Opinion ID: 2103389
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Edwards and Renville

Text: Edwards, id. at 844, was premised on United States v. Renville, 779 F.2d 430 (8th Cir.1985), wherein the logic of the rule as applied to young children was explained, to wit: Statements by a child abuse victim to a physician during an examination that the abuser is a member of the victim's immediate household are reasonably pertinent to treatment. Statements of this kind differ from the statements of fault . . . and properly excluded under our past decisions in a crucial way: they are reasonably relied on by a physician in treatment or diagnosis. First, child abuse involves more than physical injury; the physician must be attentive to treating the emotional and psychological injuries which accompany this crime. The exact nature and extent of the psychological problems which ensue from child abuse often depend on the identity of the abuser. The general rule banning statements of fault is premised on the assumption that the injury is purely somatic. This is evident from the examples put forth by the courts and commentators discussing the rule. In each example, the medical treatment contemplated was restricted to the physical injuries of the victim; there is no psychological component of treatment which could relate to the identity of the individual at fault. Furthermore, in each example the statement of fault is not relevant to prevention of recurrence of the injury. Sexual abuse of children at home presents a wholly different situation. Second, physicians have an obligation, imposed by state law, to prevent an abused child from being returned to an environment in which he or she cannot be adequately protected from recurrent abuse. This obligation is most immediate where the abuser is a member of the victim's household, as in the present case. Information that the abuser is a member of the household is therefore reasonably pertinent to a course of treatment which includes removing the child from the home. Id. at 436-438 (internal citations and footnotes omitted); see also J.M.R. v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, Cabinet for Health and Family Services, 239 S.W.3d 116 (Ky.App.2007). As our predecessor Court noted in Edwards : In Renville , the Court made this exception to the general rule that physicians rarely have reason to rely on statements of identity because of two important aspects involved in the case: (1) the physician was not merely diagnosing and treating the child/patient for physical injuries but psychological injuries as well, and (2) the abuser was a family, household member. The physician in that case testified that he was treating the child for her emotional and physical trauma. He also said that the identity of the abuser was extremely important to him in helping the child work through her problems. The identity was also particularly important if the abuser lived with the child, because the abuse would likely continue as long as the child remained in the household with the abuser. 833 S.W.2d at 844. And, as was noted by the Court in J.M.R .: The therapists testified that the boys feared their stepfather would harm them in the future and that they did not want to reunify with their mother because of her inability or unwillingness to leave their stepfather. While the mother contends that these statements were inadmissible hearsay, we conclude that these statements qualified as hearsay exceptions pursuant to KRE 803(4) because the statements were made to therapists who were determining what happened to the children and what treatment they needed to receive and the statements were made for the purpose of receiving medical treatment. 239 S.W.3d at 119-120; see also Gadd v. Commonwealth, 2005-SC-000880-MR, 2007 WL 858811 (Ky.2007). Gadd, in turn, led to an expansion in Plotnick v. Commonwealth, 2007-CA-000160-MR, 2008 WL 162881 at  (Ky.App.2008), wherein the Court recognized: While not a family member in the traditional sense, D.R. called Plotnick daddy, D.R. had a half-sibling fathered by Plotnick, D.R. had resided with Plotnick at times, and the victim's mother had an ongoing relationship with Plotnick from which it may be inferred that there would be ongoing contact between the victim and the alleged perpetrator. Therefore, we believe the Edwards exception applies, and that the physician's assistant properly repeated D.R.'s identification of Plotnick as the perpetrator. Each of these opinions are based on common groundthat it is medically relevant to the health and safety of young children that their injuries not only be recognized and treated, but also that further injury preventedi.e., their perpetrators, if connected with the children's home life, could be identified and reported so that the child would be made safe. Moreover, even State v. Jones, 625 So.2d 821, 824-25 (Fla.1993), upon which the majority bases its logic, admits that [t]he majority of state courts confronted with this issue have followed Renville and permitted medical personnel to testify regarding statements of identity made by child victims of abuse. Id. at 824-25 (emphasis added) (citations omitted).