Court Opinion

ID: 9863680
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 05:52:48.597405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:04:08.120795
License: Public Domain

GERBER, Judge,
specially concurring.
Alleged child molesters are persons about whom most of us would rather not think, particularly those of us who are parents. When such persons emerge from the shadows to press constitutional claims, however, they invoke the language of a charter of due process upon which all of us rely both to assert our own rights and to hold accountable all those who hold official power.
Though I concur in the majority’s analysis and result, I write specially to raise two points. The first is that, contrary to what some prosecutors apparently think, Rule 803(24) is not a general loophole for otherwise inadmissible hearsay. In a child molestation case, despite its unique problems, that rule is not authority to tack onto the child’s testimony the additional consistent statements the child has made to relatives, teachers, friends, police, social workers, and medical personnel. None of the rules of evidence, including 803(24), authorizes this layer-upon-layer of repeated renditions of the event. Trustworthiness is not enhanced by such repetition. Such repetitions are both cumulative and hearsay. Rule 801(d)(1) may permit some of this consistent testimony if the child’s account is assertedly inconsistent or fabricated, and Rule 804 may permit some of it if the child is physically or emotionally unavailable to testify fully. Rule 803(24), however, does not excuse the requirements of these two rules nor substitute for them.
Secondly, there is a matter not mentioned by the majority and neither objected to at trial nor raised on appeal which, nonetheless, in my view, constitutes fundamental error. The state’s expert, a psychotherapist, gave testimony to the jury not merely on the symptoms of molestation but also on the credibility of the child victim. This expert gave the jury advice that the victim was telling the truth and should be believed. In so doing, she impermissibly invaded the province of the jury. We have repeatedly warned prosecutors not to use witnesses to vouch for the credibility of child victims. See State v. Lindsey, 149 Ariz. 472, 720 P.2d 73 (1986); State v. Moran, 151 Ariz. 378, 728 P.2d 248 (1986); State v. Tucker, 165 Ariz. 340, 798 P.2d 1349 (App.1990). In the absence of independent, compelling evidence — which does not exist here — using experts to vouch for the credibility of child victims in a molesta*236tion case is fundamental, reversible error simply because the jury is advised how to decide the case by being told who to believe and disbelieve. I mention this second matter so this error is avoided if this case is retried.