Opinion ID: 201283
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sexual Abuse Finding

Text: 13 The original district order court found that a forensic examination would be needed to determine the sexual abuse question and that the Swedish courts, acting under conditions set for return of the children, could determine what to do after a forensic examination was done in Sweden. We disagreed. In Danaipour I, 286 F.3d at 26, we noted that on remand, if necessary, the district court should order further evaluations, but we did not mandate any particular method by which the district court should address the two questions of whether there had been sexual abuse and whether there was grave risk. 14 On remand, the district court decided that a new trial should be held to determine whether sexual abuse occurred. The court also decided that an independent expert evaluation should be attempted as to whether either girl had been sexually abused, mindful that this belated evaluation might prove to be inconclusive and of the potential trauma to the children. The court appointed an independent child psychologist, Dr. Claudette Pierre, to perform a sexual abuse evaluation of the girls. Dr. Pierre spoke with both girls, the parents, reviewed the file, and filed a report. Dr. Pierre concluded that A.D. had not been abused. Dr. Pierre also found that C.D. had in fact been traumatized by some events, most likely sexual in nature, but that Dr. Pierre could not conclusively determine whether C.D.'s father had in fact sexually abused her. 15 The parties agreed that the children should not testify. In conducting the trial, the court elected to have the parties submit affidavits for each of their witnesses as direct testimony, and cross examination was done of these witnesses on the stand. The parties had the opportunity to object to evidence in the affidavits. 16 Danaipour made a general unspecified objection to hearsay evidence in the affidavits of McLarey's witnesses. The court then asked for the objection to be stated more specifically in writing. The court said it would allow the testimony and cross examination, but would consider the written objection and whether to credit the evidence when deciding the merits of the case. 17 Danaipour then filed a motion objecting only to any double hearsay, specifically referring to statements in the psychologists' reports by family members recounting to the doctors what the children had said to them. Petitioner conceded that statements made by the children to the psychologists were admissible under Fed. R.Evid. § 803(4), and conceded that statements made by the children to family members were arguably admissible under Fed.R.Evid. § 807 (and in any event did not challenge these statements, and does not do so here). After the trial, the district court found: 18 by clear and convincing evidence that sexual abuse of C.D., who was slightly younger than two and one-half years old at the time, involving more than one occasion of masturbation by and of Danaipour in the presence of and involving C.D. took place during this period of alternating supervision in the fall of 2000. I find further that this abuse stopped once a police investigation began at the end of November 2000. At least one act of abuse involved C.D. touching her father's erect penis and led to her touching his ejaculant. At least one other such act involved digital masturbation of C.D. by Danaipour. 19 The judge found the disclosures of the children to McLarey, her then-boyfriend Morin, and the children's grandmother to be credible. In doing so, however, the court noted that it found pertinent Danaipour's expert's cautionary observations that a custodial parent in the context of a divorce may misinterpret behavior and symptoms of the child upon returning from a visit with the non-custodial parent. The court noted that it was especially concerned that the reports of commentary by the children may have been overstated or manipulated. With this concern in mind, the court found these statements, given by the witnesses through their affidavits and subject to cross examination, to be credible. The court also used the indicia of credibility for statements by sexually abused children submitted to the court by McLarey's expert, Dr. Carole Jenny. 20 The court also found highly persuasive the disclosures made by C.D. to Dr. Luxenberg and Dr. Pierre. The court found that C.D.'s multiple disclosures to Dr. Luxenberg unambiguously demonstrated that C.D. associated the word hammer with masturbation, and that these references demonstrate that there were multiple occasions of her participating in masturbation of Danaipour and his masturbation of her. The court expressly considered the concern of Danaipour's expert that these disclosures were tainted by inquiries by McLarey or Dr. Luxenberg, and found that C.D.'s recollection was not materially tainted or otherwise the product of suggestion. The district court found that the characters and themes developed by C.D. through her play therapy with Dr. Luxenberg were used by her as a means to express and disclose the abusive circumstances to which she has been exposed, and her reaction to those circumstances. We note only that our discussion does not repeat all the evidence on which the conclusion was based. Further, despite the fact that Dr. Pierre's ultimate conclusion was inconclusive as to whether C.D. had been sexually abused by her father, the court found that the corroborative disclosure from C.D. obtained by Dr. Pierre supported its finding, based on all the evidence, that C.D. had been abused by her father.