Court Opinion

ID: 9683843
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:37:57.995935+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:50.607366
License: Public Domain

JOSEPH M. ELLIS, Judge,
concurring opinion.
I concur in the result reached by the majority. Contrary to the majority position, however, I find the admission of the child’s out-of-court statements to Cindy Sackrey and Barbara Oliver was open and obvious error. Nevertheless, I concur in the result because Wyble cannot demonstrate the requisite prejudice required under our standard for plain error review.
In State v. Justus, 205 S.W.3d 872 (Mo. banc 2006), the appellant was convicted of sexually abusing his three-year-old daughter based on the hearsay statements of the child. Id. at 874-75. At trial, the child’s mother and grandmother, as well as a Division of Family Services (DFS) child abuse investigator, Cynthia Debey, and a social worker, Joyce Estes, that the child was referred to by DFS, testified as to the child’s out-of-court statements. Id. at 875-77. Justus properly challenged and preserved the admission of the testimony of Debey and Estes on the basis of Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). Id. at 878. The Missouri Supreme Court found that the child’s statements to Debey and Estes were “testimonial” in the Crawford sense. Id. at 881. Because Justus had not been given a prior opportunity to cross-examine the child, the Court unanimously held that it was error to admit the testimony of Debey and Estes as to the child’s out-of-court statements. Id. at 880-81. This holding was based on the following facts: (a) the statements were not made in the middle of an emergency situation; (b) the statements detailed past events about what Justus had done; and (c) the statements were made in circumstances indicating that the primary purpose was to establish or prove past events. Id. at 880-81.
In the instant appeal, the child made out-of-court statements to the mother and grandmother, as well as Cindy Sackrey, an Emergency Room nurse at Hedrick Medical Center, and Barbara Oliver, a clinical social worker. I address only the testimony of Ms. Sackrey and Ms. Oliver about the statements made by the child to them.
In Justus, our Supreme Court made it clear that a significant distinction between testimonial and non-testimonial statements is whether they were made in circumstances where there was an on going emergency and they were necessary to secure assistance. Id. at 880. If so, they are to be treated as non-testimonial. On the other hand, if there is no emergency or immediate threat, and the statements are elicited in response to questions about what had happened, they are testimonial. Id. In evaluating the circumstances in Jus-tus, the Court noted that the statements in that case were not made “in the midst of an ‘on going emergency.’ ” Id. The child was not in any immediate danger, she was speaking about past events. Id. The statements to the DFS investigator, Debey, and the social worker, Estes, were made in a formal setting with a question-and-answer format. Id. at 880. Debey was acting as an investigator for DFS, and “[although Estes [was] not a government worker, she was acting as a government agent when she interviewed [the child], as the division *134of family services made the referral to Estes....” Id.
Using this analysis, I would readily concede that statements made to an Emergency Room nurse would typically be non-testimonial, because they would be made in an emergency situation so as to permit medical staff to provide assistance. In this case, however, there was no emergency. Hedrick Medical Center is a government owned and funded institution in Chilli-cothe, Missouri. Cindy Sackrey works at Hedrick. She is the Emergency Room nurse who testified about the child victim’s visits to the ER and the child’s hearsay statements made during those visits. It is apparent from Saekrey’s testimony that children with allegations of sexual abuse are routinely seen in the Hedrick Emergency Room. It is also clear from the record that a significant purpose of the question-and-answer session between the staff, the child, and the mother went beyond diagnosing and treating the child’s condition.1 The child was being seen at the Emergency Room days or even weeks after the abuse for non-life threatening physical conditions presumably related to the prior abuse. The child was being asked about past events, and Ms. Sackrey specifically testified that she and Dr. Campbell were “trying to document as thoroughly as possible.”
In the case of Barbara Oliver, as in Justus, the Division of Family Services (DFS) referred the child to Ms. Oliver. She is a clinical social worker, who testified as to the child’s statements to her. Ms. Oliver was to do an assessment, whereby she would see the child five to ten times. She actually saw the child on two occasions. There was no on-going emergency either time. The interviews occurred in the formal setting of her office. In advance of seeing the child, she received and reviewed a history of the allegations from DFS. She admitted seeking to determine whether abuse had taken place. She used the name “Josh” as a cue when interviewing the child, and the child was being asked about past events. When asked how many three-year-olds, or children close to that age, she had interviewed and assessed, she testified that it was probably “20, 25 — 20 to 50. I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of cases.”
*135It is apparent from the testimony of Ms. Saekrey and Ms. Oliver that they are both frequently involved with incidents where child sexual abuse is alleged. It is likewise apparent that they are carefully probing and documenting in anticipation of prosecution. It can be readily inferred based on their familiarity with the process that they know that they can be used in court as a conduit to provide testimony by the child against the accused without the child being confronted or cross-examined by the accused or his or her attorney.
Justice Scalia, speaking for the Court in Crawford, makes it quite clear that it is not just “[sjtatements taken by police officers in the course of interrogations” that are testimonial. Crawford, 541 U.S. at 52, 124 S.Ct. at 1364. “The involvement of government officers in the production of testimonial evidence presents the same risk [as police investigations].” Id., 541 U.S. at 53, 124 S.Ct. at 1365. And in Justus, our Supreme Court expressly held that the testimony of the DFS investigator and the social worker to whom the child was referred by DFS was testimonial and should have been excluded. 205 S.W.3d at 880-81.
Indeed, in most child sexual abuse cases, after the child victim first spontaneously says something to an adult that causes suspicions of abuse, virtually nothing that child says thereafter to anyone about the alleged abuse, whether it be to parent, grandparent, doctor, nurse, or counselor is truly and completely non-testimonial in the Crawford sense. This is so because, once the allegations have surfaced, everyone is frying to elicit information from the child about the allegations. They may be doing so for very well-intentioned motives, such as to provide love and support, treatment, or counseling, but in doing so, they are trying to elicit information by re-directing conversation with the child, asking pointed questions, using dolls, or any variety of other rehable or unreliable means of obtaining details and assessing the credibility of the allegations. Ultimately, the bottom line is almost always to find out what happened, when it happened, and who did it, based in equal parts on concern for the child and a desire to assess responsibility. Because of this and the susceptibility of young children to the power of suggestion, information provided by the child is inherently suspect. It is for that very reason that the Confrontation Clause is so critical to child abuse prosecutions because “[i]t commands ... that reliability be assessed in a particular manner: by testing in the crucible of cross-examination.” Crawford, 541 U.S. at 61, 124 S.Ct. at 1370. So it is not surprising that the Missouri Supreme Court has acknowledged that Crawford “cast doubt on the validity of section 491.075, which permits a child victim’s testimony to be used as substantive evidence in sexual misconduct cases even though the child has not been subjected to cross-examination.” In the Interest of R.B., 186 S.W.3d 255, 256 (Mo. banc 2006)'.
As noted at the outset, the error in this case was not preserved, and we review only for plain error. Wyble’s trial counsel made and was allowed a continuing objection to the testimony repeating the out-of-court statements of the child on the basis of violation of his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the U.S. Constitution. But counsel failed to include the issue in the motion for new trial, and, as a consequence, it is not properly preserved. Therefore, although the child’s statements to Ms. Saekrey and Ms. Oliver were testimonial and should have been excluded, as discussed supra, no prejudice is presumed because the error was not preserved. Thus, we are not limited, as the Court was in Justus, to upholding the verdict only if the error was “ ‘harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” 205 S.W.3d at 881 (quoting *136State v. Wolfe, 13 S.W.3d 248, 263 (Mo. banc 2000)).
While the majority asserts otherwise, the remaining evidence consisting of the mother and grandmother’s testimony was anything but overwhelming. Nevertheless, it was sufficient to permit the jury to render a guilty verdict. As a result, Wy-ble cannot conclusively demonstrate prejudice because the jury could have found the remaining evidence sufficient to convict him. Accordingly, we cannot say that the error resulted in a manifest injustice or miscarriage of justice. Thus, I concur in the result reached by the majority.2

. The following is a sampling of her testimony on direct examination by the prosecuting attorney:
Q. Knowing the allegations that were being made about what had happened to [the child], what sort of an examination did you undertake of the child?
A. We only do a preliminary one because we’re not able to do the, quote, SAFE exam for anybody under the age of 13. So what the doctor did was assess her, and then we assessed her bottom, or perineal area, for any signs of tears or abrasions, or anything like that.
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Q. In the course of that examination, are questions asked of the child?
A. We ask them if anybody has touched their private areas and if they know the difference between good touch and bad touch.
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Q. And when — after she said that, that her butt hurt, was any question asked of her seeking an explanation for that, or did you just proceed on with the examination?
A. We try not to lead anybody. We just kind of asked them why her bottom would hurt, that type of thing.
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Q. And what was the purpose of giving her an inoculation or shot?
A. We prophylactically treat people for sexually transmitted diseases.
The colloquy below is from the cross-examination by Ms. Dunn:
Q. Now, did you actually take a note to that effect?
A. No, I did not.
Q. Okay. Is there a reason why you didn’t?
A. It was just kind of overwhelming, and I think that one just kind of slid by. Dr. Campbell and I was trying to document as thoroughly as possible. (Emphasis added).

. The case presents the unique situation where we must affirm the conviction on this direct appeal, but it is almost certain that Wyble will be granted a new trial in the ensuing Rule 29.15 proceeding based on counsel's failure to preserve the error.