Opinion ID: 706827
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Application of Admissibility Approach to this Case

Text: 67 While we conclude that the test for admissibility adopted by the district court in this case was insufficiently flexible, and while we believe that it would have been more appropriate for the district judge to have conducted an evidentiary hearing prior to issuing his ruling, we nonetheless affirm the district court's in limine ruling and subsequent summary judgment. Since in our view the factors before the district court weighed decisively against the admissibility of Borawick's testimony, we are convinced that if the district court had followed our test, it would have necessarily reached the same conclusion. We see no point in remanding the case so that the district court can reach the same finding. 68 First, Borawick's assertions notwithstanding, it is beyond question that St. Regis lacked adequate professional qualifications as a hypnotist. While a panoply of academic qualifications is not necessary in all circumstances for one to qualify as an expert, there should be a general presumption in favor of appropriate academic credentials. The district court's finding that St. Regis was not properly qualified finds ample support in the record: his formal education ended with a high school diploma; he had no formal training in psychiatry or psychotherapy; his hypnotic technique used an experimental cranial electronic stimulator; he did not read the professional literature; and his work experience prior to being a hypnotist at Pacific Medical Center was intermittent. The fact that Dr. Peters, a medical doctor, self-servingly stated that he considered St. Regis to be qualified is not enough to disturb the district court's determination. 69 There was also no permanent record of the procedures that St. Regis used; no videotapes, audiotapes, or even contemporaneously-drafted medical reports existed. 842 F.Supp. at 1507. As a result, the district court was not provided with any means, independent of St. Regis's testimony, to determine whether or not he was inadvertently suggestive in his approach or otherwise used suspect techniques in conducting the hypnosis. Without such a record, expert testimony would have been of little value, since experts similarly would have had no basis on which to evaluate the actual procedures St. Regis used. 70 Finally, we receive no comfort from the fact that St. Regis read excerpts from Borawick's deposition transcript prior to testifying himself. Given that he is not qualified and that the record lacks any basis on which to assess the reliability of the procedures he used, this circumstance further undermines the value, if any, of his testimony. 71 Our conclusion is reinforced by the inherent incredibility of Borawick's allegations. In this case, Borawick has levelled fanciful accusations of sexual abuse against numerous persons other than the defendants in this matter that include persons both familiar and unfamiliar to her. For example, Borawick allegedly recalls being raped and sexually abused at the age of three during rituals by men whom she believed to be members of the Masons. She also purports to recollect several incidents in which she was drugged by injection as well as an incident in which she was forced to drink blood at a ritual involving a dead pig, incense, chanting, and people dressed in black gowns. Several additional incidents of a similarly unlikely nature involving sexual abuse by others are included in the sealed record. That Borawick has made these far-fetched, uncorroborated accusations against others, in addition to the defendants, erodes our confidence in the allegations against Morrie and Christine Shay and properly weighs against the admissibility of her hypnotically-induced memories. 72 We note that the district court failed to consider the evidence that Borawick offered as corroboration in her motion for reconsideration, including letters from her sister alleging abuse. In the face of the record before the district court, we find that Borawick's corroborating evidence was simply too weak to overcome the very strong evidence against admissibility. Consequently, we affirm the district court's ruling as to the in limine motion.II. The Application of Daubert 73 Borawick also contends that the district court's in limine ruling was not consistent with Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), in which the Supreme Court held that the test set forth in Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C.Cir.1923), was superseded by the adoption of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2793. In determining the proper standard for the admission of expert testimony, id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2792, the Court noted that several of the Federal Rules of Evidence applied. Rather than impose a rigid framework of criteria that must be met in order for the testimony to be admissible, the Court ruled that judges must determine whether an expert's testimony is scientifically valid by examining 1) whether the theory had been tested, 2) whether it had been subjected to peer review, 3) what the potential or known rate of error is, 4) what sort of standards control the technique's operation, and 5) whether the theory or technique has generally been accepted. Id. at ---- - ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2796-97. This inquiry, the Court emphasized, should be flexible. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2797. In giving trial judges the task of ensuring that an expert's testimony both rests on a reliable foundation and is relevant to the task at hand, id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2799, the Court assigned trial judges a gate-keeping role for the admissibility of scientific evidence. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2798. 74 We do not believe that Daubert is directly applicable to the issue here since Daubert concerns the admissibility of data derived from scientific techniques or expert opinions. The issue before us is whether Borawick is a competent witness, see Federal Practice, supra, Sec. 6011, at 125-26, or whether her lay testimony is admissible, Valdez, 722 F.2d at 1200-01. Under either characterization, the question does not concern the admissibility of experimental data or expert opinions. See id. But see Tuttle, 780 P.2d at 1211 (rejecting the State's position that the issue only concerns the admissibility of testimony from a lay eyewitness as opposed to an expert on the basis that the hypnotically enhanced testimony given by the witness is the product of scientific intervention). 75 Even though Daubert does not provide direct guidance, our decision today is informed by the principles underlying the Supreme Court's holding. First, by loosening the strictures on scientific evidence set by Frye, Daubert reinforces the idea that there should be a presumption of admissibility of evidence. Second, it emphasizes the need for flexibility in assessing whether evidence is admissible. Rather than using rigid safeguards for determining whether testimony should be admitted, the Court's approach is to permit the trial judge to weigh the various considerations pertinent to the issue in question. Third, Daubert allows for the admissibility of scientific evidence, even if not generally accepted in the relevant scientific community, provided its reliability has independent support. Finally, the Court expressed its faith in the power of the adversary system to test shaky but admissible evidence, Daubert, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2798, and advanced a bias in favor of admitting evidence short of that solidly and indisputably proven to be reliable. Finally, we note that, even if Daubert were of direct application, nothing in Daubert is inconsistent with our outlined approach.