Court Opinion

ID: 9759721
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:26:12.08232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:04.281811
License: Public Domain

DANA, J.,
with whom CALKINS, J. join, dissenting.
[¶ 24] Although I agree with the Court’s discussion of the admission of Krieger’s prior bad acts and his motion for a mistrial, because I disagree with its conclusion that the violation of the first complaint rule was harmless, I respectfully dissent. We vacated a court’s admission of first complaint testimony in a case indistinguishable from the present case. State v. Naylor, 602 A.2d 187, 189 (Me.1992). We held that the admission of a mother’s testimony that the victim stated she was sexually abused by Naylor was not harmless error because “[s]ueh testimony identifying [the defendant] as the perpetrator served to strengthen the victim’s credibility” and the court could not say that it was “highly probable that [the] testimony did not affect the judgment.” Id. As in the present case, identity was not an issue in Naylor; we nonetheless concluded that the error was prejudicial. Id.
[¶ 25] The majority cites State v. Joel H., 2000 ME 139, 755 A.2d 520, to support its conclusion that the error was harmless. In Joel H., however, the father’s first complaint testimony did not identify the defendant, but merely gave details of the assault that are not permitted pursuant to the first complaint rule. Id. ¶¶ 22-25, 755 A.2d at 526. We held that the testimony about the details was harmless because other witnesses had testified about those same details. Id. ¶¶ 22-25, 755 A.2d at 526.
[¶ 26] In the present case, the victim’s statements to Benoit do more than overcome the presumption that absent a complaint, no misconduct took place; the identification buttresses the credibility of the victim, who was the only witness to testify about the details of the charged conduct. Naylor; 602 A.2d at 189. If a witness may testify about the victim’s identification of the defendant in her first complaint as long as the victim has previously identified the defendant in court and testified that she told the witness about the assault, we have effectively overruled Naylor and eviscerated the well-settled rule that the introduction of hearsay identity testimony under the guise of the first complaint rule prejudicially buttresses the credibility of the victim. Accordingly, I dissent.