Court Opinion

ID: 9709295
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:44:14.80393+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:47.495595
License: Public Domain

Wenke, J.,
dissenting.
I disagree with the holding of the majority of the court to the effect that “The prosecutrix is not corrobo*639rated as to any material fact or circumstance which tends to support her testimony as to the principal fact of the crime”; that is, that the defendant in error, Wesley Harms Peery, whom we shall hereinafter refer to as the defendant, had sexual relations with her on January 21, 1956, forcibly and against her will. It should be understood, in this regard, that while it is required that the prosecutrix be corroborated as to material facts and circumstances which tend to support her testimony as to the principal fact in issue it is not essential that she be corrobarated by any evidence as to the act itself which constitutes the offense.
First, I wish briefly to discuss the inference left by the majority opinion that the State was duty bound to call prosecutrix’s employer, Kenneth Hubler, and Detective Jorgensen of the Council Bluffs Police Department, to whom she had made complaint of the offense. I agree that if a situation here existed, as it did in Klawitter v. State, 76 Neb. 49, 107 N. W. 121, that there was no other evidence to corroborate that of the prosecutrix then the State would be required to do so in order to make a case for the jury. But even in such a situation, if the prosecutrix had complained to two or more people, the State would not be required to call all of them as their testimony would only be cumulative. However, if there is other competent evidence to meet the requirements of corroboration then I do not think the State is duty bound to call any of such witnesses, although it may properly do so if it desires. In my opinion the record here presents the latter situation.
Dr. Frederick E. Marsh, a licensed physician engaging in the general practice of medicine at 532 First Avenue in Council Bluffs, Iowa, examined prosecutrix about 5 p. m. on Saturday, January 21, 1956, the day on which the alleged crime was claimed to have been committed about noon. Prosecutrix told him the history of what had happened and he made a pelvic or internal examination. His examination revealed many sperma*640toza or secretion from the male of recent origin, although he would not pin point it as to time, stating it could be 3 or 4 hours one way or another. The majority opinion seems to completely discredit the effect of this testimony by the fact that prosecutrix had been visiting a male friend of hers in Lincoln on Thursday and Friday and stayed alone with him in his home and did not leave there until about 11 a. m. on January 21, 1956. While I think the latter was a fact for the jury to consider it is my opinion that the weight of this evidence was for the jury. It certainly corroborates the fact that someone had recently been intimate with the prosecutrix.
The State also produced witnesses Charles Boettcher and Ronald Sawyer of Gretna, Nebraska, who were hunting coyotes in a Chevrolet pick-up truck near the place in Sarpy County where the prosecutrix said the alleged offense occurred. They testified seeing an older, or 1947 or 1948, model tan Chrysler sedan in the area at about the time the prosecutrix claims they were there. One of them described the car bearing a Lancaster County license and having a man as the driver and a woman as a passenger in the front seat. Prosecutrix, from her slight general knowledge thereof, described the car used by the party committing the act as a cream colored or tan 1947 or 1948 model 4-door Chrysler sedan. Defendant Peery admits that on January 21,1956, he owned and was driving a 1949 model tan 4-door Chrysler sedan with a Lancaster County license plate. The evidence does not show there is any difference in the appearance of the 1947, 1948, or 1949 model 4-door Chrysler sedans. I think this evidence corroborates the prosecutrix’s story.
Prosecutrix testified she observed certain things in the car she was forced to ride in with the defendant from the place where he forced her to leave her own car at the point of a gun to the place where the alleged crime was committed, and then back to her car. That *641same day, after she had returned to Council Bluffs, prosecutrix, when she complained thereof to Detective Jorgensen of the Council Bluffs police, gave him a description of the car used by the party perpetrating the alleged crime and described to him the contents thereof. Later, on January 30, 1956, when defendant was apprehended in Lincoln, Nebraska, the car he was then using was identified by the prosecutrix as the one used by the party committing the alleged offense on January 21, 1956, and that defendant was that party. Taken from this car were two maps, a small suitcase, a white painter’s cap, and a pink quilt, all of which the prosecutrix identified as being in the car used by defendant on January 21, 1956, plus the gun which was found therein under the front seat and which prosecutrix identified as the one defendant had used to force her to submit. Not only did the police officers of the City of Lincoln identify all of these articles as taken from defendant’s car but defendant himself admits the pink quilt, sometimes referred to as a blanket or comforter, the painter’s .cap, and suitcase were in his car on both Saturday, January 21, 1956, the day the alleged crime was committed, and on Monday, January 30, 1956, the day he was taken into custody by the Lincoln police. Certainly this corrobo-' rates the prosecutrix’s story in every way.
I have read and reread this record and it is difficult for me to conceive a stronger case of corroboration could be made than here presented unless the State was fortunate enough to have eyewitnesses to the act, something not required by the laws of this state.
Chappell, J., concurs in this dissent.