Court Opinion

ID: 9697729
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:27:49.26015+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:34.961246
License: Public Domain

*298LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent.
The issue presented by this appeal is whether the trial court erred in permitting an expert to testify about rape trauma syndrome as it relates to a sexual assault victim’s ability to identify her attacker.
The victim in this case is a schoolteacher who was in her late forties at the time of the incident in question. She had formerly been a nun living in a convent for over twenty-five years, but she was living alone in northeast Philadelphia on the night of November 26, 1977. At approximately 2:20 a.m., appellant, Anthony Gallagher, posing as a police officer, gained entrance to the victim’s home by means of a ruse. The victim became suspicious when she smelled alcohol on appellant’s breath, and, when she challenged him, he grabbed her and began his terrorizing assault. First choking and threatening the victim, appellant raped the victim and then forced her to remove her night clothes. When she knelt to pray, appellant forced the victim to perform oral sex. The assault continued for thirty to forty minutes.
The victim reported the attack to the police and described her assailant as one of the men who had been in her home earlier that year to give her an estimate on installing glass box windows. At that time, appellant had identified himself as Anthony Gallagher and had claimed to be “with the police.” Two weeks after the .rape, the victim was shown a photographic display containing appellant’s picture, and she was given the opportunity to see him in person at the police station. The victim testified that she could not look at appellant, even though she was in the safety of the police station, and that all she wanted to do was to get away from appellant. The face-to-face confrontation was not conducted as a formal line-up. The victim viewed appellant across a police captain’s desk. The victim told the police at that time that appellant looked, acted and talked like her attacker, but that his hair and mustache were not the same as her *299attacker’s. The victim did not make a positive identification.
Immediately following the attack and during subsequent years, the victim exhibited the phobic and obsessive behavior commonly experienced by rape victims. For example, she thought she saw her attacker everywhere, she slept fully dressed, and she circled the block carefully before entering her home. Anxious to see her assailant apprehended, the victim remained in contact with the police. Over four years after the attack and following a similar attack on another victim, the police again presented the victim with a photographic display. The victim made a positive identification of appellant at this time.
Appellant was arrested in February of 1982, and was tried for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. The statute of limitations had expired on all other related charges. During appellant’s trial before á jury in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, the trial court, over objection, permitted Dr. Ann Burgess 1 to testify about rape trauma syndrome and how it would relate to the victim’s ability to identify her attacker. The defense in the case was misidentification. Dr. Burgess offered no opinion or comment as to the victim’s truthfulness or the accuracy of her identification. Nor did Dr. Burgess discuss the particular circumstances of the failed or successful identifications made by the victim. Dr. Burgess did testify that rape victims are generally subject to phobias immediately after an attack and will seek to avoid anything in their environment that will remind them of the attack. In the opinion of Dr. Burgess, the victim in the instant action was suffering from rape trauma syndrome.
Appellant was found guilty and, following the denial of his post-trial motions, appellant was sentenced to serve a ten to twenty year term of imprisonment. This sentence *300was to run consecutively to other sentences being served by appellant. Appellant had previously been convicted of perjury and impersonating a police officer. He had also been convicted of rape and had been sentenced to a seven and one-half to twenty-three year term of imprisonment. As in the case now before the Court, appellant had also used a ruse late at night to enter the home of an older, unmarried schoolteacher who also lived alone in northeast Philadelphia.
On appeal of the within case, a divided panel of Superior Court affirmed, finding that the trial court properly admitted the expert testimony in that “this testimony did not invade the province of the jury by impermissibly bolstering the complainant’s credibility.” 353 Pa.Super. 426, 444, 510 A.2d 735, 744 (1986). I agree and would affirm the order of Superior Court.
Trial courts have broad discretion with regard to evidentiary questions and will not be reversed in the absence of a clear abuse of discretion. Commonwealth v. Cargo, 498 Pa. 5, 444 A.2d 639 (1982). Expert testimony is permitted as an aid to the jury where the subject is beyond the knowledge or experience of the average layman. Commonwealth v. O’Searo, 466 Pa. 224, 352 A.2d 30 (1976). The average juror does not know about the psychological and behavioral impact of rape on a rape victim. Indeed, many jurors bring to the courtroom the myths about rape which had long influenced our courts as they applied “special” rules of evidence only to rape cases. See Matter of Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, 494 Pa. 15, 428 A.2d 126 (1981) (Larsen, J., dissenting).
I agree that an expert witness may not testify to the truthfulness of a witness without impermissibly invading the province of the jury. Commonwealth v. Seese, 512 Pa. 439, 517 A.2d 920 (1986) (Larsen, J., concurring). Dr. Burgess, however, did not testify to the truthfulness of the victim. Dr. Burgess described rape trauma syndrome, a posttraumatic stress disorder recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, and explained that the phobias and *301behavioral changes experienced by rape victims can influence their ability to identify their attackers. Clearly, this information was beyond the ordinary training, knowledge, intelligence and experience of the ordinary juror and assisted the jury in assessing the testimony of the victim who had accounted for her inability to make a positive identification two weeks after she was raped.
Dr. Burgess did not state that “the [victim’s] in-court identification five years later is particularly credible, as it results from a flashback, with the mind operating like a computer.” Maj. op. at 358. With reference to the expert testimony quoted by the majority, it is clear that Dr. Burgess was explaining to the jury why the victim was still subject to a “flood of emotions” when something in the victim’s environment triggered a flashback. The environmental stimulus responsible for such a flashback would, of course, include the presence of the attacker. Dr. Burgess did not say, however, that only the attacker could trigger a flashback. In fact, the victim testified that she was frequently subjected to overwhelming emotional flashbacks when she saw people who reminded her of appellant. Notes of Testimony at 4.60 (March 3, 1983).
The courts in other jurisdictions have permitted expert testimony that relates to the ability of a sexual assault victim to perceive, recall or relate. See, e.g., State v. Staples, 120 N.H. 278, 415 A.2d 320 (1980); State v. Harwood, 45 Or.App. 931, 609 P.2d 1312 (1980). As noted by Mr. Justice Papadakos in his disseiting opinion hereto, Superior Court has upheld the admissibility of such testimony in Commonwealth v. Baldwin, 348 Pa.Super. 368, 502 A.2d 253 (1985), particularly where the expert testimony is introduced in cases involving sexual assault.
Accordingly, I would affirm the order of Superior Court, affirming the judgment of sentence.

. Dr. Burgess, a nurse with a master's degree in psychiatric nursing and a doctorate in nursing science, co-authored an article in 1974 which first identified and labelled rape trauma syndrome. Burgess and Holmstrom, Rape Trauma Syndrome, 131 J. Psychiatry 981 (1974).