Opinion ID: 729726
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Rejection by the Trial Court of Testimony regarding inter-child sexual activity

Text: 113 The defendants sought to introduce testimony regarding substantial inter-child sexual activity by and between the children in question and other children in Marty, South Dakota on the reservation. Particularly, an eleven-year-old boy who lived in the Rouse home told investigators that he and T.R. had sex for a long time, and other children corroborated this testimony. Also, during the trial, government evidence surfaced showing that T.R. also had engaged in sexual relations with another boy. This evidence was not placed in front of the jury however. 114 The children themselves provided a source of this information because after weeks of interrogation and counselling, the sex abuse accusations expanded to include all sorts of family members including the grandmother. This well may have been fantasy and bears on the reliability of the government's case against these defendants. 115 Although defendants intimated that they would be presenting evidence generally of inter-child sexual activity and accusations of sexual abuse by non-defendant family members in several motions, the defendants did not file a formal motion as required by Federal Rule of Evidence 412. 17 116 The day before the trial, the government filed a motion in limine to prevent defendants from presenting such evidence because of the absence of a formal Rule 412 motion. The defendants responded by then filing the 412 motion, claiming they had not received some of the relevant evidence, including L.R.'s representations that everybody was having sex with everybody else in the house -- particularly that she was having sexual relations with her grandmother -- until the government filed its motion. The district court denied the motion for absence of timeliness. 117 While that ruling can be approved based on the record in this case, the issue is troubling because that sort of evidence would have cast additional light on whether the alleged medical evidence of sexual abuse could be attributed to sources other than the charged defendants. This sort of evidence may be constitutionally required. United States v. Bear Stops, 997 F.2d 451 (8th Cir. 1993) (reversing conviction where district court limited admission of evidence relating to previous sexual assault on victim to establish alternative explanation for why victim exhibited behavior of sexually abused child). 118 Turning to Federal Rule of Evidence 412, that rule permits the filing of a 412 motion during trial for good cause. See Rule 412(c)(1)(A). Where the government only gave the defendants the FBI report regarding the second boy during the trial, the district court's refusal to allow the defendants to present testimonial evidence kept important information, helpful to defendants, from the jury. 119 The trial court might have granted the belated Rule 412 motion. Nevertheless, we cannot say that the trial judge abused his discretion in strictly following the language of the statute in requiring fifteen days advance notice to present the evidence. Inasmuch as we grant a new trial on other grounds, the untimeliness issue should not arise on the new trial. 120