5D00-2414 Horizons Rehab v. Healthcare and Retirement Corp

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State: Florida

Court: Florida Fifth District Court

Docket No: 5D00-2414

Case Date: 03/11/2002

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FIFTH DISTRICT JANUARY TERM 2002

STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellant, v. Case No. 5D01-1087 DAVID DIONNE, Appellee. / Opinion filed March 15, 2002 Appeal from the Circuit Court for Sumter County, Hale R. Stancil, Judge. Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Denise O. Simpson, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellant. James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Thomas J. Lukashow, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellee. SAWAYA, J. The State appeals the trial court' s order granting David Dionne' s motion to suppress his confession following his arrest for sexual battery.1 The trial court held that application of section 92.565, Florida Statutes (2000), which was enacted after the date of Dionne' s alleged incident, violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of both the United States and Florida

The order also precluded Dionne's victim, who was sleeping at the time of the incident, from testifying about events that occurred while she was asleep because such testimony would be speculation. The trial court did not, however, preclude her from testifying about facts within her personal knowledge. This part of the order is affirmed without further discussion.

1

Constitutions. We reverse as to that issue.

Factual Background Dionne was charged by information with committing sexual battery against his sleeping victim, a person twelve years of age or older, in violation of section 794.011(5), Florida Statutes (2000). The incident was alleged to have occurred between January 7 and 8, 2000. Dionne filed a motion to suppress a confession he gave the police

subsequent to his arrest, arguing that the State could not independently establish the corpus delicti of the crime because the victim was asleep during the alleged sexual battery. A hearing on the motion was held in November 2000. Initially, the trial court denied Dionne' s motion pursuant to section 92.565, Florida Statutes (2000), which became effective on June 5, 2000, and provides in pertinent part: (2) In any criminal action in which the defendant is charged with a crime against a victim . . . involving sexual abuse; . . . or any other crime involving sexual abuse of another, . . . the defendant' s memorialized confession or admission is admissible during trial without the state having to prove a corpus delicti of the crime if the court finds . . . that the state is unable to show the existence of each element of the crime, and having so found, further finds that the defendant' s confession or admission is trustworthy. Factors which may be relevant in determining whether the state is unable to show the existence of each element of the crime include, but are not limited to, the fact that, at the time the crime was committed, the victim was: (a) Physically helpless, mentally incapacitated, or mentally defective . . . .

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