Opinion ID: 2388194
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Sexual abuse examination

Text: The victim underwent a sexual abuse examination by Nurse Phyllis Suiter at the Clark County Child Advocacy Center. During the examination, Suiter obtained the victim's medical history and history of sexual abuse by asking the victim a series of questions, and requested that the victim describe the different acts of sexual abuse, as well as any resulting emotional or physical effects from the abuse. Suiter also performed a physical examination of the victim's vaginal area, which was recorded by video and depicted by diagram. In conjunction with the sexual abuse examination, Suiter prepared a written report that included her questions, the victim's responses, the victim's medical history and history of sexual abuse, and Suiter's findings indicating that there was a healed transection on the victim's hymen. Because Suiter was unavailable to testify at trial, the State asked Dr. Neha Mehta to review Suiter's examination report and the diagram and video of the examination. At trial, Dr. Mehta testified regarding her own training and experience, and relayed to the jury Suiter's training and qualifications. She further summarized Suiter's questions to the victim and the victim's responses to those questions depicting the victim's medical history and history of sexual abuse, described in general how an examination is performed, and recounted Suiter's findings from the examination. Dr. Mehta went on to explain and interpret Suiter's diagram and markings and generally described what scarring or evidence will be present on the hymen if a penis or other object is inserted into the vagina. Dr. Mehta testified that, while independently reviewing the video recording of Suiter's examination of the victim, she found an area of concern, and that based on her review of the video, her findings were consistent with Suiter's written findingsthere was a healed transection on the victim's hymen.