Opinion ID: 1377527
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: usefulness to trier of fact

Text: The main issue before the court for resolution is whether expert testimony on the battered woman syndrome would be helpful to the trier of fact where an adult victim was engaged in an intimate relationship with the accused, where several attacks occurred, and yet the victim failed for a number of months to end the relationship, either by breaking it off or reporting the attacks to law enforcement authorities. The trial court ruled specifically that Klingbeil could not offer an opinion as to the ultimate issue in the case  whether Ciskie raped C.H. Judge Morgan ruled: Mrs. Klingbeil's explanation is not the only explanation for failure to report. There are other explanations such as the effect of alcohol, or the effect of the mastectomy. ... What Mrs. Klingbeil, then, is really testifying to as her testimony is offered by the State, is Mrs. [H]'s state of mind. I rule that that's relevant . .. as the basis for inferring why Mrs. [H] acted or did not act in certain ways, failing to report or failing to break off the relationship. It may not be used as the basis for inferring what Mr. Ciskie did or did not do.... ... I do limit the use of Mrs. Klingbeil's testimony to Mrs. [H]'s state of mind and the inferences that can properly be drawn from the foundation, that is Mrs. [H]'s state of mind. Those do not include Mr. Ciskie's actions. Report of Proceedings, at 1046-47. Domestic violence is a widely prevalent and underreported phenomenon. The general public is unaware of the extent and seriousness of the problem of domestic violence. United States Comm'n on Civil Rights, The Federal Response to Domestic Violence 77 (1982). Lenore Walker, author of the learned treatise mainly relied upon by Klingbeil in her testimony, estimates that, at most, 1 in 10 incidents of battering are reported. L. Walker, The Battered Woman 19, 64 (1979). Other authorities estimate there are as many as 6 million battered women per year in America. Waits, The Criminal Justice System's Response to Battering: Understanding the Problem, Forging the Solutions, 60 Wash. L. Rev. 267, 273 (1985). Sexual assaults as a part of that battering are not at all rare. Walker found in a study of over 400 battered women that 59 percent reported that they had been forced to perform sexual acts against their will by their mates, including acts the women considered particularly abusive or unnatural. L. Walker, The Battered Woman Syndrome 48 (1984). See also D. Russell, Rape in Marriage 87-101 (1982). Walker's study also found that there are a number of sexual issues that have been associated with battered women, the most salient of which is the impact of repeated sexual coercion and assault by someone who is capable of engaging in tender and loving sexual relations at other times. L. Walker, The Battered Woman Syndrome 47 (1984). Battering victims respond to the violence they experience with overwhelming terror, shame, and guilt, as well as condemnation due to their inability to leave the situation. Ferraro & Johnson, How Women Experience Battering: The Process of Victimization, 30 Soc. Probs. 325 (1983). The State notes that an estimated 43 percent of all battered women talk to no one about the beatings they experience, citing M. Schulman, A Survey of Spousal Violence Against Women in Kentucky 3 (1979). We find that the trial judge could reasonably conclude the jury probably had little awareness of the topic of Klingbeil's testimony. The State noted before the trial court that for those not personally affected by a battering relationship or otherwise specially informed, it is difficult to believe that so many women are victims of their mates' physical abuse. Even more counterintuitive and difficult to understand is the ongoing nature of these relationships. The average juror's intuitive response could well be to assume that someone in such circumstances could simply leave her mate, and that failure to do so signals exaggeration of the violent nature of the incidents and consensual participation. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that similar testimony could be of use to the trier of fact in understanding the mental state of victims of battering and sexual abuse that lasted over a period of time. In United States v. Winters, 729 F.2d 602 (9th Cir.1984), the defendant was charged with kidnapping two women and transporting them in interstate commerce for immoral purposes. The prosecution introduced testimony to the effect that the defendant beat, raped, and forced the women into acts of prostitution during a journey across several states. The defendant directed the jury's attention to the women's failure to take advantage of various opportunities to escape or call for help. To assist the jury in understanding the women's conduct and to dispel any notion that they voluntarily submitted ( Winters, at 605) to defendant, the government called a psychiatrist as expert witness. This witness testified that the women had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, described as a profound personality change following a period of severe psychological stress. The expert said this explained the failure of the women to attempt escape or to cry out for help in a public place. Another expert described to the jury the conditioning process that women subjected to forced prostitution go through, and how eventually only subtle threats are required to maintain control over them. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court that the expert testimony concerned matters beyond the common knowledge of the average layman, which would assist the jury to understand the evidence presented. For many years, the legal assumption with regard to rape victims was that they would complain immediately to authorities. In 1949, this court explained the use of the now discredited feudal doctrine of hue and cry in sex offense cases: This doctrine rests on the ground that a female naturally complains promptly of offensive sex liberties upon her person and that, on trial, an offended female complainant's omission of any showing as to when she first complained raises the inference that, since there is no showing that she complained timely, it is more likely that she did not complain at all, and therefore that it is more likely that the liberties upon her person, if any, were not offensive and that consequently her present charge is fabricated.... Modernly, the inference affects the woman's credibility generally, and the truth of her present complaint specifically, and consequently, we permit the state to show in its case-in-chief when the woman first made a complaint consistent with the charge. (Citations omitted.) State v. Murley, 35 Wn.2d 233, 237, 212 P.2d 801 (1949). Although the hue and cry doctrine is no longer given credence as a legal doctrine, the underlying assumption that female victims of sex offenses naturally immediately complain has long been accepted by the legal community and the lay public. See generally United States Comm'n on Civil Rights, Under the Rule of Thumb: Battered Women and the Administration of Justice (1982). In State v. Allery, supra , Klingbeil testified in part to explain why a battered woman remains in a relationship that is psychologically and physically dangerous. This court stated: We find that expert testimony explaining why a person suffering from the battered woman syndrome would not leave her mate, would not inform police or friends, and would fear increased aggression against herself would be helpful to a jury in understanding a phenomenon not within the competence of an ordinary lay person. Allery, at 597. In that case, the evidence was introduced as part of a battered woman's claim of self-defense. The trial judge found the expert testimony useful to aid the jury's understanding of the defendant's perceptions at the time of the killing. The trial judge in the instant case found an explanation of why a battered woman would not leave or report abuse was helpful to the jury's understanding of the victim's perceptions and behavior. In Ciskie's trial, Klingbeil testified about battered woman syndrome as a subgrouping of post-traumatic stress disorder. She used L. Walker's The Battered Woman as a reference and described to the jury Walker's description of the cycle theory of violence that characterizes battering relationships. In brief, the cycle has three phases. The first is a tension-building phase, during which anger builds and smaller incidents of battering may occur. The second is the acute battering phase, marked by an extremely violent attack. Following the acute phase comes the final, contrite stage, during which the batterer expresses sorrow and remorse, and promises that the violence will never recur. The cycle theory also describes severe mood and personality shifts in the batterers, consistent with the testimony of the victim and other witnesses, describing Ciskie as being sometimes friendly and pleasant, and sometimes menacing and abusive. Klingbeil also explained the denial and rationalization of the batterer's behavior that is typical of a battered woman. She testified that a common characteristic among battered women is their tendency to minimize, rationalize, or deny the abusive behavior. [T]he battered woman ... most notably is very frustrated and accepts the kind of behavior that is going on, and rather than striking out tends to internalize it. This is what results in much of the stress disorder and the psychosomatic complaints. This also results in the tremendous amount of emotional dependency and the ... clinical depression that we see with most battered women, almost universally.... Another characteristic is the ... unlimited patience that these battered women have with regard to hoping. And I say that in quotes, that everything will be all right. That is, hoping that it will go away, the battering behavior, or the devastating situation. And they tend to ... travel miles on all kinds of reinforcement. ... for instance: the batterer says that he will never do it again, or he will get a better job, and life will be okay. They tend to believe that. Report of Proceedings, at 663. Klingbeil explained that, although battered women are commonly thought to be low-income women married to and financially dependent upon their batterers, this is by no means a requisite element of the diagnosis. Klingbeil testified that, [i]n fact, we know that battered women now come from all social-economic groups, all religions, all economic groups. [2] Report of Proceedings, at 662. On cross examination, Klingbeil explained that almost half the battered women encountered in the scientific literature were not married to the batterer, [3] and about half of them were self-supporting. Klingbeil testified that such women are dependent upon other people, emotionally dependent, sometimes economically dependent. Report of Proceedings, at 694. Klingbeil testified that: [Battered women] also tend to like the person [batterer]. The batterer generally is not battering all of the time. He's got some decent behavior, and you see this  what's known as the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of personality. So for all those reasons, she tends to minimalize it. She's embarrassed, she's ashamed, she doesn't want her parents, she doesn't want her children, she doesn't want the neighbors to know, she doesn't want her friends to know. So she hides it. Report of Proceedings, at 694-95. Appellant's case at trial characterized the State's case as an exaggeration of the relationship between the victim and Ciskie. The theme of Ciskie's case was that C.H. lied and embellished her story. The defense argued that her behavior was inconsistent with that of a victim of such brutality. In cross examination during the State's case, prior to the introduction of expert testimony, defense counsel asked the victim several times why she had failed to take advantage of several opportunities to break off the relationship, and why she had failed to see a doctor after the alleged attacks. Ciskie personally questioned C.H. during the defense case (despite the prosecutor's vigorous objections) and asked her, If I did as you  as you have said I'd done, why didn't you call the police? (Italics ours.) Report of Proceedings, at 821. During closing argument, defense counsel underscored the fact that the victim never reported that she had been raped to her doctor, the police, or to other friends, as the incidents occurred. So, when she claims to be so naive, this 55-year-old naive woman, and not really responsible for her actions during this period of time, not capable of reporting or dealing with it the way the rest of us would, ask, is that really a sensible thing?  (Italics ours.) Closing Arguments, at 43. The defense challenged C.H.'s credibility and attempted to persuade the jury that her failure to leave the relationship, or to complain earlier to a doctor or police, was inconsistent with that of a rape victim. To dispel this impression, the State asked Klingbeil to express her expert opinion about C.H.'s behavior. At defense counsel's request, the question was phrased as a hypothetical case history that paralleled the evidence presented by the State. Klingbeil said that the woman in the hypothetical case history suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. She said that the facts in the hypothetical example were consistent with the cycle theory of violence. In Klingbeil's expert opinion, the failure of the woman in the hypothetical to report the sexual assaults until 2 days after the last incident and 9 months after the first, was characteristic of a person suffering from the battered woman syndrome. This testimony was helpful to the jury's understanding of a matter outside the competence of an ordinary lay person, and the trial court limited the admission of that testimony to its appropriate purpose. Although Klingbeil's testimony clearly satisfied the requirements of ER 702, the trial court had the discretion under ER 403 to exclude the evidence if he found a danger of unfair prejudice. The trial court properly found that there was danger of such prejudice if Klingbeil were to present to the jury a diagnosis of C.H. as a rape victim, and accordingly barred such testimony. At one point in the trial, however, the court did permit Klingbeil's testimony that she examined C.H. and diagnosed her as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. This diagnosis was preceded by Klingbeil's testimony that the stressors that might start the process of post-traumatic stress disorder could be any unusual stressful event, not necessarily a rape or assault. The court did not allow counsel to question Klingbeil on what she believed the stressor to be in C.H.'s case. The jury was free to infer that the stressor had to do with the allegation of rape, other aspects of C.H.'s relationship with Ciskie, or another event in her life. This aspect of Klingbeil's testimony was not necessarily helpful to the trier of fact, and if the trial court had acceded to the prosecutor's request to permit testimony that the basis of the diagnosis was a belief C.H. had been raped, it would have come perilously close to testimony we found inadmissible in State v. Black, 109 Wn.2d 336, 745 P.2d 12 (1987). In Black, this court held that a diagnosis of rape trauma syndrome was inadmissible for the purpose of allowing an expert opinion that a victim has been raped because such testimony lacks scientific reliability and unfairly prejudices a defendant accused of rape. Testimony from a psychological expert on a diagnosis as to whether an alleged victim was in fact raped is trouble-some because of a danger of invading the function of the trier of fact. Such testimony often amounts to a comment on the credibility of a witness. Thus, in State v. Fitzgerald, 39 Wn. App. 652, 694 P.2d 1117 (1985), the Court of Appeals ruled that a pediatrician who had interviewed two children who alleged that the defendant had raped them could not testify, on the basis only of those interviews, that she believed their allegations, notwithstanding her expertise in dealing with sexually abused children. Moreover, the psychological expert's opinion that the alleged crime has occurred often unfairly prejudices the defendant by creating an aura of special reliability and trustworthiness about the complainant's assertion she had been raped. Black, at 349 (quoting State v. Saldana, 324 N.W.2d 227, 230 (Minn. 1982)). Here, the court properly limited Klingbeil's testimony on the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder to her final diagnosis, without allowing her to indicate her assessment of C.H.'s credibility regarding whether there was a rape. With the benefit of hindsight, it would perhaps have been preferable to bar the diagnosis portion of testimony altogether, to avoid the danger of the jury's inferring a diagnosis of rape. We do not sit in the place of the trial court, however, and will not disturb a discretionary admission of expert testimony absent abuse. State v. Petrich, 101 Wn.2d 566, 575, 683 P.2d 173 (1984). In the context of this trial, the court did an admirable job of limiting the expert's testimony to that which would be of maximum benefit to the jury, without invading its role as judge of credibility. The court fully complied with the Rules of Evidence and the guidelines set forth in State v. Allery, 101 Wn.2d 591, 596, 682 P.2d 312 (1984).