BEN NEARY Associated Press writer | Posted: Friday, August 1, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state prosecutors can force husbands and wives to testify against their spouses in some cases.
The Supreme Court issued the ruling in a Cheyenne case in which a man in his 20s fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl. The couple got married after the child was born.
Under state law, children under the age of 16 may not consent to have sex with anyone more than four years older than themselves. State law also says that married couples can't be witnesses against each other "except in criminal proceedings for a crime committed by one against the other."
Laramie County District Attorney Scott Homar said he believes most prosecutors in the state have been operating with the idea that they could force one spouse to testify against the other when the person was the victim of a crime.
"This just solidifies that," he said of the court ruling.
In the Cheyenne case, Laramie County prosecutors charged the man with third-degree sexual assault, but his wife declined to testify against him.
The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault.
District Judge Nicholas Kalokathis, who has since retired, asked the Supreme Court last year to decide the question of whether prosecutors could force the wife to testify. But while he certified the question to the Supreme Court, a transcript of a court hearing held last year indicates he had little doubt on the issue himself.
"I hate to be blind to the arguments, but that's so plain to me that the privilege doesn't apply in this case because she's the victim," Kalokathis said at the time.
Lawyer Scott Mitchel Guthrie represented the man before Kalokathis. He argued at a May 2007 hearing that it was inappropriate for the state to press the case.
"Who gets to choose if the wife has been wronged or the crime committed against the wife?" Guthrie told Kalokathis. "If the wife says, 'I have not been wronged, I have no crimes committed against me,' who is it that gets to decide that a crime has been committed against her? Is it her, or is it the government?"
Prosecutor Meri V. Ramsey, then with the Laramie County District Attorney's Office, told Kalokathis last year that the state couldn't ignore the situation. The law doesn't allow someone under 16 to consent to sex with a person four years her senior, regardless of the circumstances, Ramsey said.
"Essentially what we have in this case is a 25-year-old who had sex with a 15-year-old," Ramsey said. "We are protecting a class of people. Fifteen-year-olds are a class of people who are vulnerable. They're not adults."
Justice E. James Burke wrote the court's ruling. He noted that the Wyoming Legislature had specified an exception to spousal privilege in cases where one is charged with committing a crime against the other.
"In choosing to provide an exception to spousal privilege, the Legislature has decided that, in cases of a crime by one spouse against another, the state's interest in discerning the truth outweighs the state's interest in preserving marital harmony," Burke wrote.
Homar said his office intends to proceed with the felony prosecution.
"It was our contention all along that she could be compelled under contempt to testify," Homar said.