Court Opinion

ID: 9763371
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:43:18.19367+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:41.808218
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because it was not reversible error to admit the report of the physician or the testimony of the victim’s brother.
KRS 422.300 specifically permits the admission of certified hospital records in certain circumstances. Young v. J.B. Hunt Transportation, Inc., 781 S.W.2d 503 (1989). The rules of evidence must be considered in this situation. The records in this case were from the office examination by the treating physician. The doctor ordinarily kept this type of record in the regular course of her professional activities, and they should be admitted as an exception provided for business records pursuant to KRE 803(6).
This report consists of two pages of laboratory results and one page which is a detailed examination record largely typewritten from the dictation of the physician and partly in the handwriting of the physician. It contains a history of the alleged sex abuse, including an accusation that Bell was slapping the mother of the child, comments with respect to the socialization of the child, findings on medical examinations, including a small ulcer on the rectum of the child, and concludes with a diagnosis of sexual abuse and a recommendation for counseling. I believe that the admission of this testimony came within the purview of the exceptions to the hearsay rule announced in Drumm v. Commonwealth, Ky., 783 S.W.2d 380 (1990) because the medical report was made for the purpose of medical diagnosis and treatment.
The testimony by the brother of the victim was properly admitted because it showed intent, motive or common plan or method of operation. Anastasi v. Commonwealth, 754 S.W.2d 860 (1988). The common characteristics here were that both victims were brothers and considered Bell as a father when they were forced to submit to the oral sodomy. It is always a difficult decision to admit such evidence, but I believe that discretion must be left in the hands of the trial judge. The requirement for showing a common plan or indicating a method of operation can be met in a child sex abuse case because the principal similarity is that the victims are all children and are either required to perform or submit to sexual acts. The fact that the crimes are all sex crimes and the victims *892are all children makes this kind of situation so strikingly similar as to be a signature event and so unique as to meet the standard of demonstrating a common plan or method of operation.
I would affirm the judgment of conviction in all respects.
SPAIN, J., joins in this dissent.