State v. Scherzer

In State v. Scherzer, 301 N.J. Super 363, 694 A.2d 196 (App.Div.1997), it was alleged that several actors had committed aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault upon M.G., a mentally defective 17 year old girl. The defendants invited M.G. to the basement of the Scherzer house and, with several other teen-age boys present, sexually assaulted her and urged her to sexually penetrate herself with her fingers. The court observed that: M.G. said that when some of the boys asked her to, she took off her sweat pants and T-shirt. Thereafter, at the urging of the boys, sexual activity occurred beginning with M.G. inserting her fingers in her vagina, her masturbating and performing fellatio on five of the young men, permitting Kevin to insert a broomstick and Christopher to insert the handle of a baseball bat into her vagina. She said she permitted Corcoran to put a small stick in her vagina. Four of the boys also sucked on her breasts. Before she left, some of the boys told her "not to tell anybody" or they would tell her mother and she would "get in trouble." Id. at 393, 694 A.2d 196. The court further noted that: M.G. also testified that various boys told her to take her clothes off, to insert her fingers into her vagina, and go "further, further, further." Another boy testified that he believed Archer had told M.G. to take her clothes off. According to M.G., when the sexual activity was over, the boys stood in a circle and put their hands together in the center. They told M.G. not to tell anybody about what happened or they would tell her mother what she did. Id. at 402, 694 A.2d 196. In rejecting the defendants' argument that the trial judge should have charged the jury that they must be unanimous as to at least one of the several theories of sexual penetration alleged, the Scherzer court observed that the jury had been instructed: If you find from any of the evidence that any defendant or his accomplice caused (M.G.)to perform fellatio on someone or if you find any defendant or his accomplice inserted a bat or broom or a stick into (M.G.)'s vagina or if you find that any defendant or his accomplice caused (M.G.) to insert her own fingers into her vagina, that constitutes sexual penetration. Id. at 479, 694 A.2d 196. The Scherzer court then noted that the defendants had not requested a specific unanimity instruction and concluded that the acts of penetration alleged were conceptually similar and did not require this charge. Hence, while not specifically raised as an issue, the Appellate Division approved the trial court's legal instruction which permitted the jury to find guilt upon the theory that the victim had penetrated herself "upon the actor's instruction." The Court rejected an argument that the underlying indictment should have been dismissed by the trial court because of the prosecutor's failure to introduce exculpatory evidence before the grand jury. The evidence at issue was the testimony of two defense experts who had testified at the juvenile court waiver hearing. Id. at 426, 694 A.2d 196. Although finding the testimony directly negated an element of the offense charged, the court concluded it was not clearly exculpatory noting its introduction would have required the grand jurors to make credibility judgments. Id. at 427, 694 A.2d 196.