Court Opinion

ID: 9528226
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:38:35.766689+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:36.029642
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Chief Justice,
dissenting:
The majority may well be correct in concluding that the requirement of corroboration for sexual offenses should be abolished in view of our prior cases which have all but eliminated the requirement. However, such action is unnecessary to the resolution of this case because there was sufficient corroboration, as measured by the prior decisions of this Court, to sustain the conviction.
*168A recent example is the case of State v. Froelich, 96 Idaho 685, 535 P.2d 658 (1975). That case involved the crime of lewd and lascivious conduct by a father against his fifteen year old daughter. The only evidence of the crime itself was the testimony of the daughter that her father sexually molested her in his truck and used vaseline in his acts. The corroboration in that case consisted of testimony of a sister that the prosecutrix often rode alone with her father in his pickup truck and that previously the sister had twice found and removed bottles of vaseline from his truck; testimony of a brother that the prosecutrix had ridden with her father in the truck on the night of the alleged incident; and testimony of family members that the father's treatment of the prosecutrix altered radically after the time of the alleged incident.
The Court in Froelich concluded “that the record contains sufficient corroborative evidence of the testimony of the prosecutrix to sustain the verdict of guilty.” The corroboration in that case, however, was far from being unusual or indicative that the defendant had violated his daughter: children often ride with their fathers in motor vehicles; there was substantial testimony in that case that vaseline is a product of common usage in the mechanic trade, in which the father was engaged and in which he used his pickup truck; and changes in familial affections or treatment can be caused by a host of different factors. In fact, none of the evidence directly corroborated the conclusion that the prosecutrix had been molested. There were no bruises, no examination results, no proximate reports of the attack, no physical evidence at all to indicate that the molestation actually occurred. However, it has long been the rule that where the reputation of the prosecutrix is unimpeached, evidence of the surrounding circumstances is sufficient for corroboration, id. at 686, 535 P.2d 658, and that is exactly the type of evidence found sufficient in Froelich.
Certainly, in sexual assault cases the much more important fact to be corroborated is that the crime has actually been committed. A crime must be shown before identity becomes important. Once the crime itself is corroborated, the veracity of the prosecutrix is also established. The evidence in the present case is much more firm than that in Froelich because the present crime was directly corroborated by the physician’s examination and the reports of the neighbors as to the prosecutrix’s mental state immediately after the incident. In addition, the testimony of the prosecutrix in the present case is clear that she had a good look at her assailant and later was able to identify him in a restaurant. Given the firm corroboration that a crime occurred, there is no reason to presume that the prosecutrix would seek to charge an innocent person with the crime.
In Froelich, however, there was no direct evidence of any nature to corroborate that the molestation actually occurred, but rather the corroboration went to the identification of the defendant. In fact, each point of corroborative evidence in Froelich was easily shown to be consistent with the defendant’s claims of innocence. Nevertheless, a mere showing of consistency with innocence is not sufficient to erase the corroborative value of the evidence. It necessarily follows in the case at bar that just because many other people may possess blue barreled pistols does not mean that possession of a blue barreled pistol was not corroborative on the issue of identity. The weight to be given that evidence properly rests with the jury. Such is particularly true when the evidence firmly corroborates that the crime took place, thereby establishing the veracity of the prosecutrix. If Froelich contains sufficient corroboration to sustain the conviction in that case, then the corroboration in the present case is more than sufficient. I would affirm the conviction.
SHEPARD, J., concurs.