Court Opinion

ID: 9727024
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:17:34.843482+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:32.669982
License: Public Domain

*426Liacos, C.J.
(concurring). I write separately to express my concern regarding two aspects of the majority opinion’s treatment of the expert testimony on the characteristics of rape trauma syndrome. These concerns are reflected in the defendant’s contentions on appeal that there is a lack of scientific evidence that rape trauma syndrome occurs either in cases of indecent assault and battery or in situations involving a “trust relationship.” In response to these arguments, the majority relies primarily on the citation of several scholarly articles and numerous decisions of other courts in which the scientific basis of rape trauma syndrome has been recognized. Ante at 422. In my view, this citation of articles and cases is not responsive to the specific issues raised by the defendant’s arguments.
While it is true that the cases cited by the majority affirm the scientific basis of rape trauma syndrome, most of these cases involve the admissibility of such testimony in the context of a trial of an indictment for rape. See People v. Hampton, 746 P.2d 947 (Colo. 1987) (first-degree sexual assault conviction upheld); Simmons v. State, 504 N.E.2d 575 (Ind. 1987) (rape conviction upheld); State v. Marks, 231 Kan. 645 (1982) (rape conviction upheld); People v. Taylor, 75 N.Y.2d 277 (1990) (convictions of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse of the same victim upheld); State v. Liddell, 211 Mont. 180 (1984) (conviction for “sexual intercourse without consent” upheld). The present case, however, involves the admissibility of rape trauma syndrome testimony in the context of a trial for indecent sexual assault and battery involving several different victims, as well as the rape of one victim. There appears to be a lack of congruity between the cited cases and the conclusion that rape trauma syndrome testimony may be admitted for the purposes of proving indecent assault and battery. Nevertheless, because both types of crimes involve a degree of force which could be expected to produce similar reactions on the part of victims, I believe that the judge below acted within his “broad discretion” to admit the expert testimony for both indecent assault and bat*427tery and rape. Commonwealth v. Dockham, 405 Mass. 618, 628 (1989).
I find myself somewhat more troubled by the issue of the scientific basis for the expert testimony regarding the behavior of sexual assault victims involved in a “trust relationship.” Ante at 421. This testimony represented a crucial component of the prosecution’s case, in that it provided an explanation as to why a sexual assault victim might return voluntarily to visit her attacker. However, because the defendant failed to focus his objection on the expert’s competence to testify on the effect of a “trust relationship” on the victims, I am unwilling to declare that the judge below erred in allowing this testimony to go to the jury. For the purposes of future cases, I express my views regarding the adequacy of the evidence referred to by the court in its conclusion that a scientific basis exists for such testimony. Ante at 421.
The expert witness, Ann Burgess, testified that the present case was the first in which she had been qualified as an expert in the field of rape trauma syndrome within a trust relationship. None of the cases cited by the court involves the issue of the scientific basis of trust relationship testimony. Furthermore, of all the scholarly articles mentioned in the court’s opinion, only one discusses the behavioral characteristics of victims who have been sexually assaulted in a trust relationship. That article, Physician Sexual Misconduct and Patients’ Responses, 138 Am. J. Psychiatry 1335 (1981), was written by the expert witness in the present case and draws its conclusions from a study of sixteen patients who had been sexually assaulted by the same physician. I consider the empirical basis of this study to be insufficient to support the conclusion that “the medical community has generally recognized the existence of rape trauma syndrome” within a trust relationship. I hope that, in future cases, trial judges and prosecutors will take particular care to ensure that expert testimony is based on a solid, scientific foundation.