Siharath v. State, A00A0960.
| Citation | 541 S.E.2d 71,246 Ga. App. 736 |
| Decision Date | 19 October 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. A00A0960.,A00A0960. |
| Parties | SIHARATH v. The STATE. |
| Court | United States Court of Appeals (Georgia) |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Gerard B. Kleinrock, Atlanta, for appellant.
Chantala Siharath, pro se.
J. Tom Morgan, District Attorney, Barbara B. Conroy, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
Chanthala Siharath appeals following his conviction on one count of rape and four counts of child molestation. We affirm.
Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence showed that at the relevant time, the victim was a ten-year-old girl, who lived with her mother, stepfather and two younger siblings. In the fall of 1997, William Goggins of the DeKalb County Police Department's Community Oriented Policing Program taught a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) class at the victim's school. Goggins provided a box at the school in which students could place questions that they did not wish to ask in front of a group. On October 16, 1997, Goggins checked the box and discovered the following three notes signed by the victim:
Goggins told the victim's teacher about the notes, and the child was subsequently referred to the school social worker.
The victim told the social worker that her mother worked at night and that her stepfather came into her bedroom and put his hands all over her body. She said that she had not told her mother and that the family was afraid of her stepfather because he had threatened to kill them with a knife. The social worker did not attempt to interview the girl at any length, but instead referred the matter to the Department of Family & Children Services.
After DFACS was notified, the victim was taken into protective custody and placed in a foster home. Shortly after she arrived at her foster home, the victim told her foster mother that her stepfather was very violent and that she was afraid for her mother and younger siblings. She said that her mother worked in the evenings and that her stepfather would fondle her and had placed his penis inside her.
The next day she was interviewed by police. The victim told the investigating police officer that her stepfather was a violent man. Although the violence was most often directed toward her mother, the girl stated that she was afraid of him. In August and September 1997, the victim's mother was working the evening shift at her job. While her mother was away, the girl said that her stepfather would put his hands inside her shirt and play with her breasts. He would also come into her bedroom after she had gone to bed at night and touch her breasts with his hands and mouth. He also would fondle her private area and place his penis inside her. The girl used anatomically correct drawings to demonstrate to the officer the areas of the body she was describing. A videotape of this interview was shown to the jury.
The evidence also showed that while in DFACS' custody, the victim was examined by a physician. During the examination, the victim, using drawings, told the doctor that her stepfather had touched her breasts with his mouth and hands and had touched her genitals with his hand and his penis. She also told the doctor that she had not told anyone about these events earlier because she was afraid her stepfather would hit her. The physician testified that although she found no evidence of scars, bruises or other traumatic injury, her findings were not inconsistent with the girl's story given the girl's age and the passage of time between the events and the reporting of those events.
In her testimony at trial, the victim stated that her stepfather had hit her mother, younger sister and her on more than one occasion. She also recounted a fight that occurred when her mother tried to leave her stepfather and he had almost cut her mother's hand. Using diagrams, the victim demonstrated where her stepfather had touched her and the parts of his body he had used to touch her. She said that she tried to tell him to stop, but that he would not stop. She did not try to get away or scream out, however, because she was afraid. The girl stated that she told her best friend that her stepdad had "slept" with her and had raped her. But she stated that she did not tell anyone else about these things for a long time because she was afraid her stepfather would hit her for telling.
1. Siharath first contends that the trial court erred in qualifying Vicky Fadley as an expert in the area of "forensic evaluation" of the victims of child sexual abuse. Fadley was qualified at trial as an expert in the areas of forensic evaluation and therapy of child sexual abuse victims. Fadley testified that, in this context, forensic evaluation consists of a formalized process to determine whether a child has been sexually abused, whereas therapy is the process of providing support to a child who has been abused. Siharath objects only to Fadley's qualification as an expert in forensic evaluation because he argues that her training was primarily in therapy. In particular, he argues that it was improper to allow Fadley to testify that it was not unusual for a child to endure sexual abuse, yet keep it a secret, even where the child might have a safe outlet to report the abuse. Because the primary evidence against Siharath was the victim's statements, he argues that Fadley's testimony improperly swayed the jury's decision.
The qualification of an expert witness is within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Vasquez v. State, 241 Ga.App. 512, 513(2), 527...
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