Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-03-03064/USCOURTS-ca8-03-03064-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Bruce Thunder Horse
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

1

 The Honorable Karen E. Schreier, United States District Judge for the District

of South Dakota. 

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 03-3064

___________

United States of America, * 

* 

Appellee, * 

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the 

* District of South Dakota.

Bruce Thunder Horse, * 

* 

Appellant. *

___________

Submitted: March 12, 2004 

Filed: June 4, 2004 (Corrected: 06/17/04)

___________

Before MURPHY, SMITH, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

___________

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Bruce Thunder Horse of abusive sexual contact with K.L., a

ten-year-old girl, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153, 2244(a)(1), and 2244(c). The

district court1

 sentenced him to twenty-seven months of incarceration, thirty-six

months of supervised release, restitution in the amount of $296, and a $100 special

assessment. On appeal, Thunder Horse contends that the district court abused its

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discretion in admitting the testimony of forensics interviewer Lora Hawkins. We

affirm.

I. 

The factual summary is based on the presentence report adopted by the district

court. In August 2001, Thunder Horse lived with his sister, Roberta Thunder Horse,

Roberta's ten-year-old niece, K.L., and other members of the family in Wounded

Knee, South Dakota. At approximately 6:00 a.m. on August 4, 2001, Thunder Horse

returned to Roberta's residence intoxicated. When Thunder Horse entered the home,

K.L. was sleeping on the couch in the living room. Thunder Horse picked up K.L.,

carried her downstairs to his sleeping area, and laid her on his mattress. Thunder

Horse instructed K.L. to move over. Thunder Horse positioned himself so that his

front was against her back and proceeded to rub her buttocks and genital area over her

clothing.

K.L. pulled away from Thunder Horse and ran upstairs crying. She told her

cousin, Roberta's twelve-year-old son, that Thunder Horse had touched her. Roberta

was awakened and told of the incident. Thunder Horse was confronted by family

members from the residence, who hit him, accused him of the abuse, and told him to

get out of the house. 

Roberta reported the incident to the Indian Health Services on August 10,

2001. K.L. was scheduled for a forensic interview at the Child Advocacy Center

("CAC") of the Black Hills on August 21, 2001, with Lora Hawkins. K.L. told

Hawkins that while sleeping in the living room on the couch, "Uncle Bruce" picked

her up, took her to the basement, laid her on the mattress, covered her up, and rubbed

her "peach" and "the area around her butt where poop comes out." She also stated that

"Uncle Bruce" rubbed himself on her "butt cheeks." K.L. stated that the touching

occurred outside her clothing. During the interview, K.L. circled on an anatomical

drawing the body regions that "Uncle Bruce" had touched. Although CAC used a

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video camera to record the interview, the camera malfunctioned during K.L.'s

interview. Also, the anatomical drawing that K.L. circled, identifying each area that

Thunder Horse touched, was mistakenly destroyed. 

On August 27, 2001, FBI agents interviewed Thunder Horse. Thunder Horse

stated that he recalled being awakened by Roberta's daughters who were beating him

and accusing him of abusing K.L. Thunder Horse admitted that he carried K.L.

downstairs, laid her on his mattress, and laid down with her. He stated that he may

have touched her inappropriately in her private parts like the chest or groin, and if he

did, he was sorry. 

On November 13, 2002, a single-count indictment was filed in the district court

charging Thunder Horse with abusive-sexual contact in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§

2244(a), 2244(c), and 1153. On November 18, 2002, Thunder Horse was arrested. On

December 18, 2002, after the detention review hearing, Thunder Horse was released

on a personal recognizance bond with pretrial supervision. He was ordered to reside

at the City/County Drug and Alcohol Program clinic, and complete substance abuse

treatment. However, on April 25, 2003, Thunder Horse was terminated from the

program because he failed to follow the program's rules and regulations.

Consequently, Thunder Horse's bond was revoked, and he was detained pending trial.

On May 6, 2003, a jury trial commenced. At trial, the government called

Hawkins, who recounted the statements that K.L. made to her during the interview

at CAC. Thunder Horse raised a hearsay objection to the contents of Hawkins's

testimony, but the court overruled the objection and admitted Hawkins's testimony

under the residual-hearsay exception. Thunder Horse argues that this ruling is

reversible error. We disagree. 

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2

 The content of Rule 803(24) has been transferred to Rule 807 of the Federal

Rules of Evidence. 

3

 This argument goes against Thunder Horse's defense theory of accidentally

touching K.L. in an inappropriate manner. 

-4-

II.

The district court is entitled to some deference in deciding whether to admit

hearsay evidence under Fed. R. Evid. 807, formerly 803(24),2

 and we will affirm the

court's ruling unless the court abused its discretion. United States v. Cree, 778 F.2d

474, 477 (8th Cir. 1985). A statement having circumstantial guarantees of

trustworthiness can be admitted under Rule 807, if the court determines that: 

(A) the statement is offered as evidence of a material fact; 

(B) the statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered

than any other evidence the proponent can procure through reasonable

efforts; and 

(C) the general purposes of these rules and the interests of justice must

best be served by admission of the statement into evidence; 

Fed. R. Evid. 807. This rule "was necessary to permit courts to admit evidence in

exceptional circumstances where the evidence was necessary, highly probative, and

carried a guarantee of trustworthiness equivalent to or superior to that which

underlies the other recognized exceptions." United States v. Renville, 779 F.2d 430,

439 (8th Cir. 1985).

Thunder Horse contends that Hawkins's testimony lacks circumstantial

guarantees of trustworthiness as required under Rule 807. Specifically, Thunder

Horse urges that Hawkins's testimony is untrustworthy because K.L. did not repeat

the same facts consistently including: (1) K.L.'s statement to Roberta that Thunder

Horse had touched her "middle," and not that he had touched her "peach"; (2) K.L.'s

alleged statements to Nicole, K.L.'s friend, stating that Thunder Horse had never

touched her and that she was sorry3

; (3) K.L.'s alleged statements to Stan Zakinski,

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Thunder Horse's private investigator, in January 2003, indicating that Thunder Horse

did not touch her "peach" or "rub her butt." In cases involving the admissibility of a

sexually abused child's hearsay statements under Rule 807, we must assess the

trustworthiness and reliability of an out-of-court statement "in light of the

circumstances at the time of the declaration and the credibility of the declarant."

United States v. Dorian, 803 F.2d 1439, 1444 (8th Cir. 1986) (quoting Renville, 779

F.2d at 440). 

We consider a wide range of factors in determining whether this type of

hearsay testimony is sufficiently trustworthy, including: the training and experience

of the interviewer; whether the child was interviewed using open-ended questions;

the age of the child and whether the child used age-appropriate language in

discussing the abuse; the length of time between the incident of abuse and the making

of the hearsay statement; and whether the child repeated the same facts consistently

to adults. United States v. NB, 59 F.3d 771, 776 (8th Cir. 1995). "No single factor is

dispositive; we examine the factors to determine if there are sufficient positive signs

of trustworthiness." Id. 

In the instant case, several circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness are

present. First, the proximity of the statement to the alleged acts–Hawkins's interview

was conducted at the CAC only seventeen days after the incident, while Zakinski's

interview was conducted at a motel room almost six-months later. Second, experience

of the interviewer–Hawkins has twenty years of experience interviewing child

victims. Hawkins testified that she asked the victim open-ended questions rather than

leading questions. Third, the victim was ten years old and discussed the incident of

sexual abuse in a childlike way. "A declarant's young age is a factor that may

substantially lessen the degree of skepticism with which our Court views her motives,

and mitigates in favor of the trustworthiness and admissibility of her declarations."

Dorian, 803 F.2d 1445. Lastly, K.L. denied on cross-examination telling Nicole

anything about the night of the incident. The jury had the opportunity to weigh K.L.'s

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statements made to Hawkins and accord the statements whatever weight it deemed

appropriate.

We hold that K.L.'s statements to Hawkins contained sufficient guarantees of

trustworthiness to satisfy Rule 807. Therefore, we conclude that the admission of

Hawkins's testimony was not an abuse of the district court's discretion. 

We affirm the district court's judgment.

______________________________

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