Case Summaries -- Supreme Court of North Carolina (November 1, 2019)

This post summarizes three opinions issued by the Supreme Court of North Carolina on November 1, 2019. (1) A mother’s failure to report that her husband sexually abused her daughter did not make the mother an accessory after the fact to the husband’s abuse. (2) The mother’s persistent refusal to allow her daughter to talk candidly with law enforcement or DSS about the abuse was obstruction of justice. State v. Ditenhafer, __ N.C. __ (Nov. 1, 2019). The defendant’s husband sexually abused the defendant’s daughter. (The husband was not the daughter’s biological father, but he had adopted her after he married her mother.) The daughter told an aunt about the abuse. This led to law enforcement and DSS investigations. However, the defendant initially did not believe her daughter and instead pressured her to recant her allegations. Even after walking in on the abuse in progress, the defendant sought to prevent her daughter from cooperating with authorities. The defendant was charged with (a) being an accessory after the fact to sexual activity by a substitute parent, based on her failure to report the abuse that she personally observed; (b) felony obstruction of justice for pressuring her daughter to recant; and (c) felony obstruction of justice for denying law enforcement and DSS access to her daughter during the investigation. She was convicted on all counts and appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support each conviction. The case eventually reached the state supreme court, which ruled: (1) There was insufficient evidence to [...]