Opinion ID: 1461893
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Precluding Impeachment by Using Specific Instances of the Victim's Mental Health History

Text: Finally, the defendant objects to the trial justice's precluding his use at trial of certain aspects of the victim's mental-health history to impeach her credibility. He insists that these references to certain specific instances from the victim's medical history would show her past mental instability and her tendency to react in dramatic, threatening, and vengeful ways because of the serious trauma and abuse she suffered as a child. The trial justice excluded this evidence because the medical records in question pertained to the complainant's treatment for depression at the age of fifteen. Thus, they predated the time of the alleged offense in this case by more than ten years and had no demonstrable bearing on the state of mind of the victim at any time relevant to this case or on any other issues pertaining to the allegations in question. Last term, this Court ruled that mental-health records evincing a complainant's attempted suicide that were created some three years after the alleged sexual assault at issue were not admissible to impeach the witness's credibility because the records were irrelevant to her state of mind at the time of the alleged sexual assault at issue in the trial. State v. Rice, 755 A.2d 137, 152 (R.I.2000). Obviously, Rice involved the victim's later mental-health problems, whereas this case implicates previous mental-health issues. This factual distinction does not, however, prevent us from applying the same reasoning we used in Rice to affirm the trial justice's decision to bar such evidence to prevent jury confusion. A colloquy that took place between defendant's counsel and the trial justice on this issue illustrates why the trial justice did not abuse his discretion in excluding this evidence. The defendantargued that the records in question would affect the jury's ability to assess the complainant's credibility as a witness. In response to this argument, the trial justice stated: Well, the medicals, so far as I'm aware, let's take the one going back to when she was fifteen years old and had some sort of suicide attempt or so-called suicidal ideation, as I do not believe those records indicate that she was some sort of a chronic or pathological liar or was delusional at that time. I mean, even if she were, we would have to have, I think, some indication that her delusions resurfaced periodically in the intervening years. But, that having been said, the records do not, unless you disabuse me of this by pointing me to a specific point in the records, the records do not show that she was running around coming up with fantasies or delusions of stating falsehoods, especially falsehoods accusing people of doing something harmful to her. I mean, is that not so  is there anything in the records that show that she was saying people were doing things harmful to her? The defendant's lawyer responded to the trial justice's question by stating Judge, those records would not indicate that. The test we articulated in Rice was to ask whether the proffered evidence would be relevant to the witness's state of mind when the incident in question allegedly occurred. Here, the mental health records about a teenage suicide attempt that the defense sought to use in cross examining the victim referred to an incident that was many years removed from any event at issue in this case. Evidence of severe mental illness suffered many years before the accusation at issue, like evidence of mental illness suffered years later, was not shown to be relevant to the witness's state of mind when the alleged sexual assault occurred or when she testified at the trial  at least in the absence of any evidence linking these episodes to the victim's mental-health conditions at the time of the alleged rape, when she first accused the defendant, or when she was testifying at trial. Mere lack of treatment for this illness does not mean that the illness necessarily continued and persisted during any time relevant to this case. Likewise, evidence of the victim's visit to a mental health facility at age twenty one for treatment of depression wasalso irrelevant for the same reasons. This evidence, like the other excluded material, would have served only to confuse the jury and improperly impeach the victim's character with specific instances of previous bad conduct. Thus, the trial justice did not abuse his discretion in precluding the defendant from using it to impeach the complaining witness's credibility.