 1984 *346and one act of sodomy in 1981, the People failed to meet their burden of proving a specific offense for each of the charged offenses.
In Van Hoek and Atkins, after a discussion of People v. Castro (1901) 133 Cal. 11 [65 P. 13] and People v. Williams (1901) 133 Cal. 165 [65 P. 323], we stated, “Implicit in the cases requiring specificity of charges and the charges being supported by specific testimony given at trial is the fundamental due process rule, steeped in antiquity, that the prosecution must prove a specific act and twelve jurors must agree on one specific act.” (Van Hoek, supra, 200 Cal.App.3d at p. 817; Atkins, supra, 203 Cal.App.3d at pp. 15, 21.) Unless the evidence is of a nature to permit the jurors to single out a specific identifiable criminal act and unanimously agree that act was committed by the defendant as charged in each count of the information, fundamental due process has not been complied with.
Here, Gypsy testified to one specific act of sodomy committed by defendant occurring in the summer of 1981 at her grandmother’s house when she was about six years old and between kindergarten and first grade. Defendant told her cousins to stay outside the house and locked the door. He then told Gypsy to take her clothes off and to lie on the bed in the living room. Gypsy did as she was told and defendant stuck his penis in her anus. Gypsy also testified that defendant placed his penis in her anus “a lot”; more than three times in 1982; more than three times in 1983; and more than three times in 1984. She testified that all of these acts occurred on the living room bed in her grandmother’s house.
Gypsy testified to a specific act of sexual intercourse committed by defendant that occurred during the summer of 1984 when she was between the third and fourth grades. She also described another specific act of sexual intercourse that occurred that same summer at the creek. She did not testify about any other specific acts of sexual intercourse. Rather, she stated that defendant had intercourse with her “a lot” in 1984, more than three times; more than three times in 1982; and more than three times in 1983. She testified that with the single exception of the incident at the creek, all of the acts of sexual intercourse took place on the living room bed at her grandmother’s house while her cousins were playing outside.
Although Gypsy testified that defendant placed his penis in her mouth, she did not testify as to any specific incident. She did not know how many times this occurred; however, he did it more than once in 1982; more than once in 1983; and more than once in 1984. Each of these incidents of oral copulation occurred on the bed in the living room at her grandmother’s house and each year they took place between June and August.
*347The nature of Gypsy’s testimony made it impossible for the jury to single out and unanimously agree that defendant committed a specific act of oral copulation identifiable by time, place, or other circumstance, much less six separate and identifiable specific acts of oral copulation. From the nature of the evidence, the jury was also incapable of singling out and unanimously agreeing upon any acts of sexual intercourse other than the one occurring during the summer of 1984 when Gypsy was eight years old, and the one that same summer at the creek. For the same reason, the jury was incapable of singling out and unanimously agreeing that defendant committed a specific and identifiable act of sodomy other than the one occurring in 1981 when Gypsy was about six years old. In my view, therefore, consistent with our opinions in Van Hoek and Atkins, the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction for any other alleged criminal acts and retrial for any acts of sexual molestation other than the three specific acts just referred to would be barred by double jeopardy principles. (People v. Green (1980) 27 Cal.3d 1, 62 [164 Cal.Rptr. 1, 609 P.2d 468].)
For the same reasons, I must dissent from part IV of the lead opinion holding moot defendant’s contention that his convictions of lewd and lascivious conduct must be reversed because it is impossible to tell upon what acts the jury based its verdicts. Other than the one specific act of sodomy— that would have supported a conviction of either a violation of Penal Code section 286, subdivision (c), or a violation of Penal Code section 288, subdivision (a)—and the two specific acts of sexual intercourse referred to above, there was a complete absence of evidence of specific identifiable acts of sexual abuse to support the charges of lewd and lascivious conduct. I also dissent from the suggestion in part IV of the lead opinion that giving a unanimity instruction—CALJIC No. 17.01 or CALJIC No. 4.71.5 or an equivalent—would cure the problem. As we stated in Van Hoek and Atkins: “The Attorney General apparently relies on the so-called ‘either/or’ rule which was recently stated as follows: ‘Emerging from recent cases dealing with the problems arising when a crime is charged and the evidence describes several such acts, any one of which could constitute the crime charged, “is the so-called ‘either/or’ rule: . . . either the prosecution must select the specific act relied upon to prove the charge or the jury must be instructed in the words of CALJIC No. 17.01 or 4.71.5 or their equivalent that it must unanimously agree beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed the same specific act. [Citations.]” [Citation.]’ (People v. Callan (1985) 174 Cal.App.3d 1101, 1111, fn. omitted [220 Cal. Rptr. 339].)
“While the ‘either/or’ rule as stated above will cure a failure of election by the prosecutor in the usual case where evidence of several specific acts is presented, any one of which could constitute the crime charged, the rule can have no application in a case such as the present one where there is a *348failure to present evidence of any specific act to support the charged crime. Where, as here, the evidence is that many of such acts were committed over an extended period of time, it would be impossible for the prosecution to ‘select the specific act relied upon to prove the charge’ and equally impossible for the jury to ‘unanimously agree beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed the same specific criminal act.’ As stated in People v. Williams, supra, 133 Cal. 165, 168, ‘Such a trial, upon a charge so indefinite as to circumstance of time or place, or any particular, except by the general designation, would be a judicial farce, if it were not something a great deal worse.’ ” (People v. Van Hoek, supra, 200 Cal.App.3d 811, 816; People v. Atkins, supra, 203 Cal.App.3d 15, 21.)
 I concur in the rest of Justice Martin’s lead opinion.
Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment, but remand for retrial only on counts IX and X, the first two counts set forth in the information charging defendant with a violation of Penal Code section 288, subdivision (a), committed between June 1984 through August 1984, and counts XXVI and XXXI, the first counts of the information charging defendant with a violation of Penal Code sections 286, subdivision (c), and 288, subdivision (a), respectively, committed between June 1982 and August 1982. Although the information did not charge defendant with criminal acts occurring during a timeframe which included the summer of 1981, this variance would not preclude a retrial of defendant for an act of sodomy or lewd and lascivious conduct occurring at that time. (See People v. Wrigley (1968) 69 Cal.2d 149, 154-159 [70 Cal.Rptr. 116, 443 P.2d 580].)