Court Opinion

ID: 9657040
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:11:27.571561+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:40.116817
License: Public Domain

SIMONETT, Justice
(dissenting).
I join Justice Tomljanovich’s dissent. In this instance, with credibility of the two main actors critical, to permit the complaining witness to appear “live” in the jury room (by video), alone with the jurors, with no one present to at least remind the jurors of another side to the case, was prejudicial error.
In my view, the Frye test is not applicable to the behavioral sciences, and, therefore, defendant was not entitled to a Frye hearing even if he had asked for one. See People v. Beckley, 434 Mich. 691, 456 N.W.2d 391 (1990). When a new device or technique in the hard sciences seeks admission in the courts (such as deoxyribonucleic acid testing), Frye requires a threshold hearing to decide if the scientific basis for the new development — a basis unlikely to be understood by those without the necessary scientific expertise — is reliable.
Studies in the behavioral sciences showing that sexually abused children are more likely than other children to draw genitalia on human figures involves a different order of reliability; if this information is helpful within the meaning of Rule 702 (and its probative worth outweighs any prejudice), it may be admitted in evidence. If the trial court had refused to admit the expert testimony with its rather problematical conclusions, I would have affirmed. On the other hand, I think the record made here, particularly in view of the somewhat belated and misfocused objections, extended the range of the trial court's discretion *518so that allowance of the expert testimony is also affirmable.