The Kansas Supreme Court earlier this week issued its opinion in a 2010 indecent liberties and aggravated sodomy case involving Justin Dern, with the victims listed as two three-year-old girls. The Court affirmed Dern’s two convictions for aggravated indecent liberties with a child and the life sentences imposed for them. But the Supreme Court Justices reversed both aggravated criminal sodomy convictions because they say the jury was improperly instructed on alternative means of committing that crime without supporting evidence for each means presented to the jury, and the Supreme Court indicates the Court of Appeals panel erroneously applied the invited error doctrine to preserve those convictions.
The 42 page opinion issued Wednesday before the Thanksgiving break also examines Dern’s argument that his confession at the VA hospital to investigating detectives was involuntary and should have been suppressed. The high court disagrees and holds that his confession was voluntary and admissible. And the Supreme Court Justices indicate evidence of prior sexual misconduct was admissible and that the evidence of prior sexual misconduct was not likely to distract from the central issues before the jury, meaning the district court did not abuse its discretion.
A video of arguments before the Supreme Court, with Pottawatomie County Attorney Sherri Schuck representing the state and Heather R. Cessna, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, representing Dern can be viewed on the Kansas Supreme Court website. The case was appealed from Pottawatomie County District Court with Judge Jeffrey Elder–in response to an unpublished opinion by the Court of Appeals in May of 2013.
