Opinion ID: 585691
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admission of expert testimony from forensic serologist

Text: 4 Lee argues that the district court committed reversible error in allowing the government's forensic serologist, Benita Harwood, to testify that intercourse could have occurred without subsequent detection of semen. A trial court's decision to admit expert testimony is reviewed for an abuse of discretion or 'manifest error' . United States v. Dorotich, 900 F.2d 192, 194 (9th Cir.1990) (quoting United States v. Binder, 769 F.2d 595, 601 (9th Cir.1985)). 5 Fed.R.Evid. 702 provides for the admission of expert testimony if scientific or other specialized training will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue. Admission of such testimony requires that the expert opinion be helpful to the trier of fact, United States v. Angiulo, 897 F.2d 1169, 1189 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 111 S.Ct. 130 (1990), and that the witness be qualified to give the testimony sought. Furthermore, an expert may testify about the limits of obtaining evidence. Cf. United States v. Christophe, 833 F.2d 1296, 1300 (9th Cir.1987) (affirming admission of FBI agent's testimony as to why latent fingerprints are obtained in only a small percentage of bank robbery cases); but cf. United States v. Booth, 669 F.2d 1231, 1240 (9th Cir.1981) (upholding exclusion on relevance grounds of criminologist's testimony explaining why no fingerprints were found). 6 Lee contends that Harwood's testimony should have been excluded because it was beyond the scope of her expertise. Cf. United States v. Marabelles, 724 F.2d 1374, 1381 (9th Cir.1984) (upholding exclusion of testimony from bank loan expert regarding costs of producing income absent showing that he was a tax expert). By opining on the possibility of penetration, a critical issue, the expert testimony allegedly prejudiced his right to a fair trial. 7 We disagree. The government sufficiently demonstrated that Harwood was qualified to testify that intercourse could have occurred without leaving evidence of semen. The government laid a foundation as to Harwood's expertise in the identification of blood and bodily fluids, including her thirteen years of experience as a forensic serologist and her training on blood and semen stain analysis. She had examined items of evidence for blood and body fluid stains thousands of times and had testified several hundred times as an expert in various courts. It was well within the district court's discretion to infer that the scope of her expertise in the identification of bodily fluids included knowledge of conditions under which such bodily fluids could not be identified. 8 Moreover, Harwood's testimony on this issue was probably helpful to the jury. As the government points out, it may not be easy for some laypersons to infer why no seminal fluid would be found if intercourse had taken place. Cf. Christophe, 833 F.2d at 1300 (expert testimony helpful where inference not so easy for jury to make). The possible reasons for the absence of seminal fluid in the victim's vaginal swabs, then, may have assisted the trier of fact in determining whether penetration had occurred. If the testimony was not helpful to the jury, it would be because the reasons for absence of semen where penetration has occurred are of such common knowledge that the jury could be assumed to be aware of the fact. The introduction of the evidence thus could not be prejudicial. In any event, the weight of the medical evidence indicated that penetration did occur, thereby rendering any error harmless.