Court Opinion

ID: 9566147
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:34:26.968169+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:16.524188
License: Public Domain

Abbott, J.,
dissenting: The defendant in the criminal case from which the disciplinary complaint arose was incarcerated over two years as a result of his conviction and the State compensated defendant some $250,000 for the time he spent in prison as a result of his conviction in this case. Based on the record before us and statements of counsel at oral argument, I am dissatisfied with the panel’s investigation and the failure to present crucial evidence in this case. I would remand the complaint to the hearing panel for a full hearing.
In addition to the partial stipulation set forth in the majority opinion, the parties submitted sixteen exhibits to the disciplinary panel. These exhibits highlight the importance of whether the alleged victim contracted gonorrhea as a result of what she alleged was her only sexual contact.
From the meager record before us and the statements of counsel at oral argument, the alleged victim, A.V.W., testified she was raped once while her roommate was out of the room and again some 20 minutes later while her roommate was asleep in a wheelchair in the room. Obviously, there were other patients in adjoining rooms and staff moving around the hallways and in and out of the rooms. A.V.W. did not report the incident for some twelve hours. There was no physical evidence that sexual intercourse had occurred. Tests for semen and body fluids performed on her, her undergarments, and bedding were all negative *626and no pubic hair or other body hairs of Jackson were present. A.V.W. recanted her allegation of being raped to one or more employees of the nursing home. (It is impossible to tell from the record, but it appears only one so testified at the trial. However, on the motion for a new trial three persons so testified. They also testified at the motion for a new trial A.V.W. had a history of falsely reporting physical and sexual abuse.) One or more employees cast doubt on whether Jackson could have been in her room long enough to have accomplished what A.V.W. said he did.
Thus, the State was faced with going to trial with a weak cáse where it was basically the alleged victim’s word against that of the defendant.
We are informed that Sue Carpenter, for the first time on the morning of trial, was informed by the alleged victim and her mother that she had had no prior sexual experience and had contacted gonorrhea as a result of the rapes. We do not have the entire trial transcript. In fact, we have very few pages excerpted from it. Sue Carpenter told the jury in her opening statement that it would hear evidence that the victim was subsequently treated for gonorrhea. A great deal of time was devoted by Carpenter at trial discussing gonorrhea with a treating doctor and the alleged victim. Other evidence presented to the jury concerning gonorrhea is set forth in the majority opinion.
Sue Carpenter had an employee of the Shawnee County District Attorney’s office (Debbie Doerring) call Memorial Hospital on the morning of the second day of trial, requesting confirmation that the alleged victim had been treated for gonorrhea. Mrs. Dollard of Medical Records at Memorial Hospital called the District Attorney’s Office and reported what the hospital records showed.
Although the stipulation is that the District Attorney’s Office was informed “that there were no records indicating that [the alleged victim] had gonorrhea or that she had ever been treated for gonorrhea,” Mrs. Dollard’s notes clearly state that she told the District Attorney’s Office the alleged victim was “[n]ot treated here for gonorrhea since tests were negative (checked tests with Dr. Sanders).” Thus, the record before us shows the District Attorney’s Office was told the tests were negative, i.e., that the *627alleged victim did not have gonorrhea. This is far different information than what was stipulated to, i.e., that there were no records indicating that the alleged victim had gonorrhea.
The defendant was questioned concerning gonorrhea and, although he denied ever having had the disease, Sue Carpenter very effectively cross-examined Jackson concerning his medical knowledge that antibiotics would cure gonorrhea and that he knew how to get a prescription for antibiotics without revealing he had gonorrhea. At sentencing, Sue Carpenter again informed the court that the alleged victim was treated for gonorrhea as a result of this once-only-in-her-lifetime sexual attack.
My basis for returning this case to the hearing panel is twofold. First, the criminal prosecution was a close case and any evidence the State could produce to support its case would have been significant. To have to reveal to the jury at trial that the alleged victim did not contract gonorrhea would have probably tipped the scales to a not guilty verdict or a hung jury.
Sue Carpenter does not appear to have testified at the motion for a new trial, at the State’s hearing awarding compensation to Jackson, or at her disciplinary hearing. She did respond in writing to a letter from the Disciplinary Administrator, stating she had no knowledge or evidence indicating to her or showing that the alleged victim was not treated for gonorrhea until after the direct appeal and until the motion for a new trial was taken up. She goes on to state that Dr. Kowalski could not testify that gonorrhea was present absent additional medical reports which she did not have and, after she discovered she “could not provide those records, the issue was essentially abandoned.”
In my lifetime in and around courtrooms, my experience has been that attorneys do not request employees to obtain evidence that is as important as this evidence was and then fail to find out whether or not the evidence is available.
The second reason I would remand is that at oral argument counsel for Sue Carpenter, in response to a direct question, informed the court that no one from the Disciplinary Administrator’s Office has at any time talked to the person who took the message from Memorial Hospital and supposedly passed it on in some form. Thus, no evidence was before the panel and I find nothing in the record that any direct evidence was presented to *628Judge Regan as to what information Sue Carpenter had and at what point in time she received the information.
This case is important to the bench and bar of this State and is of extreme importance to Sue Carpenter and her career. She may be a victim of simply relying on erroneous information furnished to her by an employee in her office. She could also be negligent, as she is willing to stipulate and the majority is willing to accept. Certainly, this court should satisfy itself that she had no knowledge or information prior to the trial’s conclusion that the victim did not have gonorrhea. I feel the issue is too important to dispose of on the record before us and I would remand for a full hearing.
Lockett and Allegrucci, JJ., join in the foregoing dissenting opinion.