Court Opinion

ID: 9735157
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:04:01.542767+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:55.805894
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring specially.
I agree with the majority’s analysis and result in this case. I write separately to express my discomfort with the seeming self-*195contradiction of the trial court in its conviction and sentencing of the defendant.
We have to believe that the defendant was guilty of having sexual contact with his nine-year-old daughter. The trial court convicted him and we affirmed. See State v. Morstad, 493 N.W.2d 645 (N.D.1992). But in light of that presumption, the trial court’s comments during sentencing are most puzzling. The trial court stated that it was “satisfied” that the defendant would not repeat the offense. However, I find nothing in the record to support such an assumption. Although several witnesses testified as to the defendant’s “fine character,” that testimony obviously did not convince the trial court that the defendant did not commit the offense, and I fail to see how that testimony reasonably could convince the trial court that the defendant would not repeat the offense. I do not believe that “a good citizen and otherwise a good father” necessarily is incapable of sexually abusing his children. Abusers are not categorized so easily. Therefore, I must conclude that the trial court was improperly inconsistent in convicting the defendant of sexual contact with his daughter and assuming that because the defendant was “a good citizen,” he would not do it again.