Court Opinion

ID: 9711318
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:29:18.550419+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:03.771536
License: Public Domain

Justice FLAHERTY,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the holding of the majority. Although I agree that the majority is correct in vacating the judgment of the trial court, I disagree that the proper remedy for the trial justice’s application of the incorrect legal standard for implied threats is to remand for further findings on the alternative theory of physical force. When, as is the case here, a trial justice in a jury-waived case adequately lays out the factual basis for his decision in findings of fact sufficient to satisfy the requirements of Rule 23(e) of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure, and that factual basis fails to establish that an element of the crime charged was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the appropriate remedy is a judgment of acquittal.
The majority concludes that the trial justice made two separate findings of fact — one based on an erroneous interpretation of the scope of our implied-threats doctrine, and a second based on a correct application of the standard for physical force — but that uncertainty abounds with regard to which ground the justice relied upon when he adjudged the defendant guilty. Therefore, the majority reasons, because the justice’s application of the psychological coercion standard constituted an error of law, a remand for further findings is necessary to ascertain whether there is enough evidence of physical force in the record to satisfy the justice that the element of force or coercion was proved beyond a reasonable doubt on that basis. I cannot agree.
In my opinion, the only fair reading of the trial justice’s decision is that he found that the complaining witness (Jane) was overborne by a combination of psychological pressure arising from DiPetrillo’s authority over her as an employee and the application of some minimal physical force. It is critical to me that at no point did the trial justice find that defendant overcame the complaining witness by means of physical force.
In his decision, the trial justice says:
“all of the ingredients were present on the evening of March 20th for the defendant to overbear the will of this diminutive and attractive young girl, either by the very authority that he represented, or by a modicum of physical force. As it turned out, and as I so find from the credible evidence before me, both of those circumstances occurred.” (Emphases added.)
And, later he explains: “all of the relevant hallmarks of force or coercion that I outlined earlier, both physical and psychological, were part and parcel of the defendant’s misconduct.” (Emphasis added.) *141Even under the most liberal reading, I find it difficult to extrude from this language the majority’s conclusion that the trial justice made two separate findings— one based on implied threats, and one based on physical force — either of which could have formed the factual basis for his ultimate finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Although I would agree that the trial justice clearly found that physical force was “part and parcel” of defendant’s misconduct, he also found that the evidence of physical force in the record amounted to only a “modicum,” and that Jane was ultimately overcome by the entirety of the misconduct and not by either of the individual elements that comprised it. It is clear to me that there was no finding that the amount of physical force present in the record — i.e. a modicum16— could have, by itself, overcome the complaining witness.17
“The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article 1, section 2, of the Rhode Island Constitution deny the state the power to deprive the accused of liberty unless the state proves every element necessary to constitute the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Hazard, 745 A.2d 748, 751 (R.I.2000); see also In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970) (“[W]e explicitly hold that the Due Process Clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged.”); Leland v. Oregon, 343 U.S. 790, 794, 72 S.Ct. 1002, 96 L.Ed. 1302 (1952) (“[T]he prosecution was required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of the crime charged * * *.”); State v. Davis, 877 A.2d 642, 648 (R.I.2005) (“The state bears the burden of proving ‘every element necessary to constitute the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” (quoting Hazard, 745 A.2d at 751)); State v. DelBonis, 862 A.2d 760, 765 (R.I.2004) (“The state bears the burden of proving each and every element necessary to the charge of driving under the influence of alcohol in violation of [G.L.1956] § 31-27-2 beyond a reasonable doubt.”); State v. Caron, 423 A.2d 823, 827 (R.I.1980) (holding that a jury instruction was erroneous because it could have misled the jury to believe that the burden of proof had shifted to the defendant in violation of his due process rights). The majority correctly holds that the psychological pressure cited by the trial justice was insufficient to satisfy the element of force or coercion under the statute.18 But, it also is *142readily apparent that, putting those psychological considerations aside, there is no finding that Jane was overcome by physical force. Therefore, the state failed to prove, and the trial justice did not find, that the element of force or coercion was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt. As a result, I find it inappropriate to send this case back to the same trial justice to review the record for the existence of additional evidence of physical force when he has, in my opinion, already found that the amount of force required by the statute was not present.
Further, the federal precedent cited by the majority to support its contention that the correct remedy in a jury-waived case is a remand for further findings is dearly distinguishable from the case at bar. In those cases, the issues on appeal were inextricably linked to the trial justices’ failure to fulfill their obligation to make adequate findings under Rule 23(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. In other words, those cases involved either nonexistent or wholly inadequate findings by a trial justice sitting without a jury. When such a deficiency leaves the appellate court unable to discern the basis for the trial court’s decision, meaningful review is rendered almost impossible, and logic dictates that a remand for more detailed findings may be manifest.19
*143By contrast, the trial justice’s findings of fact in this case adequately set forth those facts that he believed proved the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.20 As the majority correctly concludes, however, many of those facts found by the trial justice — namely, those concerning psychological pressure — should not have been relied upon and cannot be considered when determining of whether the state had met its burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Thus, unlike the cases cited by the majority, the trial justice’s error in this case had nothing to do with the adequacy of his findings because those findings were both extensive and inclusive.
There is little doubt that the record would support a conclusion that Craig DiPetrillo’s actions on the night in question were boorish to the extreme, and that he may be a cad and a louse. But because the state failed to prove that all the elements of the crimes charged were satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt, I would vacate his conviction and order the entry of a judgment of acquittal.

. The dictionary definition of the word modicum is "a moderate or small amount.” Random House Unabridged Dictionary 1236 (2d ed.1993).

. This is not to say that I would in any way depart from what this Court has said about resistance in sexual assault cases. See, e.g., State v. Goodreau, 560 A.2d 318, 322 (R.I.1989) ("The victim need not incur bodily harm or exhibit great physical resistance.”); State v. Carvalho, 122 R.I. 461, 467, 409 A.2d 132, 135-36 (1979) ("Today the law does not expect a woman, as part of her proof of opposition or lack of consent, to engage in heroics when such behavior could be useless, fruitless, or foolhardy. * * * All that is required is that the woman offer such resistance as seems reasonable under all the circumstances.”); see also State v. Howard, 114 R.I. 731, 736-37, 339 A.2d 259, 262 (1975) (“The degree of resistance which will exclude the conclusion or inference that the female gave her consent is only that resistance to the force of the defendant as seems reasonable to offer under the circumstances * * *.").

.Our initial foray into this area was in State v. Burke, 522 A.2d 725 (R.I. 1987). There, we affirmed the conviction of a uniformed police officer who had picked up a vulnerable hitchhiker, who was known to him, in his patrol car and subsequently demanded that she perform certain sex acts on him. Even though there was no evidence of actual or threatened force or violence in the record, we nonethe*142less affirmed the conviction, reasoning that when a uniformed, armed police officer commands that a docile, intimidated victim submit to sexual abuse the threat, although implied, is nevertheless clear: submit or be physically forced to do so.
However, in State v. Jacques, 536 A.2d 535 (R.I.1988), we could not have been more direct in limiting Burke to its unique facts with respect to the psychological coercion of a vulnerable victim. Despite our unwillingness to extend the holding in Burke to the facts presented in Jacques, we affirmed the conviction in that case because the record contained physical violence that overcame the victim’s resistance, including her being pushed into a chair, her tensing her body to avoid being penetrated, and her crying and screaming.
Here, even though defendant was the employer of the complainant and he was physically imposing as compared to her, he was neither a police officer, nor was he armed. Thus, while defendant’s status as her boss may very well have given the complainant good reason for concern that resistance to defendant’s inappropriate conduct might result in some adverse work related consequence, that is not enough to constitute an implied threat of force or violence under G.L. 1956 §§ 11-37-2 and 11-37-4. Indeed, as we said in Burke, 522 A.2d at 735, "[w]e are mindful of the fact that an alleged victim's consent to a request to engage in sexual activity is not always the product of coercion when the person who requests sexual favors is in a position of authority over the alleged victim.” Similarly, the fact that defendant was larger and older than the complainant, does not justify a finding, by those facts alone, that there was an implied threat of force or violence. It was, therefore, clear legal error for the trial justice to apply the Burke standard of implied threats of force or violence to the facts of this case.

. It is also worth noting that, contrary to the contention of the majority, the federal case law is equivocal with respect to whether the appropriate remedy when a trial justice does not fulfill his obligation to render adequate findings in a jury-waived case under the applicable rules of criminal procedure is a new trial or a remand for further findings. And, although the majority is quick to point out defendant’s ”fail[ure] to point to any reported criminal case in which a new trial was ordered after a jury-waived trial[,]” this does not mean that those cases do not exist. See, e.g., Howard v. United States, 423 F.2d 1102 (9th Cir.1970); Haywood v. United States, 393 F.2d 780 (5th Cir.1968); United States v. Morris, 263 F.2d 594 (7th Cir.1959).
Indeed, the case law seems to indicate that when an appellate court is required to review the decision of a trial justice in a jury-waived case in which the trial justice either failed to render findings after a timely request and/or rendered wholly inadequate findings under Rule 23(c), the appellate court may choose between either ordering a new trial or remanding for further findings. Although the case law is unclear about the precise factors *143appellate courts should employ in making this choice, compare. Morris, 263 F.2d at 596 (“[W]e have concluded that in this case the substantial rights of all parties will be best served by a new trial.”) with United States v. Livingston, 459 F.2d 797, 798 (3rd Cir.1972) (“We have reviewed the record and find that credibility issues are not of such pervasiveness as to require a new trial.”) and Rivera v. Harris, 643 F.2d 86, 97 (2nd Cir.1981) (“We conclude that [a remand for findings] is appropriate in this case, primarily because the verdicts, though facially inconsistent, may yet be susceptible to a rational explanation.”), the case law hardly indicates that either is the more “appropriate and accepted remedy,” as the majority suggests. The proper choice appears to hinge solely on the particular facts of each case.
Further, this Court has in the past applied the remedy of a new trial instead of a remand for further findings in a nonjury case. In In re Doe, 120 R.I. 732, 390 A.2d 920 (1978), a nonjury case involving a delinquency petition brought against a juvenile, this Court overturned a Family Court justice's determination of delinquency after concluding that the justice's findings were ambiguous with respect to whether he improperly shifted the burden of persuasion to the defendant on his self-defense claim. Significantly, in that case, this Court chose to remand the case for a new trial rather than for further findings on the issue. (Although the opinion does not explicitly state that a new trial was ordered, the case was "remanded to the Family Court,” In re Doe, 120 R.I. at 743, 390 A.2d at 926, and there is no indication in the opinion that further findings were required.) That the case stemmed from a delinquency petition and not an adult criminal proceeding is a distinction without a difference for the purposes of this analysis.

. Indeed, the majority concedes this point, stating: “we are satisfied that the trial justice made comprehensive findings of fact and rulings of law such that this Court * * i: can review those findings to determine the basis of the trial justice’s decision * * *.”