Opinion ID: 1815720
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Expert Witnesses.

Text: Chancy challenges the testimony of the social worker, Patricia Schultz, on the ground she lacked the training and experience required to testify as an expert in comparing the mental capacity of the victim with other children. Prior to employment as a social worker with the Area Education Agency, Schultz had been employed as a therapist with Families, Inc., of West Branch, Iowa, a family counseling service. She also had worked for one year at the Iowa Security Medical Facility at Oakdale as a social skills program coordinator. She has a bachelors degree in social work and psychology, and a masters degree in social work. Her education, she testified, basically involved working with children and families. Her contact with the victim, who was a special education student, began in mid-October, 1984, when the victim had been referred to her in connection with the school's effective education program. Effective education, she testified, was a counseling program aimed at training students in appropriate behavior. The program was basically limited to special education students who, like this victim, are not well equipped to get along socially. Schultz testified that she had worked with fifty to seventy-five other children of about the same age, and had observed their behavior. She testified she had observed what she considered to be normal behavior among children of this age range and compared their performance with that of the victim. She testified that the victim was functioning at about the nine to eleven-year-old level and that she had real difficulty reading social situations or looking at a social situation and trying to figure out how it would be appropriate for her to behave or react or anything like that. Schultz testified the victim was not just a slow learner but was in fact mentally retarded. A slow learner, she testified, has more academic skills. A trial court, of course, has considerable discretion in the admission of expert testimony. See, e.g., State v. Halstead, 362 N.W.2d 504, 506 (Iowa 1985); State v. Hall, 297 N.W.2d 80, 86 (Iowa 1980). Moreover, to establish an abuse of discretion, it must be shown that it was exercised on grounds clearly untenable or clearly unreasonable. See State v. Pappas, 337 N.W.2d 490, 493 (Iowa 1983); State v. Morrison, 323 N.W.2d 254, 256 (Iowa 1982). Iowa Rule of Evidence 702, which embodies our prior case law, illustrates the broad scope of expert testimony. It provides: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise. The primary objection to the testimony of Patricia Schultz was that she was not qualified as an expert in her field. We disagree. Her present employment involves individual counseling with students, and most of her work is done in contact with persons of this victim's general age. Her training and experience, we believe, qualified her to testify to these observations. The second expert witness was Barbara Oleson, the school psychologist. As school psychologist, she evaluates students in the special education program, for purposes of placement. According to her testimony, the state of Iowa requires evaluations to be made every three years. These evaluations may or may not include psychological evaluations. Oleson testified that she last tested the IQ of the victim in September, 1982, over two years prior to the event in question. Based upon these tests, she determined that the full-scale IQ of the victim was sixty-four. This placed her in the mildly mentally retarded range. According to the witness, a child of the victim's age with an IQ below seventy is considered to be retarded. Based on her evaluation, Oleson testified that the victim would be functioning at the sixth grade skill level, at best, and probably at the third to fifth grade level. She also testified that, in the area of social interactions, she would perform like a ten to twelve-year-old. We have already noted the legal principles relating to expert testimony. Applying our rule of evidence 702, there seems to be no question about the potential of psychological evidence in the present case to assist the trier of fact. The victim's lack of mental capacity is a key element in the crime charged. See Iowa Code § 709.4(2). Chancy does not complain that the witness Oleson lacks training, education or experience in these matters. He complains that, in this case, the tests given to the victim were too remote in time. While this fact would necessarily affect the weight of the evidence, we do not believe it would impair its admissibility. Oleson testified on voir dire by defense counsel that, even though the evaluations were over two years old, they would nevertheless be of some assistance in determining the present mental condition of the victim. We conclude the court did not abuse its discretion in admitting this testimony. In passing, we note that these questions surrounding the admissibility of expert testimony are not controlled by our recent case State v. Myers, 382 N.W.2d 91 (Iowa 1986). In Myers, we held it was reversible error for the court to allow testimony by an expert to the effect that minor children of sex abuse crimes rarely lie in regard to the event. That case involved a direct comment by an expert on the credibility of a witness, a matter generally reserved for the trier of fact. Id. at 97. We do not have that situation here. We also noted in Myers that the testimony in question was not directed at a fact in issue, id. at 97. In contrast to Myers, the mental condition of the victim in this case is an element of the crime charged.