Court Opinion

ID: 9658547
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:04:36.469721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:56.579246
License: Public Domain

HUSPENI, Judge
(dissenting)
I respectfully dissent and would affirm appellant’s conviction. I share the majority’s observation that the system is faced with a dilemma when sexual abuse of a child is alleged. In addition, I believe the dilemma is even greater when the alleged perpetrator in a charge of sexual abuse is a natural parent in a family torn by the strife of the breakdown of the relationship of a child’s parents. However, I feel compelled to disagree with the majority’s analysis of the issues and with its ultimate determination that a new trial is needed.
I.
For the sake of further analysis, I agree with the majority that Ann Greenwald’s testimony, purporting to interpret the drawings of the minor child, was erroneously received into evidence. However, I do not believe that permitting such testimony was error of such magnitude as to require a new trial.
*354Appellant’s primary challenge of Ann Greenwald concerned her qualification as an expert. Although that challenge was unsuccessful, full cross-examination of this witness was demonstrated in 38 pages of the trial transcript.
II.
Appellant stipulated to entry of the videotape as an exhibit. Under the rules, exhibits generally go to the jury. Minn.R. Crim. P. 26.03, subd. 19(1). Thus, appellant’s stipulation does not strongly argue in favor of finding submission of the tape to the jury to be error.1
I submit that the question of whether certain evidence received “undue prominence” has merit only in those cases in which the challenged evidence was not properly available to the jurors as an exhibit. The record before us in this matter does not demonstrate that the videotape was received as anything other than an exhibit.
Further, the videotape had essentially the same content (that appellant abused M.K.) as the testimony of a number of state witnesses, including Dr. Levitt and the victim herself. Therefore, I conclude that by permitting the jury to view the challenged videotape, the trial court at worst permitted the jury to consider cumulative evidence.
Also, if the majority is correct that the videotape “demonstrates suggestion and a lack of flexibility [during Dr. Levitt’s] interacting with the child,” the feared undue emphasis on the tape would also emphasize the questionable nature of the interview, potentially discrediting both the interview and Dr. Levitt’s subsequent testimony based on that interview. Thus, the result of sending the tape to the jury would weaken rather than strengthen the state’s case.
Finally, in State v. Ross, 451 N.W.2d 231 (Minn.App.1990), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. Apr. 13, 1990), a similar sexual abuse case cited by the majority, the jury requested review of the victim’s testimony, the examining doctor’s testimony and the videotape of the doctor’s interview of the victim. All requests were granted and this court affirmed, stating:
Since the jury’s broad request did not unfairly highlight a portion of the evidence, granting the request simply enabled the jury to take greater care in evaluating the evidence.
Ross, 451 N.W.2d at 237. No abuse of discretion was found in Ross despite the fact that all reviewed evidence was state’s evidence. Here the jury was permitted to review only a fraction of the quantity of state’s evidence reviewed in Ross. I find no abuse of discretion in this case.
III.
Finally, I believe the evidence was sufficient to sustain a jury finding of guilt. While another jury presented with the evidence in this case might have judged credibility of the witnesses differently and returned a verdict of not guilty, we in this court cannot function as that other jury. We must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the state.
Here there was testimony by several witnesses that M.K. related incidents of sexual abuse to them. Further, the most important witness to take the stand, I submit, was M.K. herself, who stated that she was abused and that appellant was the abuser. See Minn.Stat. § 609.347, subd. 1 (1988) (“In a prosecution [for criminal sexual conduct] the testimony of the victim need not be corroborated”). In many sexual child abuse cases the alleged victim is not competent to testify in court and all evidence is of necessity presented by others. Such was not the case here. The jury saw and heard M.K. and judged her credibility as well as the credibility of all other witnesses. Based on that evidence, the jury found *355the appellant guilty of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree. We must respect that determination.

. Even assuming as does the majority that the videotape interview is testimonial in nature, a prior, out-of-court statement by M.K. would be admissible under various provisions including Minn.Stat. § 595.02, subd. 3 (1988). That statute admits
an out-of-court statement made by a child under the age of ten years * * * alleging, explaining * * * or describing any act of sexual contact * * * performed with or on the child * * *.