Opinion ID: 874769
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Did the District Court Deprive Defendant of His Constitutional Right to Confront His Accuser?

Text: At the pretrial conference on May 14, 2008, Defendant stated that he wanted to exercise his right to represent himself and that he would like to be qualified on that as soon as possible, as far as competence. The court directed the court clerk to retrieve a book that apparently listed questions to ask in order to insure that there was a knowing and intelligent waiver of the right to counsel. While waiting for the clerk to return, the court asked the prosecutor if he wished to exercise the right of a victim witness to testify at a remote location, presumably pursuant to the Uniform Child Witness Testimony by Alternative Methods Act, I.C. §§ 9-1801 to 9-1808. When the prosecutor answered that he did not, the court stated: I just have a little bit of concern. If the defendant is going to represent himself, it's a bit unusual and perhaps creates a difficult situation if the alleged perpetrator is cross-examining the alleged victim who is a child of this age. I'm a little uneasy about that. The prosecutor responded, I appreciate the Court bringing that to the State's attention, because I do think that the Court is correct, that that would place the victim witness in this case in a precarious situation by being examined by the accused. The court then examined Defendant concerning his request to represent himself and concluded that Defendant made that choice knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. At the conclusion of the hearing, the prosecutor stated that he wanted to place the court on notice that the State would like the examination of the Child to be done at a remote location. The court responded that it would review the statute and they could address that. On June 10, 2008, the State filed a motion to prohibit Defendant from personally cross-examining Child and to have Defendant's standby counsel conduct the cross-examination. If the court denied that motion, the State requested as an alternative that Defendant be excluded from visual contact with Child and that cross-examination be conducted via audio technology. The motion was argued on July 2, 2008, and on August 28, 2008, the court issued its order stating that Child's testimony would be taken by alternative means outside the courtroom and that Defendant's standby counsel would conduct the cross-examination by reading questions prepared by Defendant. The court later entered an amended order specifying that Child would testify by closed circuit television from another room in the courthouse and that Mother, a victim witness coordinator, and a bailiff could be present in that room. It appears that Child testified by one-way closed circuit television, so that those in the courtroom could see Child on the television monitor, but Child could not see who was in the courtroom. Prior to Child's examination, the court also ordered that Defendant was not to speak directly to the court or Child during Child's testimony. If Defendant had any objection to testimony or to the prosecutor's questions, he was to reach over and touch the arm of his standby counsel. Defendant asserts that having child testify over closed circuit television violated Defendant's right of confrontation. However, he did not preserve that issue for appeal. At the hearing on July 2, 2008, the prosecutor proposed either that Child testify by closed circuit television or that cross-examination be conducted by Defendant's standby counsel asking questions written out by Defendant. In response, Defendant stated: The defense does not object to the identity of the defendant being concealed from the witness. To ease the witness's testimony, they can either alter my voice and [sic] not show myself to the witness. He then objected to not being permitted to conduct cross-examination by personally questioning Child as opposed to having to write out questions to be asked by his standby counsel. In the context of the two options proposed by the prosecutor, the Defendant's response was that he did not object to Child testifying by closed circuit television. Therefore, he cannot now raise that issue on appeal. Defendant also asserts that prohibiting him from conducting the cross-examination violated his right of confrontation. The Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution includes the right to cross-examine one's accusers. State v. Hooper, 145 Idaho 139, 176 P.3d 911 (2007) (holding that it was error to admit a video-taped interview of an alleged child victim of sexual abuse because the defendant was deprived of the right to cross-examine the child). The only person who could testify to the alleged sexual abuse was Child. Requiring Defendant to write out questions to be asked by someone else in order to cross-examine Child is a significant impairment of the right of confrontation. As Defendant argued in opposition to that proposal: And as far as I have to write down the question and then give it him, plus process it, what I want to ask. And that's while he's asking another question. And then I'm losing track of what's happening while he's speaking to the witness, and I'm not watching the witness to see if he'shis body language. As anyone who has conducted cross-examination would know, one must be able to listen to the answer and then, especially with young child, be able to reword the question or come up with another question based upon the answer. Cross-examination is often a fluid process, and the person forming the questions must be able to concentrate on the answers and what further questions are necessary to elicit the desired information. One result of the procedure required by the district court is that it would extend the time it would take to cross-examine Child. This is particularly significant with a young child who may have a short attention span. During direct examination, the prosecutor asked, [Child], can you pay attention over here? I know you want to color the Incredible Hulk. Can you pay attention to what I'm saying just for a second? Soon into the cross-examination, Defendant's standby attorney told the court that Defendant wanted to refresh Child's memory with portions of the preliminary hearing transcript. When the court responded that Child could not read, Defendant's standby counsel stated that Defendant wanted to make a motion. The court called a recess, and Defendant stated to the court that Defendant had previously filed a motion asking to have someone available to read portions of the transcript to Child for impeachment purposes and that the court had stated there would be someone who could do that. The court responded that at some point Defendant could put in Child's prior testimony for impeachment, but not now. When standby counsel asked the court how they would be able to impeach Child, the court told Defendant, [Child's] attention span has about had it, and we're going to get this done. The court then said that if there is a prior inconsistent statement by Child, Defendant could offer that later. The court added: We're not going to do it now, and we're not going to do it while the child's on the stand. So let's get on with questions, finish him up and get him out of here. After further discussion about how Defendant could present Child's testimony from the preliminary hearing, the court again admonished Defendant that the court was not going to allow extensive cross-examination of Child. Defendant answered, Okay. I'll do my best to cut it short. Standby counsel resumed cross-examination of Child, and after Child answered No to a series of questions about whether he remembered anything about the day they were talking about, standby counsel stated: [Child], can you sit up for just a minute? We're almost done buddy. You're doing really good. After some further questioning, Child fell asleep. We need not decide the circumstances that would permit a court to prevent a pro se defendant from personally cross examining the alleged child abuse victim. In Maryland v. Craig, 497 U.S. 836, 110 S.Ct. 3157, 111 L.Ed.2d 666 (1990), the Supreme Court held that where necessary to protect a child witness from trauma that would be caused by testifying in the physical presence of the defendant, at least where such trauma would impair the child's ability to communicate, the Confrontation Clause does not prohibit [having the child testify by one-way closed circuit television]. Id. at 857, 110 S.Ct. at 3170, 111 L.Ed.2d at 686. The Court added, the Confrontation Clause requires the trial court to make a specific finding that testimony by the child in the courtroom in the presence of the defendant would result in the child suffering serious emotional distress such that the child could not reasonably communicate. Id. at 858, 110 S.Ct. at 3170, 111 L.Ed.2d at 686-87 (emphasis in original). If, in order to have a child testify by closed circuit television, the Confrontation Clause requires a finding that the child testifying in the presence of the defendant would result in the child suffering serious emotional distress such that the child could not reasonably communicate, then there must be a similar finding that such trauma would result merely from hearing the defendant's voice in order to prohibit a defendant from personally cross-examining the child while the child is on closed circuit television. In this case, the district court found that there was clear and convincing evidence that Child would suffer serious emotional trauma that would substantially impair Child's ability to communicate if he were to testify in the presence of Defendant. On that basis, the court ordered that Child would testify on closed circuit television. The court then assumed that Child would suffer similar trauma if he merely heard Defendant's voice. Because there are no facts supporting the first finding, there are likewise no facts supporting the assumption. There was no expert testimony presented regarding the effect, if any, upon Child if he testified in the presence of Defendant. In its order, the court wrote that the finding was based upon Mother's testimony that [Child] has suffered from nightmares about Defendant, and [Child] himself has testified that Defendant told [Child] not to tell anyone about the incident. Mother did not testify that Child suffered from nightmares (plural) about Defendant. She testified that during the night following the alleged incident, Child awakened at about 4:30 a.m. and said he had a nightmare about Defendant. There was no evidence that he had any other nightmares regarding Defendant during the ensuing year until trial. Likewise, Child did not testify that Defendant told him not to tell anyone about the incident. Rather, Child testified during the preliminary hearing that Defendant put his hand over Child's mouth while they were in the bedroom because Defendant did not want anyone to know. In addition, Child testified in the presence of Defendant during the preliminary hearing, and there is no contention that Child was unable to communicate or that he suffered trauma while testifying. Since there was no evidence supporting the use of closed-circuit television, there was clearly no evidence supporting the order preventing Defendant from personally cross-examining Child. There was also no evidence indicating that if Defendant were permitted to conduct the cross-examination, he would seek to intimidate or embarrass Child or otherwise abuse the right of cross-examination. If he did so, the Court could take appropriate action. The district court infringed upon Defendant's right to cross-examine Child.