Court Opinion

ID: 9717847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:11:32.808531+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:55.123360
License: Public Domain

RANDALL, Judge,
concurring specially,
I concur in the result but wish to address issue five, namely a criminal defendant’s *528right to confront and cross examine the witnesses against him.
The majority correctly criticizes the trial court for limiting appellant’s right of cross examination of the victim on the key issue of whether or not she was penetrated. Penetration is the sine qua non of first degree criminal sexual conduct, the most serious charge that appellant was found guilty of. Minn.Stat. § 609.342, subd. 1 (1986). I find the trial court’s restriction on appellant’s right to cross examine the victim clear error, but not reversible error, only because, although appellant’s attorney could not use the term “penetration,” he was given some leeway to cross examine the victim about appellant’s actual movements and acts.
During the cross examination of the victim, appellant’s attorney asked whether she was stating that appellant did not penetrate her. The victim answered “Yes.” When the prosecution objected, the trial court sustained the objection and directed appellant’s attorney to ask the question in another way. The question was then asked, “Is it your testimony that your father has not penetrated you?” She answered, “Yes.” Then, after another answer by the victim indicating that her understanding of penetration was someone sticking something into her, the trial court intervened on its own and said:
Here, strike that answer and the jury will disregard it. I said don’t ask that question. I guess I should have stated it more clearly. That ultimately becomes a question for the jury based on all the evidence they’ll hear in the case and based on the instructions the court will give.
This witness is here not to give legal definitions; she’s here to testify to the best of her knowledge as any witness is as to what she saw, heard, observed. All right? She should be testifying in the language of facts, observations, not in the language of legal conclusions. That’s what I meant. The answer is stricken.
The trial court’s interruption was unfounded and based on the “ultimate issue objection” which is no longer the rule in Minnesota. Minn.R.Evid. 704 and committee comments.
At the time of the trial, the 14 year old victim was competent to testify that appellant did or did not “stick” anything into her, and whether she thought she was penetrated.
It is true that juries ultimately vote on the issue of guilty or not guilty, not the victims. However, the attorney’s question on cross examination was perfectly proper. Having elicited a negative answer that went right to the heart of the charge, he should have been allowed reasonable latitude to pursue it. Had the reverse situation arisen, and a 14 year old victim testified that she was penetrated, the trial court would properly have allowed this witness to so testify, even over a defendant’s objection, as long as there was foundation by the prosecution that the victim understood the term. With charges of first and third degree criminal sexual conduct, in which penetration is an indispensable ingredient, the prosecution routinely is allowed to ask the victim about penetration, providing a basic foundation as to the understanding of terms is present. The trial court’s restriction here on appellant’s right to cross examine and confront his accuser was improper. However, since appellant’s counsel was allowed to cross examine the victim about acts which appellant was alleged to have committed, we do not find reversible error.