Opinion ID: 1135325
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Testimony Concerning Patricia L.

Text: Patricia Bay became involved in the investigation, along with Detective Sergeant Harry Bishop of the Shasta County Sheriff's Department in Northern California, because Patricia L. and her siblings, Aaron and Noray Ann, had moved to Shasta County, California. Detective Coffey sent Bishop and Bay a report describing the strange allegations that were coming from the Carson City children, as well as peculiar traits that the children had in common. The report stated that many parents were told to discuss the allegations with their children. Bishop interviewed Patricia and her siblings. Bishop testified that Patricia said nothing sexual had happened, but that she did not like it when Martha spanked her. Bishop also stated that several times Aaron told him that nothing had happened or that he could not remember any sexually related incident. Bishop later testified that, in response to persistent questioning, Aaron changed his statements and said that: (1) he saw Martha touch some clothed babies on private parts, which he identified by pointing to genital areas of dolls; and (2) Martha told him not to tell anyone or she would kill him. Despite the district court's earlier ruling that Noray Ann's hearsay statements would be inadmissible because she was an incompetent witness, the prosecutor at trial specifically elicited her hearsay statements from Bishop. Noray Ann was about three and one-half years old when Bishop interviewed her, and she had been only ten months to twenty-six months old when at Felix's day care center. In response to leading questions, Noray Ann told Bishop that Martha touched her on the bottom, which Noray Ann showed as the vagina and the anus by pointing to a doll. On cross-examination, Bishop conceded that Noray Ann had probably been in diapers, raising the possibility that Noray Ann's touching referred to changing diapers. Patricia's brother, Aaron, testified at trial. Aaron was five and one-half to six and one-half years old when at Felix's and ten years old at the time of trial. Aaron said that Martha touched his sisters on the rear end with her hand and that Martha touched him and his sisters with a cattle prod. He explained that Bay supplied him with the term cattle prod after he described the incident. Aaron also said that Martha threatened to kill his parents if he told them of these incidents. However, three separate times he denied that Martha ever touched him in a sexual manner. Overall, Aaron's testimony indicated that his memory was shaky. Many times he said that he did not recall an incident, but that it probably happened. He admitted that probably meant he was guessing these things happened. Also, he said Bay probably remembered things he did not because he had told Bay earlier and probably forgotten. Defense counsel also asked Aaron about Patricia's assertions that Martha prayed to Satan. Aaron said that Patricia sometimes lied. When defense counsel asked him why he at first denied that anything happened, Aaron said, Patty Bay kind of tried to make me say something that didn't really happen. Later, Aaron spontaneously stated that he did not like Bay because she sometimes ... asked the same questions over and over. A transcript of Bay's interview with Aaron shows that almost all of her questions were leading. Bay testified that she did not recall any specific disclosures by Patricia during the first interview attended by Sergeant Bishop. Bay said that she decided to interview Patricia again because Patricia appeared nervous, and because she later learned that a Dr. Pugno found medical evidence of CSA when he examined Patricia. In the second interview, Bay said that Patricia told her, Martha hurt me and pointed to her vagina. However, Bay could not remember if the statement was spontaneous. In the third interview, Bay said she told Patricia that Aaron had said Martha did things to Patricia, and Patricia responded by making allegations that Martha touched her in private places. However, Bay admitted that all of Patricia's incriminating statements were given in response to leading questions. Bay played a game with the children called complete the sentence. For example: Bay said, Martha used blood to ..., and Patricia said cut you to complete the sentence. Bay said, Martha thought animals were ..., and Patricia said, Killed them with a gun. Bay said, Martha used gasoline to ..., and Patricia said, For the car. Bay said, The worst thing Martha did was ..., and Patricia said, Touch kids in their private parts. Bay testified that during this game, Patricia said, Martha killed a bird. She killed a cat and scared us with the blood. Bay said she asked about the gasoline because the children had somehow mentioned it before. Prior to the interview in which the game was played, Ms. L., Patricia and Aaron's mother, told Bay that Aaron had said Martha killed a little girl. When Aaron denied having said this, Bay stated, Well, your mom said that the other day you told her that Martha killed a little girl. Bay testified that, at a subsequent interview, Patricia said she saw Martha put her finger in another child's vagina. In the interview, Bay then started to use anatomically correct dolls in questioning Patricia, and Bay let Patricia draw pictures. Patricia drew a picture of a knife and said it looked like the knife Martha had used to kill a calf, and that [s]he killed it in the back yard with a knife and scared the kids with the blood. Bay further stated that Patricia said Aaron put his finger in me and it hurt, and Aaron put his finger in my vagina and then he washed it because it stinked. It is unclear whether the statements were in response to a leading question. At another interview, Bay asked, Did Martha have a stick? Patricia said, Martha touched Aaron with a stick on both his legs. Aaron yelled. Bay said that Patricia recanted her disclosures of the previous day by saying, No one ever touched me and Aaron never touched me. By the time of trial, Bay had conducted a total of ninety-eight sessions with Patricia and her siblings. The cost of these sessions was largely paid from the Nevada Victims of Crime Fund. These sessions included twenty-two hours with Patricia alone. Most of the sessions were unrecorded, compelling the court to rely on Bay's memory to determine if her questions were suggestive or leading. Bay admitted that in the videotaped session, she did suggest or lead Patricia, but stated that the videotaped session was not representative of her usual unrecorded interviews. In Patricia's competency hearing testimony, Bay admitted that she tended to discount the children's denials, but that she did not question some of their more incredible stories. She admitted that Aaron could have picked up some information from Patricia when the two children were interviewed together, and that she should have interviewed them separately to check for corroboration of their stories. She said she challenged the more incredible stories only occasionally and mildly by asking Really? or Is that right? When questioned why she asked the children whether they had seen Martha murder anyone, she said she could not remember. At trial, Bay opined that Patricia was a victim of sexual assault and molestation. This opinion was based on medical findings, Patricia's statements, and Patricia's behavioral indicators in Bay's office and as reported by her parents. Bay cited the following behavioral indicators of CSA: (1) Patricia's fear of the bathtub; (2) her excessive masturbation; (3) her self-mutilation behaviors, such as biting and scratching herself; (4) her fear of sleeping alone; (5) her erratic mood swings; and (6) her aggressive behavior, such as cutting up her bed with scissors. Bay diagnosed Patricia as having post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic and delayed, and she believed it was induced by sexual molestation and torture. She also concluded that Aaron was the victim of sexual assault and molestation. Patricia's mother and father testified that their children made no allegations of sexual molestation. In fact, they admitted their children said nothing at all to them on the topic. However, they did testify to some non-sexually related statements their children made, such as that Martha killed animals. Dr. Perry Pugno, a family practitioner from Redding, California, with substantial experience in examining children for evidence of CSA, examined Patricia. He found a seven millimeter opening in her hymenal ring and a two millimeter scar in her anal area. From these findings, he opined that Patricia had been vaginally penetrated by an object about the size of a finger and that her anus had been penetrated at least once. He concluded that it was unlikely Patricia experienced full adult penile penetration, but that it was possible the scarring could have been caused by someone with long fingernails. However, Dr. Roland Miller testified for the defense that all of Patricia's physical signs were indicative of normal growth, and there were no indications of sexual molestation. Dr. Miller testified that it was common for female children to have hymenal openings the size of Patricia's from birth. It was Dr. Miller's opinion that Patricia had never been sexually penetrated.