Com. v. Haynes

Page 555

696 N.E.2d 555

45 Mass.App.Ct. 192

COMMONWEALTH v. Paul C. HAYNES.

No. 96-P-0108.

Appeals Court of Massachusetts Bristol.

Argued Nov. 3, 1997.

Decided July 17, 1998.

David M. Skeels, Committee for Public Counsel Services, Arlington, for defendant.

Catherine B. Sullivan Ledwidge, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

Before PERRETTA, KASS and GREENBERG, JJ.

PERRETTA, Justice.

On his appeal from convictions by a jury on indictments charging him with forcible rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child under fourteen, the defendant argues that the trial judge erred in excluding evidence of the victim's prior false allegation of rape and, with respect to the indictment charging forcible rape, in denying his motion for a required finding of not guilty, and in instructing the jury. ¹ We affirm the convictions.

1. The evidence. According to the testimony of Rebekah (the mother of the victims, Joyce and James ²), she and her children were living together in an apartment in Taunton when, sometime in January or February, 1992, she met the defendant through a telephone dating service. At that time, the defendant was involved in a relationship with another woman, Deborah Conaghan. However, the defendant told Rebekah that Conaghan was his sister. Shortly after Rebekah became acquainted with the defendant, he and Conaghan moved from Holliston to Taunton and into Rebekah's apartment. Rebekah supported the entire household with her public assistance checks and food stamps.

Sometime in May or June, 1992, the defendant and Conaghan moved out of the apartment. About six weeks later, the defendant returned. ³ Soon thereafter, Rebekah's mother became ill, and Rebekah left Joyce and James with the defendant and went to live with and take care of her mother. In her absence, the defendant changed the locks to the apartment and told her that the children did not want her to return to live with them. When Rebekah's mother's landlord, a housing authority, would not allow Rebekah to stay in the apartment, she lived in various shelters. In December, 1992, Rebekah made the defendant the guardian of Joyce and James.

According to Rebekah, although she was denied free access to her former apartment, she would return there to visit the children and to turn her checks and food stamps over to the defendant. Rebekah testified that, during those visits, she saw the defendant administer physically abusive punishment to both her children. She was also present when the defendant told Joyce that, if she wished to be his daughter, he would have to teach her about life and sex. She saw the defendant and Joyce engage in intercourse and fellatio. Rebekah testified that she did nothing to help Joyce and James because she feared the defendant. He had told her that he carried a gun in his briefcase and that he had friends who would take care of anyone who caused him problems.

Rebekah acknowledged that she too had been charged with sexually abusing Joyce and that she had agreed to cooperate with the Commonwealth. She had pled guilty to indictments charging her with rape and indecent assault and battery, and was awaiting sentencing. It was her understanding that the Commonwealth intended to recommend a period of incarceration of from five to seven years at M.C.I., Framingham.

Both Joyce and James testified. Joyce told the jury of the indecent touchings and rapes of her by the defendant which began soon after he had moved into the apartment and which sometimes occurred in her mother's presence. She described how the defendant had told her that it was part of American-Indian tradition for a father to be the first to have sex with his daughter and how her mother explained to her that it was permissible for her to engage in sexual acts with the defendant.

Joyce described how she was afraid but nonetheless did as the defendant told her because she wanted to be his daughter. When she told the defendant during intercourse that he was hurting her, he simply told her not to scream. Joyce also described the spankings given to her and James by the defendant, sometimes with a belt on their bare flesh. She explained that she told no one about the defendant's abuse of her because he had warned that should she do so he would have to go to jail. When, in March, 1993, the Department of Social Services (DSS) removed James and her from the apartment and the defendant's custody, the last statement that the defendant made to her, as related by Joyce, was "don't tell." About four months later, Joyce told her foster mother about the defendant's acts upon her. ⁴

James told of the defendant's physical abuse of him, which included an incident in which the defendant held a lit cigarette lighter to his penis. Both children testified that they had seen a gun in the defendant's briefcase.

Conaghan testified that she lived with the defendant from July, 1991, until May of 1992. At the time he met Rebekah, Conaghan and he were having problems with their apartment, and the defendant suggested that they move in with Rebekah, telling her that Conaghan was his sister. Conaghan stated that she, Rebekah, the children, and the defendant lived on Rebekah's assistance checks, food stamps, and handouts from the defendant's friends. Further corroborating Rebekah and the children, Conaghan testified to the beatings and other humiliating punishments inflicted upon Joyce and James by the defendant. She also related that the defendant was always kissing and hugging Joyce, making her sit on his lap, and lifting her shirt to display her breasts. She stated that she had seen a gun in the defendant's briefcase and that he had told her that he had a friend, "Tony," who was involved with the "Mafia."

Another woman, Susan Coury, testified that she met the defendant, in December, 1992, through a telephone dating service and that she frequently visited him at his apartment in Taunton until the relationship ended about three months later. She described how, during those visits, the defendant was always punishing James. She saw the defendant slap James across the face on two occasions and make the children kneel on pencils. She described James and Joyce as always attempting to please him. Coury also told how one of the defendant's friends, Melissa Hadley, would sometimes be at the apartment. Although the defendant would criticize and ridicule Hadley's appearance in her absence, it appeared to Coury that he and Hadley were romantically involved. Coury never said anything to the defendant about his treatment of the children because she was afraid of him. He had told her that he had a friend, "Tony," who belonged to a "vigilante-type group" that "took care of people who would hurt other people."

The doctor who examined Joyce testified that she was brought to her office on April 16, 1993, by two DSS social workers who provided her with background information. The doctor testified that her examination of Joyce revealed that she had a healed tear on the lower edge of her hymen, which was consistent with penile penetration.

Called to testify by the defendant, Melissa Hadley stated that she met the defendant in 1991. From June, 1992, through March, 1993, she would be at the Taunton apartment with the defendant, Joyce, and James on a daily basis. She never saw the defendant harm either of the children. He would discipline them by making them stand in a corner or go to their rooms. He never spanked them: "A light tap on the butt but nothing more than that." After Joyce and James were removed from the apartment by DSS in March, 1993, Hadley and the defendant moved into an apartment in Grafton. They lived in that apartment until May 13, 1993, when the defendant married a woman named Debra Smith and moved to Stow. Hadley stayed with her parents until July, 1993. At that time, and upon the defendant's invitation, she moved in with him and his wife in Stow until the wife, three months later, asked her to leave. According to Hadley, the defendant did not work when they lived in Grafton or Stow, but he did do "odd jobs" while living in Taunton.

Testifying on his own behalf, the defendant described how, while living with and being supported by Conaghan, he met Rebekah through a telephone dating service. He denied ever telling Rebekah that Conaghan was his sister. He also stated that it was Rebekah's idea that he and Conaghan move in with her so that they could share expenses. He and Conaghan moved out of Rebekah's apartment in May because he did not approve of the way Rebekah was raising her children. She never disciplined them, and she allowed them to watch too much television. After he left, Rebekah continuously called and begged him to come back, saying that the children missed him. He returned, without Conaghan, about six weeks after he had left.

Soon after his return, Rebekah told him that she could no longer deal with the children and needed a break from them. When her mother became ill and needed her help, he agreed to take care of Joyce and James for a few days. When Rebekah's absence became prolonged, he began asking her to come back, but she would say that she wasn't ready. Because of Rebekah's absence, he had to assume full responsibility for the children as well as all the household chores. A friend, Melissa Hadley, would sometimes help him with the children and assist with various errands.

In caring for the children, the defendant restricted the amount of time that they could watch television, and he disciplined them when they misbehaved. However, he never beat or kicked James, nor did he ever hold a cigarette lighter to his penis. Rather, the defendant explained, James accidentally sat on a soldering iron that burned through his thin pajamas. The defendant also stated that he and the landlord changed the locks on the apartment. He stated that although he did not give Rebekah a new set of keys, the landlord did. Rebekah, however, chose not to use the...