Opinion ID: 1962707
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Testimony of Dr. A.B.

Text: The trial court relied heavily not only on Dr. A.B.'s expert conclusions, but also on her underlying testimony that the children had been exposed to domestic violence. Indeed, the court specifically cited Dr. A.B.'s description of an incident in which one of the children reported that he had seen L.D. hit E.S. The children's statements to Dr. A.B., however, were plainly hearsay, and the court could not rely on them in order to find that the children had actually witnessed domestic violence. Appellees argue that Dr. A.B.'s testimony was not inadmissible hearsay because appellant never objected to it. See Eldridge v. United States, 492 A.2d 879, 883 (D.C.1985) (once hearsay evidence is admitted without objection, it may be properly considered by the trier of fact and given its full probative value); Bullock v. United States, 243 A.2d 677, 679 (D.C.1968) (hearsay testimony to which no objection is made may be properly considered along with other evidence in determining the facts). Appellant contends, on the other hand, that he did object to the testimony before the trial, although his objection was not as clear as one would desire. We agree with appellant that the admissibility of the hearsay evidence was sufficiently contested to preserve the issue for appellate review. Before the neglect hearing, counsel for L.D. told the court that he intended to call the children as witnesses at the hearing. The guardian ad litem and the District of Columbia, however, filed a joint motion to prevent them from testifying, and the trial judge granted the motion. During argument on the motion, the following discussion took place: MR. DAVENPORT [counsel for L.D.]: I believe that the Government would introduce, will attempt to introduce through some of its witnesses statements the [children] made in terms of both their mental state and the causes thereof. And without having the opportunity to actually make inquiry myself, we would simply be confined to what the Government's witnesses say they heard THE COURT: They're going to present expert testimony . . . .       MR. DAVENPORT: So we would be left ... in a position where we would be seeking to cross-examine a witness about another potential witness's statement. That's impossible. THE COURT: Isn't that the nature of expert testimony? Isn't it proper for an expert to rely, I mean, in addition to there being a number of hearsay exceptions which just readily come to mind in that context, but isn't an expert permitted to rely on hearsay testimony in connection with the doing of their evaluation and the preparation of their report? Isn't that permitted by the rules, and isn't that the nature of expert testimony in any event, and isn't that why in the context of this ... why I often have one expert on one side and another expert on the other, which presumably you're planning or at least contemplating offering me       MR. DAVENPORT: Yes, Your Honor, but this is an instance where we also have the opportunity to determine whether or not the facts or statements which underlie or are relied upon by the expert who's tendering his or her opinion have been accurately reported or accurately interpreted. Absent that opportunity THE COURT: Well, that will depend upon what you do with the expert, right? I mean, in terms of whether or not something has been accurately reported or accurately interpreted, if an expert reaches a conclusion, while the rules don't specifically require that an expert outline his or her basis for the same, I mean, good examination requires the same. We think this colloquy can be fairly read as a hearsay objection by L.D.'s counsel and a rejection of it by the court. Appellees nevertheless maintain that Dr. A.B.'s testimony regarding the underlying incidents of domestic violence was admissible under one of several hearsay exceptions. [13] The first of these is the exception for statements affecting medical diagnosis. See Sullivan v. United States, 404 A.2d 153, 158 (D.C.1979); FED. R. EVID. 803(4). This exception allows statements made for the purpose of medical diagnosis to be admitted so long as the statements are not merely `made to elicit evidence for use in the trial.' Sullivan, 404 A.2d at 158 (citation omitted). In this case, however, Dr. A.B. was not the children's treating physician; her interview with the children was conducted at the request of the Corporation Counsel solely in preparation for the doctor's testimony at the hearing. Under the rule as stated in Sullivan, therefore, the medical diagnosis exception does not apply. Appellees suggest that this court has tended to construe the medical diagnosis exception broadly, especially in cases involving children. For example, in Galindo v. United States, 630 A.2d 202 (D.C.1993), we upheld the admission of statements made by a mother to a doctor during the doctor's examination of her child, in which the mother recounted what she knew about the defendant's sexual abuse of the child. We specifically noted, however, that the doctor's evaluation was for medical rather than legal purposes. Id. at 210. In this case, because Dr. A.B.'s evaluation of the children was strictly for the purpose of this litigation, cases such as Galindo are of no help to appellees. Appellees also assert, relying on In re Melton, 597 A.2d 892 (D.C.1991) (en banc), that Dr. A.B.'s testimony was admissible to show the basis for her diagnosis of the children. In Melton the trial court found that the respondent was a paranoid schizophrenic who was likely to be a danger to himself or others and accordingly committed him to Saint Elizabeths Hospital. At the mental health trial, the government's only witnesses were two psychiatrists who testified about their diagnosis of Mr. Melton and their assessment of his future dangerousness. During their testimony, the doctors recounted events leading up to Melton's hospitalization, including the report of an incident at which neither of them was present, when Melton punched his mother in the nose. On appeal Melton argued that this testimony was inadmissible hearsay. We held that there was no reversible error in admitting the testimony because experts are permitted to rely on facts not in evidence as a basis for their opinions, so long as they are of the type reasonably relied upon by other experts in their field. Id. at 901. [14] We observed that psychiatrists reasonably rely on information from family members in reaching their conclusions, and thus that the experts who evaluated Melton were permitted to rely on such information. Id. at 902. Significantly for this case, however, we also noted that the testimony was admitted only `for the purpose of evaluating the reasonableness and correctness of the doctors' conclusions,' and not `to establish the truth of the matters asserted by [the declarants].' Id. at 901 (quoting the trial court's jury instructions). The present case is distinguishable from Melton because here the court considered the hearsay statements for their truth, not simply as a basis for assessing Dr. A.B.'s conclusions. Dr. A.B.'s evaluation of the children led her to conclude that they had been exposed to long-term trauma and exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. The trial court, however, relied on the doctor's testimony to find that the children had actually witnessed domestic violence between their parents. Although the doctor was entitled to rely on the children's out-of-court statements about the beatings to form a basis for her opinion, the court could not consider those statements to prove the truth of what they asserted i. e., that the children actually saw their father beating their mother. Dr. A.B.'s testimony was admissible under Melton only for a limited purpose: to establish a basis for her expert opinion that the children suffered from long-term trauma. The court erred when it relied on Dr. A.B.'s testimony to find that the children had in fact witnessed domestic violence.