Court Opinion

ID: 9710883
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:19:41.46436+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:00.772798
License: Public Domain

M. J. Kelly, J.
(concurring). There is a confusion of concepts with regard to the treatment of the admissibility of the young victim’s statements to third persons. This has been recognized by Wig-more who deals with it under the topics, Complaint of Rape, 4 Wigmore, Evidence, § 1134 et seq. (Chadbourn rev 1972) and Spontaneous Exclamations, 6 Wigmore, Evidence, § 1760 et seq. (Chad*397bourn rev 1976). I agree that under certain circumstances hearsay statements made by a victim of tender years may be admissible as part of the res gestae of the crime but it would be my view that such statements would require all of the elements of the appropriate hearsay exception. See People v Meyer, 46 Mich App 357; 208 NW2d 230 (1973). The appropriate classification I believe is spontaneous exclamations or excited utterances rather than res gestae as says the majority opinion here. See People v Cunningham, 398 Mich 514; 248 NW2d 166 (1976).
In the present case the victim’s statements to Ms. Davis could not qualify under either treatment. I find Ms. Davis’ testimony was largely cumulative and amounted to harmless error only (as per Justice Williams’ opinion in Cunningham, supra).
The majority relies on the holding in People v Payne, 37 Mich App 442, 444; 194 NW2d 906 (1971), that:
"In sex offenses, hearsay statements made by a victim of tender years to a witness who subsequently testifies to the content of these declarations are admissible as part of the res gestae of the crime if the delay from the time of the incident to the time of the conversation is adequately explained.”
Without trying to take on the task of delineating situations where the delay is "adequately explained” it should be noted that the Payne quote is mere dicta because that Court held:
"However, we feel it is unnecessary to determine if this concededly hearsay testimony is admissible as a segment of the continuing res gestae of the crime; we hold that the error, if any, is harmless.” Payne, supra at 444.
*398The cases relied on by Payne, supra were cases where the delay was "adequately explained” by fear of the victim who had been coerced, intimidated or threatened. Insofar as Payne is read to eliminate the spontaneity requirement I believe it is an incorrect statement of evidentiary law. If it is not, then it is an incorrect statement of what the law should be.
The cases which center on the victim’s fear of reprisal as being a catalyst for expanding on the interlude between the event and the utterance are not in point because no such claim is made in the case at bar. This young victim was not frightened into silence, nor was she shocked into an excited utterance. The question and answer session with Ms. Davis is emphatically not a situation which tends to "create a circumstantial probability of trustworthiness”. People v Ivory Thomas, 14 Mich App 642; 165 NW2d 879 (1968) (Levin, J. concurring).