State v. Estrella J.C.

169 Conn.App. 56

148 A.3d 594

State of Connecticut

v.Estrella J.C.^*

AC 37190

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 17, 2016

Officially released October 18, 2016

Alice Osedach, senior assistant public defender, for the appellant (defendant).

Ronald G. Weller, senior assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Michael Dearington, state's attorney, and Laura DeLeo, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

Keller, Mullins and Norcott, Js.

KELLER, J.

The defendant, Estrella J.C., appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered following a jury trial, of two counts of risk of injury to a child in violation of General Statutes § 53–21 (a) (2) and one count of risk of injury to a child in violation of General Statutes § 53–21 (a) (1). On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court committed reversible error by (1) admitting into evidence a video recording of a forensic interview between a clinical social worker and the victim, (2) imposing an illegal sentence, and (3) admitting harmful uncharged misconduct evidence. We affirm the judgment of conviction.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The victim was born on October 24, 2000, and the defendant is his biological mother. The defendant met the victim's father, F, approximately one and one-half years before the victim was born. In 2005, the defendant gave birth to the victim's sister, B, whose father is also F. From 2000 to 2005, the defendant and F maintained an “on again, off again” relationship, but they did not live together, and they never married. In 2005, when the victim was five years old, he maintained a permanent residence with the defendant at her home in New Haven. The victim eventually began residing with F at his home in East Haven as well, but he still would spend certain nights and days with the defendant at her New Haven home.

During this time, on more than five occasions, the defendant pulled down the victim's pants and underpants, and touched the victim's penis with her hands or her mouth. The first time that one of these incidents happened was when the victim was between seven and eight years old.

On one such occasion, the victim and the defendant were in the defendant's bedroom. The victim was partially asleep, but he awoke when he felt and saw the defendant “squishing” his penis while she was on top of him. While this occurred, the victim kept one eye open, but he eventually opened both eyes so that the defendant could tell that he was awake. After realizing that the victim was awake, the defendant told the victim that she was checking his penis to see if it was healthy. On another such occasion, the defendant also touched the victim's penis with her mouth.¹ On another one of these occasions, the victim walked by the defendant's bedroom while she was naked in her bed. The door was open, and she told the victim to come inside. The victim refused to come into the room and he ran to the garage. The defendant then found the victim hiding in the garage. She hit him on his arm and forced him to go back into her bedroom and remove his clothing. The defendant then “squished” the victim's penis with her hands and put her mouth on it as well.

Also during this time period, while the victim was residing with the defendant at her New Haven home, the defendant, on at least two occasions, forced the victim to watch pornographic movies. The defendant also threatened the victim by telling him that she would hit him if he refused to watch the movies.

On at least several other occasions during this time period, while the victim was seven years old, and on another occasion when the victim was eight years old, he and the defendant were alone in the living room at her New Haven home when the defendant forced the victim to touch her breasts for approximately five to ten minutes. The defendant also threatened the victim by telling him that if he refused to touch her breasts, she would “hit him hard.”

On at least several other occasions when the victim was eight years old, while the victim and B were sleeping in the defendant's bedroom, the victim awoke to find the defendant having sexual intercourse with her boyfriend, N, in the same bed in which the victim and B were sleeping. Also on this occasion, the defendant and N were watching a pornographic movie while they engaged in sexual intercourse. On another occasion, the victim found several pornographic videos and photographs on the defendant's computer. When the defendant discovered that he had found the materials, she told him that if he told anyone about his discovery, she would harm F and kill the victim's stepmother, C. Furthermore, on another occasion, while the victim was in the car with the defendant and the victim's aunt, the victim overheard the defendant say that she was going to kill F and C.

On another occasion, when the victim was eight or nine years old, the defendant forced the victim to take a shower with her. During this incident, the defendant forced the victim to touch her breasts, and told him that if he refused, she would hit him.

The victim eventually began living with F and C at F's home in East Haven. The victim's and B's visitations with the defendant at her home terminated in the summer of 2009, but they resumed at some point in late 2009.

After the commencement of these incidents, the victim began having nightmares, and F frequently observed that the victim was “changed” when he returned to F's home after visiting with the defendant. The victim also began misbehaving in school, particularly in the spring of 2010. Specifically, the victim stole items from others at school, and he fought with other students. On one such occasion during this time period, the victim stole an iPod from a teacher, and, after being apprehended, he subsequently was suspended from school and was placed in a disciplinary program.

On one day in April, 2010, the victim came home from school crying. C asked the victim why he was crying and if he had misbehaved at school. In response, the victim told C that the defendant had touched his penis. C comforted the victim and called F, telling him that the victim needed to talk to him about something when he returned home from work. Later that night, F came home from work, and the victim told him that the defendant had touched his penis and threatened him on numerous occasions while he had been residing at her home in New Haven.

Shortly after the victim told F about the defendant's actions toward the victim, F, on that same night, placed telephone calls to the police and the Department of Children and Families (department) to report the incidents that had occurred between the defendant and the victim. When F called the department on that night, however, there was no answer on the telephone, so, on the next day, F went to the Clifford Beers clinic (Clifford Beers) in New Haven and scheduled an appointment for the victim to see a psychologist there on the following day. On the date of the scheduled appointment, the victim went to Clifford Beers with F and C. During this visit, F and C gave permission for several professionals at Clifford Beers to interview and provide therapy to the victim in connection with the incidents that he had reported involving the defendant's actions toward him. Dr. Alyson Brodhagen, a clinical psychologist at Clifford Beers, diagnosed the victim with post-traumatic stress disorder. After this initial meeting, which occurred in April, 2010, the victim continued to participate in therapy consultations with professionals at Clifford Beers until the commencement of the defendant's trial in 2012.

On May 3, 2010, after having visited Clifford Beers, the victim met with Theresa A. Montelli, a licensed clinical social worker employed by Yale-New Haven Hospital as a forensic interviewer for the Yale Child Sexual Abuse Clinic (Yale clinic). During this interview, the victim discussed the incidents that had occurred between the defendant and himself. Specifically, during this interview, the victim pointed out on anatomical diagrams and dolls where the defendant had touched him, and he conveyed some of the details about these incidents to Montelli. This interview was recorded on video, and, while it was occurring, it was observed by a department employee, another forensic interviewer from the Yale clinic, and a New Haven Police Department detective, who observed the interview from a separate room on a closed circuit television screen.

Several days later, on May 7, 2010, the victim met with Janet Murphy, a pediatric nurse practitioner at the Yale clinic, for a medical evaluation.² Although Murphy did not observe the forensic interview that Montelli conducted, she met with Montelli after the interview and learned about the victim's history, the circumstances surrounding his relationship with his family, and “the relevant details” for the medical evaluation. Additionally, before conducting the medical evaluation of the victim, Murphy met with C to obtain any further necessary health information about the victim.³ Murphy then completed a full physical examination of the victim.

In June, 2010, the victim also began meeting with Dr. Ragne Pajo Adams, a psychologist at Clifford Beers, for outpatient therapy sessions. At some point after August, 2010, the victim also saw a psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Prakash, who diagnosed him with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, for which he also was treated.

On the basis of the victim's disclosures made during his interview with, inter alia, the professionals working at the Yale clinic, as well as the victim's disclosures to the professionals working at Clifford Beers, Detective William White, Jr., of the New Haven Police Department prepared an arrest warrant for the defendant and she was arrested. The state charged the defendant with two counts of risk of injury to a child in violation of § 53–21 (a) (2), and a third count of risk of injury to a child in violation of § 53–21 (a) (1)...