State v. Michael R.

Citations

• 346 Conn. 432

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of sexual assault in the first degree, risk of injury to a child, employing a minor in an obscene performance, assault in the third degree, criminal violation of a protective order, and stalking in the first degree in three cases that were consolidated for trial, the defendant appealed to this court. The defendant had been romantically involved with R, and his conviction arose from his alleged abuse of R's daughter, G. On numerous occasions, the defendant sexually assaulted G during her weekly sleepovers at the defendant's house. He also gave G a cell phone and implemented certain rules, including one requiring G to send him daily ''selfies'' and one prohibiting G from letting R see the phone. At the end of one of G's visits to the defendant's house, the police responded to a complaint that the defendant had refused to return G to R. After a subsequent visit, R reported to the police that G had returned from the defendant's house with a bruise on her buttocks, and G told her pediatrician that she had been struck with a belt numerous times. Concerned about certain content that R had found on G's cell phone, R gave it to the police. An extraction of the phone's data revealed various suggestive photographs and text messages between the defen- dant and G, including photographs of the defendant lying shirtless in bed with G, text messages from the defendant instructing G to send him photographs of G fully and partially nude in various poses, along with the resulting photographs, and text messages in which the defendant discussed his plans for punishing G for failing to send him daily selfies. Thereafter, the trial court issued a protective order prohibiting the defen- dant from, among other things, following or stalking G. On a subsequent morning, however, the defendant positioned himself on a bench near G's school and made eye contact with her as she passed by in her school In accordance with our policy of protecting the privacy interests