Court Opinion

ID: 9648655
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:31:35.759314+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:45.319691
License: Public Domain

Robert L. Brown, Justice, dissenting. I dissent for two reasons. First, the majority never states the facts of this case or precisely why the police sergeant’s testimony was error. The majority simply concludes, without saying more, that prejudice resulted. Secondly, the police sergeant’s testimony was harmless error because a) it satisfied the tests for reliability under Idaho v. Wright; b) it was cumulative to previous testimony and evidence; and c) the evidence of guilt against the appellant was overwhelming. The majority relies on a 1967 harmless-error case handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court, Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18 (1967), in reversing the appellant’s conviction, but fails to consider more recent cases. For example, just this year, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in a case where the hearsay testimony of a child in a sexual abuse case was held to be error due to the manner in which it was taken, but the error was deemed to be harmless. See State v. Larson, 472 N.W.2d 120 (Minn. 1991), cert. denied, Docket No. 91-487, Jan. 27, 1992. The Larson case bears a striking resemblance to the case at hand. In Larson, the defendant was charged with sexual abuse of his four-year-old daughter who made statements to a physician’s assistant, a child protection specialist, a clinical psychologist, a social worker, and a police officer. The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the admission of statements made to the physician’s assistant under the medical-treatment hearsay exception. The court then went forward and held that the cumulative statements made to the clinical psychologist also fell within the medical-treatment exception and the statements to the child protection specialist were admissible under Idaho v. Wright. Regarding statements made to the social worker and the police officer, the Larson court could not say that they satisfied the Idaho v. Wright tests for reliability. This was because leading and repetitive questions were involved, and there was a “tag team” approach to the interview of the child. The court, however, held that admitting the statements of the social worker and police officer was harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt because the statements were largely cumulative to previous testimony. In the case before us, the circuit court admitted the police sergeant’s hearsay testimony but made no analysis of the reliability of the child’s statements. This was error, because an analysis is required under Rule 803(25). At the same time, it is clear that when we apply the Idaho v. Wright factors, the testimony was trustworthy. The girl’s statements to the sergeant were consistent with her previous statements to her mother and the nurse. The girl had no motive to fabricate a story against her uncle, whom she admitted she liked. And as a child of tender years, she had no familiarity with sexual matters. The testimony satisfies the Idaho v. Wright factors for trustworthiness, which in and of itself should render the failure of the court to make a Rule 803(25) finding harmless. The same holds true of the circling of the vaginal area on the drawing of the young girl and the penis on the male drawing. Those acts by the girl were non-verbal conduct and constituted hearsay. Ark. R. Evid. 801(a)(2); see also People v. Bowers, 801 P.2d 511 (Colo. 1990) (the child’s use of anatomically correct dolls to illustrate her story was hearsay). The drawing by the victim was consistent with previous testimony and demonstrations that she had been hurt in her vaginal area by the appellant’s hopping on her and, therefore, satisfied reasonable guarantees of trustworthiness under Idaho v. Wright. The majority, however, is particularly emphatic about a perceived prejudice from the girl’s circling of the penis on the male drawing. Previous testimony of penetration by the appellant, though circumstantial, was considerable before the introduction of the male drawing. There was testimony from the girl’s mother and the nurse that the appellant was naked and on top of the girl and that he hopped on her and hurt her. There was testimony from Dr. McBryde that she had suffered vaginal abrasions, and there was clear physical evidence of bleeding from the doctor’s examination and from her underpants and the underpants of the appellant. In making a harmless-error analysis, corroborative evidence of the crime itself is appropriately considered. See Idaho v. Wright, 100 S.Ct. 3139 (1990). In Wright, the Court stated: “We think the presence of corroborating evidence more appropriately indicates that any error in admitting the statement might be harmless, rather than that any basis exists for presuming the declarant to be trustworthy.” 110 S.Ct. at 3150 — 3151. Here, the circumstantial proof clearly evidenced penis penetration without the introduction of the male drawing which, at worst, was cumulative to other evidence. Hence, the introduction of the male drawing was harmless error, especially when coupled with the fact that the total evidence of guilt against the appellant was overwhelming. One other point deserves emphasis. The U.S. Supreme Court has shown a reluctance in recent cases to make a harmless error determination under Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18 (1967), which is the case on which the majority premises its reversal. In 1988, for example, the Court held that a screen in the courtroom which hid the defendant from two teenage girls in a case involving lascivious acts violated the defendant’s confrontation rights. The Court then left the question of harmless error to be decided on remand: The State also briefly suggests that any Confrontation Clause error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt under the standard of Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24 (1967). We have recognized that other types of violations of the Confrontation Clause are subject to that harmless error analysis, see e.g., Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S., at 679, 684, and see no reason why denial of face-to-face confrontation should not be treated the same. An assessment of harmlessness cannot include consideration of whether the witness’s testimony would have been unchanged, or the jury’s assessment unaltered, had there been confrontation; such an inquiry would obviously involve pure speculation, and harmlessness must therefore be determined on the basis of the remaining evidence. The Iowa Supreme Court had no occasion to address the harmlessness issue, since it found no constitutional violation. In the circumstances of this case, rather than decide whether the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, we leave the issue for the court below. 487 U.S. at 1021-1022 (emphasis added). The sum and substance of the Coy precedent is that the Court refused to hold that a violation of the defendant’s confrontation rights was prejudicial or constituted a “reasonable possibility” that the evidence might have contributed to the conviction but, instead, remanded the issue for a state court determination. The Court further stated that the issue of harmlessness must be decided, not on speculation, but on the basis of the remaining evidence. The majority concludes that the police sergeant’s testimony was error. Was this because the circuit court failed to make a Rule 803(25) determination or because Rule 803(25) is constitutionally infirm or because the sergeant engaged in improper questioning or for some other reason? The majority opinion leaves us in the dark. It then ends by holding that the testimony was prejudicial because there was a reasonable possibility that it contributed to proof of an element of the crime. This misstates the Chapman standard which alludes to evidence contributing to the conviction. No analysis of harmlessness follows. I would affirm the conviction and hold that the police sergeant’s testimony was harmless, error because it was trustworthy under Idaho v. Wright, even though the circuit court technically erred in failing to make a determination of reliability under Rule 803(25). I would further hold that the circuit court’s lapse was not prejudicial because the child’s statements to the police sergeant, including the drawings, were cumulative to other direct and circumstantial evidence introduced at trial.