Opinion ID: 1425788
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: A.'s MASTURBATORY BEHAVIOR

Text: Witness Bratvold testified that B.A. masturbated constantly during her last 4 to 5 months at the day-care center, and one of Bratvold's employees testified that she had to repeatedly tell B.A. to keep her hands out of her pants. This behavior was not referred to by the Court of Appeals as corroborative evidence of abuse. While the State argues here that such masturbation by this 3-year-old child demonstrates precocious sexual knowledge, the State deliberately did not offer testimony of its significance at trial. In making her offer of proof regarding a doctor's testimony about B.A.'s emotional reactions to two medical examinations, the deputy prosecuting attorney advised the trial court as follows: Your honor, at this point, the State, and it hopes to alleviate a lot of argument, is not asking Dr. Jenny to testify regarding masturbatory behavior, whether it's excessive on the part of a three-year-old or the sexual acting-out, the State is leaving that alone. What we are asking her to testify at this point is the significance, if any, of this behavior during the exam. The defense urges this court to consider expert commentary and cites a pediatric guide stating that `[o]ccasional masturbation is a normal behavior of many infants and preschoolers.' [28] We note that another expert sees frequent masturbation as a common reaction to sexual victimization. [29] Even if such masturbatory behavior were to be viewed as partially corroborative of B.A.'s abuse, we fail to see how it might corroborate R.T.'s abuse. Arguably, it could perhaps be reasoned that if B.A. masturbated because she was abused, and if R.T. was present when B.A. was abused, then R.T. probably was abused too. It is most questionable, however, that this could reasonably be considered as corroborative evidence of R.T.'s abuse.