Opinion ID: 2195647
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Admission of Nurse Stuckey's Testimony

Text: Mr. Dyson contends that [n]one of [Nurse Stuckey's testimony] should have been admitted under the [report of rape exception to the hearsay rule], and allowing the jury to hear and consider this highly prejudicial bolstering of Ms. Allsbrook's story was reversible error. The government argues that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing this testimony under the rape-report and medical-diagnosis exceptions to the hearsay rule, and even if erroneously admitted, [Mr. Dyson] was not prejudiced. As we have stated previously, [a] decision on the admissibility of evidence, of course, is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court, and we will not disturb its ruling absent an abuse of discretion. Smith v. United States, 665 A.2d 962, 967 (D.C.1995) (citations omitted). Whether or not a particular hearsay exception applies to certain statements is a question of law which we review de novo. See Brown v. United States, 840 A.2d 82, 88 (D.C.2004). The report of rape hearsay exception allows a witness to `testify that the complainant stated that a sexual crime occurred and [to] relate the detail necessary to identify the crime.' Velasquez v. United States, 801 A.2d 72, 82 (D.C.2002) (quoting Galindo v. United States, 630 A.2d 202, 209 (D.C.1993)). Towards the beginning of Nurse Stuckey's testimony about what Ms. Allsbrook told her during her examination at Howard University Hospital, defense counsel objected to the government's question about the third person [presumably Mr. Hamilton] who did not participate in the actual sexual assaults, and the trial judge called a bench conference. During that conference, the trial court mentioned both the medical diagnosis and the report of rape hearsay exceptions and stated in part: To place the relationship of the three individuals in just some basic facts, not detailed fact, some basic facts as to what the individual actors did or did not do seems to me to fall within that part of the [report of rape] rule. So I'll permit it over objection. The prosecutor offered the trial court the report Nurse Stuckey compiled while Ms. Allsbrook was at the Howard University Hospital, and which she would use to recount what Ms. Allsbrook told her during her examination. After reviewing the report the trial judge declared: It does seem to me this really is bare bone's facts. This is not excessively detailed. It seems to me it does place the entire incident in context in terms of . . . the report of rape. Some of it ... goes to medical diagnosis as well in terms of the actual assaultive conduct. But it seems to me it's not so detailed to go beyond the purview of the purposes of the report[][of] rape law. In examining the purposes or rationale of the report of rape hearsay exception, we have said that the exception is designed: (1) to negate the assumption that if there is no such evidence, no complaint was made; (2) to show that the victim behaved as is expected traditionally, i.e. by making a prompt report; and (3) to rebut the claim of recent fabrication. Velasquez, supra, 801 A.2d at 82 (citing Battle v. United States, 630 A.2d 211, 217 (D.C. 1993)); see also Williams v. United States, 756 A.2d 380, 385-86 (D.C.2000). Based upon our review of the record and transcripts in this case, we are satisfied that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting, under the report of rape hearsay exception, the testimony of Nurse Stuckey concerning what Ms. Allsbrook told her at Howard University Hospital during her examination. Since the defense emphasized that Ms. Allsbrook did not mention sexual assaults in her 911 call to the police after she was forced out of the van, the trial court's decision to admit the testimony was consistent with the purposes of the report of rape exception in that it at least negated any juror assumption that no complaint of sexual abuse was made, and refuted the implicit defense accusation of recent fabrication. In addition, Ms. Allsbrook recounted the sexual assaults to the first health professional she encountered as soon as she completed her interview with the police, thus showing that as a victim of sexual abuse, Ms. Allsbrook acted in a manner society would expect by promptly reporting the abuse to a health professional. Furthermore, we see no reason to disturb the trial court's conclusion that only bare, non-detailed facts were admitted through Nurse Stuckey which placed the sexual abuse in context. Nurse Stuckey related minimal facts about the participants, the force used and the sexual abuse at the apartment, as well as in the van. Under the circumstances, then, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting Nurse Stuckey's testimony under the report of rape hearsay exception.