Opinion ID: 2570148
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Deborah Chiba

Text: Deborah Chiba, defendant's aunt, was an emergency room nurse. She was allowed to testify extensively about her own and others' experiences growing up in the trailer park. When Chiba was six, she was called to the front of a prayer meeting, and asked to sit in Mercer's lap to tell him her sins. After she reported minor infractions, Mercer asked Chiba if she had ever improperly touched her private parts or those of her brothers. In particular, he inquired whether she had ever put her mouth on her brothers' genitalia or they on hers. She repeatedly denied this had happened. Thereafter, Chiba was singled out for mistreatment, removed from her family, and placed in a different home. One day she was told she needed to be examined for worms. A nurse thoroughly examined her while Mercer watched. Her parents were not present. A few days later Chiba was brought to the dining hall, where Mercer announced to everyone that the nurse's examination had indicated Chiba was a dirty little girl who liked to play with herself. He called Chiba a whore and a lesbian. In second grade, Chiba suddenly and falsely accused the school janitor of pulling her panties down when she was on the playground. She maintained that story, and it solidified in everyone's mind the idea that she really was a nasty little girl. She made the accusation because she felt violated by the nurse's examination, and could not accuse the people she looked up to. Chiba was sometimes whipped for minor infractions. Once her brother Johnny was beaten until he bled. In 1971, the year defendant was born, Chiba was about 10 years old. Mercer ordered that her hair be cut off to punish her because he had had a vision from God that she was being sexually inappropriate with young children. Chiba was beaten and forced to wear masculine clothes that covered much of her body, hiding her bruises. Her fingertips were burned so she would know what hell felt like. In 1973, Mercer moved Chiba to defendant's family. She stayed there until the park dissolved in 1975. Chiba also testified about the animosity between the Daultons and Lokers, and the cult's emphasis on early marriage, derogation of education, and disdain for persons outside the church. Defendant contends the trial court erroneously sustained two objections. First, defense counsel asked Chiba whether as she was growing up she noticed the effect of their religion, as her father taught it, on her sister Marietta. The trial court sustained the prosecutor's objection on Evidence Code section 352 and relevance grounds, and because it called for speculation. Chiba also testified that years later she had cared for Mercer as a student nurse when he was dying. Defense counsel asked, Had he been, to your knowledge, abusing drugs? The trial court sustained a relevance objection. Both rulings were proper. They did not prevent defendant from presenting evidence regarding life in the park and its effect on extended family members. To the contrary, Chiba's expansive testimony developed this aspect of defendant's case in great detail.