NAJAM, Judge.
Gayle D. Edelen appeals her convictions for perjury and official misconduct, each a Class D felony, following a jury trial. Edelen raises two issues for our review:
We hold that the transcript is not confidential because it involves an adult charged with a crime. We also hold that the State presented sufficient evidence to support Edelen's convictions. As such, we affirm.
In September of 2008, Edelen worked as a caseworker for the Indiana Department of Child Services ("DCS") in Gibson County. One of her clients, M.D., whom the Gibson Circuit Court had declared a child in need of services ("CHINS") and placed at Life Choices
On October 9, local law enforcement found M.D. and transported her to SIRYV. Edelen was promptly informed of M.D.'s placement at SIRYV, but she took no action to schedule a hearing on M.D.'s placement with the Gibson Circuit Court. On October 17, Edelen asked fellow caseworker Amy Ellis to check on M.D. while Ellis was at SIRYV, which Ellis did. M.D. repeatedly asked Ellis when the next court hearing date was scheduled, and Ellis replied that she would have to check with Edelen. On November 5, M.D. contacted her attorney, Lisa Moody, to inform her that she was at SIRYV. Moody e-mailed Edelen the next day and asked her when she had learned of M.D.'s placement and how long M.D. had been placed there. On November 7, Edelen responded by e-mail, "I told you in court one day in[-]between hearings that she had been located, and
That same day, Moody filed a motion in the Gibson Circuit Court for a change in placement. Moody informed the court that M.D. had been held at SIRYV for a month without a hearing. Judge Meade granted Moody's motion later that day.
On November 26, 2008, Judge Meade held a closed hearing
State's Exh. 1A at 44-46. Edelen also testified that she had orally informed Moody of when M.D. was found and that she had made entries in M.D.'s contact log to reflect that communication. And Edelen acknowledged that she had made several log entries long after the fact and even after she had received a subpoena to testify. Judge Meade concluded the hearing by dismissing the CHINS petition against M.D., who had turned eighteen shortly before the hearing.
Thereafter, the Indiana Office of the Inspector General began investigating the circumstances of M.D.'s thirty-day stay at SIRYV. Special Agent Michael Mischler, a retired Indiana State Trooper, conducted approximately twenty interviews, including an interview of Judge Meade. On October 26, 2009, the State filed its information against Edelen in the Gibson Superior Court, alleging that she had committed three acts of perjury at the November 2008 hearing and an additional act of official misconduct for committing her alleged perjury while testifying in her official capacity.
The court held Edelen's jury trial from June 7-9, 2010. The State sought to have the transcript of Edelen's testimony during the November 2008 hearing introduced into evidence, along with the DCS's contact log from M.D.'s file, but Edelen objected that the transcript and log were inadmissible because they were confidential records. The court overruled Edelen's objection but, nonetheless, ordered M.D.'s identifying information redacted from those documents.
The State called Judge Meade, Worman, and Moody as witnesses against Edelen. When asked whether Edelen had "in passing told him that we had found [M.D.]," Judge Meade responded, "No, she did not." Transcript at 35. Judge Meade also expressly contradicted Edelen's November 2008 testimony on at least two other occasions. Worman testified that Edelen had had no communication with her about M.D. prior to November 7, 2008. Id. at 167. And Moody testified that she had had no contact with Edelen between M.D.'s flight from Life Choices and November 6, 2008. Id. at 151.
The jury convicted Edelen as charged, and the trial court entered its judgments of conviction and sentences accordingly. This appeal ensued.
Edelen first contends on appeal that the trial court erred when it admitted the transcript of her testimony during the November 2008 juvenile proceeding into evidence during her criminal trial. Our standard of review of a trial court's admission of evidence is an abuse of discretion. Speybroeck v. State, 875 N.E.2d 813, 818 (Ind.Ct.App.2007). A trial court abuses its discretion only if its decision is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances before the court. Id. In reviewing the admissibility of evidence, we consider only the evidence in favor of the
This issue also involves the proper interpretation of a statute. As we have stated:
State v. Prater, 922 N.E.2d 746, 748 (Ind. Ct.App.2010), trans. denied. Further, "we are obliged to suppose that the General Assembly chose the language it did for a reason." Id. at 750.
Here, Edelen argues that "the disclosure of [her] testimony in the CH[I]NS case is barred" because the transcript of the November 2008 proceeding is a confidential record under various statutes and Indiana Administrative Rule 9. See Appellant's Br. at 9-10. The State raises a number of arguments in response. We address only whether the transcript of the November 2008 hearing is a confidential record.
We begin our analysis with Indiana Administrative Rule 9, which is both "comprehensive and voluminous." See Bailey v. Indiana Newspapers, Inc. (In re T.B.), 895 N.E.2d 321, 333 (Ind.Ct.App.2008). According to Administrative Rule 9(D)(1): "A court record is accessible to the public except as provided in section[] (G). . . ." Section (G) provides that "[t]he following information . . . is excluded from public access and is confidential: . . . [(b) ](vi) Records of juvenile proceedings, pursuant to Ind.Code § 31-39-1-2, except those specifically open under statute. . . ." Ind. Administrative Rule 9(G)(1).
Indiana Code Chapter 31-39-1 discusses the confidentiality of juvenile court records. Section 31-39-1-2, upon which Administrative Rule 9(G) relies, provides that "[a]ll juvenile court records subject to this chapter are confidential and are available only in accordance with IC 31-39-2." (Emphasis added.) The preceding statute, Indiana Code Section 31-39-1-1(a), limits the scope of the chapter: "This chapter applies to all records of the juvenile court except the following: (1) Records involving an adult charged with a crime or criminal contempt of court."
895 N.E.2d at 340-41 (footnote omitted; alteration omitted). In a footnote, we clarified what a fishing expedition under the statutory exception may look like: "For example, we believe that the legislature could not have intended for Indiana Code [Section] 31-39-1-1(a)(1) to apply to a dispositional order in a CHINS proceeding in which an adult charged with embezzlement is mentioned only in passing." Id. at 341 n. 27.
Here, we begin our analysis with the presumption that the November 2008 transcript is confidential, either because it is a legal record subject to Indiana Code Chapter 31-39-1 or because it is the transcript of a closed proceeding. See id. at 345-46 (holding, under Indiana Code Section 31-32-6-2, that the juvenile court erred in releasing the transcript of a confidential proceeding to news media). And with that presumption in mind, we hold that the November 2008 transcript is a record that "involv[es] an adult charged with a crime." As such, it is not a confidential record for purposes of the Edelen's perjury trial. See Ind.Code §§ 31-39-1-1(a)(1), -2.
Again, the statutory exception for "an adult charged with a crime" is intended "to ensure that the confidentiality provisions. . . do not impede the State's investigation and prosecution of the `adult charged with a crime.'" In re T.B., 895 N.E.2d at 340-41 (alteration omitted). If Edelen's argument on appeal—that the November 2008 transcript should be suppressed under the confidentiality provisions—were successful, it would defeat the legislature's intent for the statutory exception because it would preclude the prosecution of an adult charged with a crime.
Moreover, the November 2008 transcript "relate[s] specifically to both the adult and the charged crime." Id. at 341. The purpose of the proceeding was to determine why M.D. had spent a month at SIRYV without a hearing, which required Edelen's sworn testimony of her knowledge and actions during that time. Indeed, Edelen's testimony during the November 2008 proceeding does not just "involv[e]" or "relate" to her later perjury charge but is the crime for which she was charged. And there is no suggestion that the statutory exception has been used here as a mere fishing expedition.
Edelen nevertheless asserts that "the transcript is not a `record' as that term is defined [in Section 31-39-1-1(b) ], and as such [it] is not covered by the confidentiality statutes nor the exceptions set out in the statutes. The transcript is a special case." Reply at 11. Indiana Code Section 31-39-1-1(b) provides: "The legal records subject to this chapter include the following: (1) Chronological case summaries. (2) Index summaries. (3) Summonses. (4) Warrants. (5) Petitions. (6) Orders. (7) Motions. (8) Decrees." (Emphasis added.) The plain language of that statute demonstrates that its list of legal records is not intended to be an exhaustive list but, rather, merely an illustrative one. See, e.g., Sec. Trust Corp. v. Estate of Fisher ex rel. Roy, 797 N.E.2d 789, 794 (Ind.Ct.App. 2003), trans. denied. Thus, the fact that "transcript" does not appear as a listed example is not dispositive.
In any event, we need not decide whether a transcript is a legal record for purposes of Section 31-39-1-1(b). See, e.g., In re T.B., 895 N.E.2d at 346 n. 35 ("We leave for another day the question of whether the transcript of a juvenile proceeding is a `legal record' pursuant to Indiana Code Section 31-39-1-1(b). . . ."). This is because Edelen's argument is too clever by half. In her effort to avoid the exception of Section 31-39-1-1(a)(1), Edelen overshoots the confidentiality provisions entirely.
The flaw in Edelen's analysis is her assumption that all juvenile court records are presumptively confidential. That is not the case. All court records are generally available to the public, see Admin. R. 9(D)(1), and the same is true for proceedings in a juvenile court, see T.N. v. B.D. (In re Paternity of K.D.), 929 N.E.2d 863, 872 (Ind.Ct.App.2010). To be confidential, there must be an express statute or rule stating so.
Thus, if a "transcript" is not within the scope of the "legal records" to which Chapter 31-39-1 applies, then it cannot be within the scope of that Chapter's confidentiality provisions. See I.C. § 31-39-1-2 ("All juvenile court records subject to this chapter are confidential. . . .") (emphasis added). Instead, the transcript would simply be an open record of the court. See Admin. R. 9(D)(1). Accordingly, Edelen's belief that she can avoid Section 31-39-1-1(a)(1) by claiming the transcript is not a legal record is a nonstarter. Whether the transcript is or is not a legal record under Section 31-39-1-1(b), it is not subject to the confidentiality provisions of Chapter 31-39-1.
In sum, the transcript of Edelen's testimony during the November 2008 proceeding before the juvenile court involves an adult charged with a crime. To prohibit the admission of that transcript would preclude the State's prosecution of Edelen for perjury, and the transcript specifically relates to Edelen and the State's charges against her. Even if the transcript were a legal record as contemplated by the statute, the transcript is not confidential under Indiana Code Section 31-39-1-1(a)(1) because it involves an adult charged with a crime. Thus, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting that evidence into the record of Edelen's criminal trial.
Edelen also argues that the State failed to present sufficient evidence to support her convictions. When reviewing a claim of sufficiency of the evidence, we do not reweigh the evidence or judge the credibility of the witnesses. Jones v. State, 783 N.E.2d 1132, 1139 (Ind.2003). We look only to the probative evidence supporting the verdict and the reasonable inferences that may be drawn from that evidence to determine whether a reasonable trier of fact could conclude the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. If there is substantial evidence of probative value to support the conviction, it will not be set aside.
Here, Edelen contends that the State failed to corroborate any of its three perjury allegations. Edelen also asserts that the "evidence on [perjury] Count III is equivocal and insufficient to show perjury." Appellant's Br. at 20. Finally, Edelen argues that the State's "charging information in Count IV [official misconduct] fails to state an offense. . . ." Id. at 23. We address each of Edelen's arguments in turn.
To prove perjury, the State was required to show beyond a reasonable
Edelen first argues that the State's only evidence against her on each of the perjury allegations "consists [only] of the sworn testimony of one witness against the sworn testimony of Edelen (Count I: [Judge] Meade; Count II[:] Brenda Worman; Count III[:] Lisa Moody[).] . . . There are no corroborating facts and circumstances." Appellant's Br. at 20. We cannot agree. First, the fact that the juvenile court did not hold a hearing on M.D.'s placement until a month after she was placed in SIRYV corroborates the fact that neither Judge Meade, Attorney Worman, nor Attorney Moody had been originally informed of M.D.'s placement. And, second, Edelen's belated entries into the contact log corroborate the State's allegations that she did not initially inform anyone of M.D.'s placement at SIRYV but, instead, tried to cover her tracks by backfilling the contact log.
Edelen next asserts that her testimony at the November 2008 hearing regarding what she had said to Attorney Moody about M.D.'s placement at SIRYV is equivocal and, therefore, insufficient. That testimony is quoted in detail above and shows that a reasonable jury could have concluded that Edelen was committing perjury at the time of the testimony. Edelen's argument to the contrary now is merely a request for this court to reweigh that evidence, which we will not do. See Jones, 783 N.E.2d at 1139.
Finally, Edelen contends that this court "should vacate the conviction [under] Count IV because . . . the information does not charge a crime or any other act which [she, as] a public servant, was prohibited by law from performing." Appellant's Br. at 23. A public servant who knowingly or intentionally performs an act that the public servant is forbidden by law to perform commits official misconduct. Ind.Code § 35-44-1-2(1). Here, the State's charging information alleged that Edelen committed official misconduct when she "knowingly perform[ed] an act that she was forbidden by law to perform, to-wit: making a false, material statement under oath or affirmation. . . ." Appellant's App. at 42B.
Edelen's argument on this issue is that the charging information on Count IV is defective because it does not validly incorporate the elements of perjury. But "[t]he proper time for raising the insufficiency of the charging information is prior to arraignment." Vaillancourt v. State, 695 N.E.2d 606, 610 (Ind.Ct.App.1998), trans. denied. Further, "any challenge to the adequacy of an information must be made by motion to dismiss prior to arraignment. Otherwise, any error in that regard is waived." Id. (quotation and alteration omitted). Edelen did not file a
In sum, the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it admitted into evidence the November 2008 transcript because the transcript involves an adult charged with a crime. The State presented sufficient evidence to support Edelen's convictions, and Edelen's argument that the charging information for Count IV is defective is untimely. Hence, we affirm her convictions.
Affirmed.
ROBB, C.J., and CRONE, J., concur.