Opinion ID: 47622
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Cross-examination of the victim

Text: 25 A district court's limitation of cross-examination of a witness is reviewed for abuse of discretion. United States v. Davis, 393 F.3d 540, 548 (5th Cir.2004). Abuse-of-discretion review is only invoked if the limitation did not curtail the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses. See id. Whether a defendant's Sixth Amendment rights were violated is reviewed de novo. Wilkerson v. Cain, 233 F.3d 886, 890 (5th Cir.2000). 26 Both Hitt and Causey argue that the district court unconstitutionally limited the scope of their cross-examinations of AV. They argue that they should have been allowed to cross-examine AV about a prior instance of sexual abuse that had been perpetrated on AV by Chris Reynolds. Before trial, Hitt and Causey moved to admit evidence of the Reynolds abuse under Federal Rule of Evidence 412. 9 The defendants sought to introduce the evidence for two purposes: (1) to impeach AV's credibility by pointing out inconsistencies in AV's statements regarding the type of sexual abuse that Hitt and Causey perpetrated 10 and (2) to impeach AV's credibility by challenging AV's statement that he did not come forward sooner because he feared reporting the abuse. 11 The district court excluded the Reynolds abuse evidence under Rule 412 and disallowed any reference to it during the trial, including the cross-examination of AV. 27 A defendant is entitled to an opportunity for effective cross-examination, not cross-examination that is effective in whatever way, and to whatever extent, the defense might wish. Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 679, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986) (internal quotation omitted). The Confrontation Clause ... is satisfied where defense counsel has been permitted to expose to the jury the facts from which jurors, as the sole triers of fact and credibility, could appropriately draw inferences relating to the reliability of the witness. United States v. Restivo, 8 F.3d 274, 278 (5th Cir.1993) (internal quotation omitted). A defendant's right to cross-examine a witness, however, is not unlimited. Trial courts retain wide discretion to limit reasonably a criminal defendant's right to cross-examine a witness `based on concerns about, among other things, harassment, prejudice, confusion of the issues, the witness' safety, or interrogation that is repetitive or only marginally relevant.' Michigan v. Lucas, 500 U.S. 145, 149, 111 S.Ct. 1743, 114 L.Ed.2d 205 (1991) (quoting Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. at 679, 106 S.Ct. 1431). 28 The government essentially argues that the district court was correct in concluding that the evidence of AV's prior sexual acts is only marginally relevant and that introduction of such evidence would be prejudicial and cause jury confusion. We agree. The government points out that the district court concluded that Hitt and Causey's contention that AV reported the instance of sexual abuse with Reynolds was factually inaccurate because AV affirmatively reported the incident only after he was approached by investigators who were responding to complaints from other alleged victims of sexual abuse by Reynolds. Hitt sought to impeach AV's credibility by introducing prejudicial sex act evidence that is only marginally relevant to AV's credibility. That AV was previously sexually abused by Reynolds and discussed it with authorities only after being approached by authorities about the matter has little bearing on whether AV was truthful in his allegations that Hitt and Causey sexually abused him. Similarly, that Reynolds was willing to testify that he only engaged in oral sex with AV is only marginally relevant to whether AV was truthful in his sexual abuse allegations respecting Hitt and Causey. Moreover, allowing this line of questioning would have led to introduction of testimony, through re-direct of AV and, perhaps, through cross-examination of Reynolds, that Reynolds abused AV not just orally but also anally. The district court's decision to disallow the Reynolds abuse evidence and to limit the cross-examination of AV on the topic avoided the confusion and prejudice that would have inevitably resulted from examining the facts surrounding the Reynolds sexual abuse. See United States v. Tail, 459 F.3d 854, 861 (8th Cir.2006) (Admission of [prior sexual abuse allegations] would have triggered mini-trials concerning allegations unrelated to [the present] case, ... increas[ing] the danger of jury confusion and speculation.). 29 Other circuits have held that evidence of prior sex acts of alleged victims of a sexual assault can be excluded without violating the Sixth Amendment when defendants seek to introduce such evidence to impeach the victim or to otherwise diminish the victim's credibility. See United States v. Powell, 226 F.3d 1181, 1199 (10th Cir.2000) (rejecting a defendant's constitutional challenge to a district court's exclusion of evidence the purpose of which was to rebut inferences that the victim was naive, innocent, or unsophisticated); United States v. White Buffalo, 84 F.3d 1052, 1053-54 (8th Cir.1996) (holding that a defendant's Confrontation Clause rights were not violated when the district court excluded testimony and evidence that might impeach the victim's truthfulness and ... show her capability to fabricate a story about the rape). We hold that the district court did not violate the Confrontation Clause by limiting the cross-examination of AV. 30 This holding is supported by a recent Fifth Circuit decision in United States v. Jimenez, 464 F.3d 555 (5th Cir.2006). There, this court held that the Confrontation Clause was violated when the district court prohibited the defendant from questioning the only witness as to Jimenez's alleged drug sales by disallowing a line of questions that was the only way to test the reliability of [the witness's] testimony. Id. at 561. Here, Hitt and Causey were permitted to cross-examine AV, thereby impeaching AV's credibility. During that cross-examination, counsel asked AV about past events and certain inconsistencies between AV's testimony and his prior statements. For instance, Causey's counsel asked AV about being arrested for running away from home, about an inconsistency between a prior statement by AV and his testimony regarding Hitt and Causey's attempt to have AV sleep in their room at the Shreveport hotel, about an inconsistency between AV's prior statement to a social worker regarding the duration of the abuse and AV's testimony at trial regarding the same, and about various other alleged inconsistencies between statements AV made to investigators about Hitt and Causey's abuse of him and other evidence introduced at trial. Causey's counsel also questioned AV about what the defendants characterized as a motive for AV to lie about Hitt and Causey's abuse, i.e., that AV's guardian, Charlene Rushing, prohibited AV from seeing one of AV's friends, which allegedly caused AV to seek revenge by falsely accusing Hitt, who was one of Rushing's close friends, of sexual abuse. Moreover, unlike in Jimenez, while AV was certainly an important witness for the government, he was not the only witness. Testimony from other witnesses indicated that AV's injuries were consistent with sexual abuse, that Hitt and Causey had engaged in activities consistent with the grooming process, that Hitt had confessed to engaging in illicit sexual activity with AV both in Shreveport and in Mississippi, and that Hitt and Causey had engaged in sexual conduct with David Moore that was conducted in the same manner as with AV. 31