Court Opinion

ID: 9534183
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:37:24.48233+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:32.068683
License: Public Domain

KAUFMAN, J.
I concur fully in the majority opinion. I write separately to address the assertion in the dissenting opinion of Justice Broussard that *642the two alleged crimes would not be cross-admissible and that denial of the severance motion was prejudicial to defendant because the “similarity [of the two charged crimes] is not probative as to any legitimate issue.” Both these conclusions are demonstrably incorrect.
Evidence of the two charged crimes (rape where the victim was “prevented from resisting by any intoxicating or anesthetic substance, or any controlled substance, administered by . . . the accused” [Pen. Code, § 261, subd. (3)]) would have been cross-admissible even had there been separate trials. Evidence Code section 1101, subdivision (b), makes it clear that evidence of another crime is not inadmissible when relevant to prove some disputed fact, such as intent, preparation or plan. (Accord: People v. Thompson (1980) 27 Cal.3d 303, 314-315 [165 Cal.Rptr. 289, 611 P.2d 883]; People v. Schader (1969) 71 Cal.2d 761, 775 [80 Cal.Rptr. 1, 457 P.2d 841].)
Here, there can be no doubt that intent is in issue as to each charge. Indeed, intent is practically the only issue. Defendant will admit his presence; indeed, he will no doubt admit intercourse. His only defense will be that the victim in each case consented or that he had a reasonable belief that she consented. The victim in each case claims that she was prevented from resisting, i.e., not consenting, by drugs administered to her by defendant.
The majority in People v. Tassell (1984) 36 Cal.3d 77 [201 Cal.Rptr. 567, 679 P.2d 1], was clearly mistaken in asserting that intent was not in issue in that case because “[w]hichever version of the facts is believed, defendant intended intercourse.” (Id., at p. 88, fn. 7.) Of course, he intended intercourse, but that was not the intent at issue. The intent at issue was the intent to have intercourse irrespective of or without the consent of the victim—i.e., by the use of force or fear. If that was not the intent required, how can reasonable belief there was consent be a defense to a charge of forcible rape? (See People v. Mayberry (1975) 15 Cal.3d 143, 155 [125 Cal.Rptr. 745, 542 P.2d 1337].) That is what Justice Reynoso tried so hard to explain in his concurring and dissenting opinion in Tassell and his logic is irrefutable. (36 Cal.3d at pp. 92-94.) Tassell should be overruled on this point and I trust it will be in an appropriate case.
So, here, the intent at issue is not defendant’s intent to have intercourse but to have nonconsensual intercourse after the victim in each case was drugged to prevent her resisting. Defendant, of course, denies any such intent. The similarity of the crimes is striking; they allegedly each involved a plan or scheme to get the victim in a secluded social situation, drug her and then have intercourse with her when she could not resist because of the drug. The two crimes were “signature” crimes, material not to the undisputed fact of identity, but to the disputed issue of intent. And they would *643clearly be cross-admissible for that purpose. (Evid. Code, § 1101, subd. (b); People v. Thompson, supra, 27 Cal.3d 303, 314-315; People v. Mayberry, supra, 15 Cal.3d 143, 155-156.)