Court Opinion

ID: 9760631
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:06:11.258916+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:15.216250
License: Public Domain

*887MARQUARDT, J.,
concurring and dissenting: I concur that this is not a multiple acts case. I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that giving the Mien instruction was reversible error. Even though it was error, I believe it was harmless error because of the overwhelming evidence against Baughman and this case should be affirmed.
Baughman, a 23-year old, was charged with two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of sexual exploitation of a child. Count I was aggravated indecent liberties with a child in June 2007. Count II was aggravated indecent liberties with a child in July 2007. The victim was a 15-year old girl, D.E.K. The sexual exploitation of a child charge was dismissed. Baughman’s trial lasted 2 days.

D.E.K’s Testimony

D.E.K. testified that she met Baughman through a friend, in March 2007. In April they began “talking] on the computer,” using Facebook, and she told him she was 15.
The first time D.E.K. and Baughman “hung out alone” was in June 2007. D.E.K. was babysitting for an entire weekend and was using her cell phone to text back and forth with Baughman. Late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, they arranged to meet behind the Gas 4 Less station while her friends watched the children she was supposed to be babysitting. She told her friends that she was going to meet Baughman.
When D.E.K. met Baughman, they hugged and kissed. She said, “After awhile we were talking and he fingered me,” which meant that he unbuttoned her pants, put his hand down her pants, and put his finger in her vagina. They stayed behind the Gas 4 Less for 2 or 3 hours.
The next time Baughman and D.E.K. were alone together was in July 2007. D.E.K. was hanging out with C.S., L.B., and K.D. on Saturday and they went to a motorcycle rally. All of them were under 18 years of age.
That evening, D.E.K. and Baughman were texting each other and agreed to meet again behind the Gas 4 Less. When Baughman and D.E.K. met, they hugged and talked. They sat down with Baughman seated behind her. At some point he had his hand on *888her crotch, started putting his fingers in her shorts, and then he “fingered” her. It was the same type of “fingering” he had done in June.
Baughman told her to get up and she did. He then told her to he down. She saw him unbuckling his pants and said, “ ‘No, not yet,’ and he said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to stick it in you,’ and he did.” She eventually took off her shorts and her underwear. He never took his pants off, just took his penis out. They went over by an old truck and he wanted her to “sit and do it” on the edge of the truck. But that “didn’t work.” Then he told her to turn around, and she “thought that he was going to do something else but he didn’t.”
They “finally did it lying down.” She said he was “gentle.” When it hurt, she told him to stop, so he did. Then he “went at it again” and “once it started hurting [she] told him to stop.” Then “after the pain went away he kept going.” The prosecutor asked D.E.K. what she meant when she said that “he put it in you.” D.E.K. said: “He put his penis in my vagina.” The prosecutor asked how long the two had “sexual intercourse” and D.E.K. said 15 or 20 minutes.
Because Baughman was not wearing a condom, D.E.K. was concerned she would get pregnant. Baughman said she would not because she “didn’t let him finish.” He told her he did not ejaculate. After they had sexual intercourse D.E.K. said she stayed about 10 minutes and then walked back to C.S.’s house.
D.E.K. did not tell her friends immediately what had happened but later she told K.D., “because it was my first time and it hurt and so they noticed a little. She thought something happened.” D.E.K. said K.D. “kind of figured that I was walking weird,” so D.E.K. told her she was in pain and she had had sex with Baughman.
K.D. testified: “She [D.E.K.] said that behind Gas 4 Less her and Clifford had sex and she had lost her virginity to him.” Monday night K.D. told D.E.K.’s best friend, who threatened to tell D.E.K.’s parents what happened if D.E.K. did not tell them herself. So D.E.K. told her parents about it on Tuesday.

*889
Christine Hazlett-Allens Testimony

D.E.K. was examined by Christine Hazlett-Allen, a sexual assault nurse examiner, on July 18. Allen collected evidence, including the underwear that D.E.K. had been wearing at the time of the incident. The collected evidence was sent to the KBI; however, no biological evidence was found on the clothing.
Allen also examined D.E.K.’s vaginal area using a colposcope to magnify and photograph the area. Some of the photographs were introduced at trial. Allen described injuries to D.E.K.’s hymen that were “consistent with a blunt penetrating trauma.”
D.E.K. told Allen that Baughman had “fingered” her and that they had had vaginal intercourse. Allen said the injuries were consistent with an object entering the vagina, and consistent with what D.E.K. told her. But she said there was no way for her to know what caused the injury.

Officer William Coons Testimony

Officer Coon of the Wamego Police Department was dispatched to talk to D.E.K.’s family when D.E.K.’s father reported she had admitted to having sex with an older man. Earlier that evening, Baughman had called and told Officer Coon that he had been “confronted” by D.E.K.’s mother who said that Baughman had had sex with D.E.K.
Officer Coon interviewed D.E.K. about tire July incident. She told him that after Baughman digitally penetrated her, she removed her shorts and underwear and Baughman pulled down his jeans and underwear and they began to have “sex.” Officer Coon asked D.E.K. what she meant when she said they had “sex” and she responded that sex was a man’s penis in a woman’s vagina.
D.E.K. also told Officer Coon about the June incident.
Officer Coon interviewed L.B. and M.H. He testified that there was nothing inconsistent between what these witnesses said and what D.E.K. had told him.
Officer Coon interviewed Baughman. The interview was recorded and then played for the jury. A transcript of the interview was also admitted. Baughman at first denied being with D.E.K. on July 15. He told Officer Coon that he had called D.E.K. after the *890motorcycle rally and met her at the same place D.E.K. told Officer Coon that they had met. He also admitted he had been at the same place about a month before.
At first Baughman denied having sex with D.E.K. Officer Coon told him that the police knew sex had occurred and all they were tiying to figure out was whether it was consensual. Baughman “advised that it was consensual sex at that point.” Then he said he was not sure that his penis had actually been in her vagina. But he said that what he meant by sex was a man’s penis in a woman’s vagina.
When Officer Coon asked Baughman to clarify, did he or did he not have sex with D.E.K., Baughman said that they may have had sex. Officer Coon asked him to further clarify and Baughman told the officer that at times he just talks around subjects, and then said that he meant that they had had sex. Baughman denied digitally penetrating D.E.K.
Baughman said several times during the interview that he thought D.E.K. was 16 years old, not 15. He said they only had sex for a minute because he was uncomfortable with the age difference.

Baughmans Defense

Baughman presented no evidence. When the jury was being instructed, Baughman objected to instruction number 14, the Allen instruction, which included the statements, “Like all cases, it must be decided sometime,” and “Another trial would be a heavy burden on both sides.” The court overruled the objection and gave the instruction.

Jury Verdict

The jury found Baughman not guilty on Count I, the June 2007 charge. Baughman was found guilty on Court II, the July 2007 aggravated indecent liberties with a child charge. Baughman did not file any posttrial motions except a departure motion. He was sentenced to 68 months’ imprisonment.
With all of this evidence, and the fact that the jury found Baughman not guilty on Count I, I do not believe that the Allen instruction could have reasonably misled the jury. I would affirm the jury’s conviction.