Court Opinion

ID: 9773318
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:42:03.087242+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:50.364858
License: Public Domain

*420Read, J. (dissenting in part).
In my view, an “offense” was “reported to a law enforcement agency” within the meaning of CPL 30.10 (3) (f) when a social worker notified the police in November 2002 that 14-year-old Jane, who was 12 weeks pregnant at the time, claimed to have been raped and impregnated by a fellow student. As a result, the second count of the indictment, which charges defendant Santos Quinto with the crime of second-degree rape during the time period of July 1, 2002 to August 31, 2002, is time-barred. I agree with the majority that the statute of limitations has not expired for the first and third counts, which charge defendant with second-degree rape at other times.
Section 30.10 (3) (f) extends the time period for commencing a prosecution for certain sex crimes against children until either “the child has reached the age of eighteen or the offense is reported to a law enforcement agency or statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment, whichever occurs earlier.” The majority stresses that the Legislature adopted this statute to insure that “victims of childhood sexual abuse who do not (or, indeed, who cannot) disclose such acts while they are minors [are] given a reasonable period of time after becoming adults to divulge the abuse they suffered” (majority op at 418). This is an undeniably accurate but incomplete explanation for section 30.10 (3) (f). After all, if the Legislature’s only goal had been to give child victims of sexual abuse more time to seek redress, there would be no reporting exception at all: the statute would simply call for the period of limitations to begin at the victim’s majority, the approach taken by many other states (see e.g. Haw Rev Stat § 701-108 [6] [c] [period of limitations in child sex abuse case begins to run when victim turns 18]; Mo Rev Stat § 556.037 [same]; Mont Code Ann § 45-1-205 [1] [b], [c] [same]; Tenn Code Ann § 40-2-101 [h], [i] [same]).
The obvious aim of the reporting exception is to prevent unduly delayed prosecutions for acts of child sexual abuse. The possibility of an erroneous conviction is minimized when a prosecution occurs while evidence is still fresh. Old claims are harder to defend against because evidence may be lost, memories may fade, witnesses may disappear. And the state, as well as defendants, has an important interest in reducing the risk of false prosecutions—a persistent worry in cases of sexual abuse, which so often devolve into a contest of “he said, she said.”
The majority’s interpretation of section 30.10 (3) (f), though, essentially writes the reporting exception out of the statute.
*421Jane was discovered to be pregnant during a visit to a health clinic in November 2002. She first denied being sexually active or having been sexually abused at home; she then claimed that she was forcibly raped by a classmate whose voice she recognized. This allegation prompted a social worker at the clinic to contact the police. Jane repeated her account to two detectives, by then accusing a classmate by name, until confronted with “inconsistencies” (unspecified in the record) in her story. She then retracted the rape accusation against her fellow student, saying that her pregnancy was instead due to unprotected consensual sex with him. The police believed this explanation—a circumstance I would expect defense counsel to explore fully if this matter goes to trial—and so investigated no further. The police report that had been filed was withdrawn.
This is not a case, then, where some general allegation of child sexual abuse was reported to the police in 2002. Rather, a specific offense—a rape causing a pregnancy—occurring at a specific time—August 2002—was reported. After investigation, the police concluded that no crime had been committed. If Jane’s subsequent allegations prove to be true, this was a tragic mistake because she was allowed to remain in an abusive home for another five years.
I do not fault the police for accepting Jane’s explanation of consensual sex with a fellow student. Unfortunately, this version of the cause of her pregnancy, even though she was only 14 years old, is plausible. Additionally, the police knew that Jane did not come forward willingly—her hand was forced by the sudden discovery at the health clinic of her pregnancy. If the reporting exception in section 30.10 (3) (f) has any meaning, though, the reports made to the police by the social worker and Jane are surely specific enough to qualify. Otherwise, the only “report” sufficient to start the clock running under this provision is one where the police, after investigating a specific allegation of child sexual abuse, proceed to indict someone. This cannot be what the Legislature had in mind. Rather, the exception was intended to foreclose future prosecutions of anyone where the police, having received a specific allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, elect, for whatever reason, not to pursue the matter.
Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Ciparick, Smith, Pigott and Jones concur with Judge Graffeo; Judge Read dissents in part in a separate opinion.
Order affirmed.