Court Opinion

ID: 9792531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:30:27.361837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:43.462547
License: Public Domain

Judge STERNBERG
dissenting.
While I do not agree with the majority that this conviction should be reversed, I join them in their conclusion that the actions of the trial judge in escorting the child witness to and from the witness stand constituted error. In that regard, there is just no good reason for a court to spread its robe of credibility over any witness, even a six-year-old child. There are trained witness advocates who are paid to do just what the judge did here.
Having said that, however, I cannot join in reversing the verdict of this jury. In my view, the instruction the court gave the jury concerning its actions cured the error. Just before the child testified, in referring to its actions in escorting the child to and from the stand, the court instructed that:
“by doing these things I’m not implying, nor are you to understand that I am implying, any opinion as to [the victim’s] credibility or any weight to be given to her testimony. You’re to apply the same standards judging her credibility that you would to any other witness. I merely do these things to try to make testimony for younger children easier.”
In our zeal to stop an unfortunate and erroneous practice of a trial court, we should not overreact and in effect, hold that the jurors would be so hypnotized by the court’s one importunate act that they would ignore this instruction and construe the trial court’s action as an endorsement of the child’s credibility. A fundamental principle of appellate law is that, absent a showing to the contrary, a jury is presumed to follow a trial court’s instructions. See People v. Moody, 676 P.2d 691 (Colo.1984). That principle should be invoked here.
Because of the court’s instruction, I refuse to believe that one “rung bell” inevitably induced a Pavlovian response of prejudice in the minds of the jury. Thus, I would rule that the trial court erred, but that the error was rendered harmless by the trial court’s instruction to the jury ex*1331plaining its actions in escorting the child to and from the stand. Therefore, I would affirm the judgment of conviction entered on the jury verdict.