Menu
Nussbaum child-molesting conviction upheld in 2017 case
The Court of Appeals of Indiana has upheld the conviction of a 66-year-old Putnam County man on eight counts of Class A felony child molesting in a three-day trial in February 2017.
A Putnam Circuit Court jury took a little more than an hour on Feb. 22, 2017 to convict Michael M. Nussbaum on all eight counts, and a month later Judge Matthew Headley sentenced the Greencastle man to 90 years in prison for acts committed on three young girls. Headley called Nussbaum's actions "nothing short of reprehensible."
"You have forever changed the lives of three young girls," the judge said at the time, noting that none of the three victims was older than eight when the incidents took place between Jan. 1, 2006 and Aug. 3, 2012 while they were in the care of his wife's non-licensed, in-home daycare operation near Brick Chapel.
"Quite frankly," Headley added, "you deserve eight times (the number of charges) 30 years. Two-hundred and 40 years is what you deserve."
At issue in the appeal -- filed by Nussbaum's court-appointed attorney Joel C. Wieneke of Brooklyn, Ind. -- were three elements, which the appeals court restated as follows:
-- Whether the trial court abused its discretion by denying Nussbaum's motion to dismiss due to the fact the state either lost or destroyed a video of prior interviews with the victims in which they did not disclose any molestation.
-- Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it redacted statements from one of the victim's recorded cross-examination regarding her exposure to pornographic materials.
-- Whether the trial court abused its discretion by permitting the jury to see and hear video recordings of the forensic interviews of the victims when only an audio recording of the defense's cross-examination of the victims was available.
The appeals court concluded that the trial court did not err in denying Nussbaum's motion to dismiss based on the recordings of the 2012 interviews with the girls being unavailable.
The substance of these interviews -- that the children did not disclose any abuse at that time -- was made known to the jury, and Nussbaum was permitted to question the victims regarding their prior inconsistent statements. He was also allowed to cross-examine those responsible for keeping track of this recording, thereby exposing the jury to their arguably negligent handling of this evidence. More importantly, this evidence was only potentially useful impeachment evidence, and there is no indication that the state destroyed or misplaced the video of the 2012 interviews in bad faith.
Furthermore, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by excluding evidence that one child had viewed pornography on her laptop because there is no indication as to when she viewed the pornography, and it is not uncommon for children to be exposed to pornography online. Thus, the court concluded that this evidence would do little to dispel any inference of sexual innocence.
Lastly, the appeals court ruled that the trial court did not err in allowing the jury to view the video recordings of the forensic interviews despite the fact that only audio recordings of Nussbaum's cross-examination of the victims at the child hearsay hearings was available.
"Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court," the appeals court ruled.
The opinion was written by Judge Mathias with Judges Najam and Barnes concurring.
Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter was relieved for the victims after the Court of Appeals' decision affirming Nussbaum's conviction.
"It is good news," Bookwalter told the Banner Graphic, "and it means that the three young victims will not have to go through another trial."
In asking for the 90-year sentence at the 2017 hearing, Bookwalter noted that Nussbaum was only charged with one count per victim of each of the various forms of molestation for which he was charged.
"We know it happened more than once," the prosecutor said, noting that the victims testified to the various occasions around the property.
"Those girls are courageous young ladies," Bookwalter praised. "Hopefully this all will heal and they can have a normal life."
The Nussbaum case was one of the inquiries for which a grand jury was called in January 2015.
The case began to unfold when Indiana State Police Trooper Michael Taylor initiated an investigation of one girl's allegations after a call from Putnam County Child Services on May 19, 2014.
On July 18, 2014, a team of ISP troopers served a search warrant on the Nussbaum home. Charges were filed in Putnam Circuit Court on June 2, 2015.