State v. Bentley

• Decision Date: 28 September 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-1000.,06-1000.
• Citation: 739 N.W.2d 296
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellant, v. James Howard BENTLEY, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

739 N.W.2d 296

STATE of Iowa, Appellant, v. James Howard BENTLEY, Appellee.

No. 06-1000.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

September 28, 2007.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Mary Tabor, Assistant Attorney General, David C. Thompson, Benton County Attorney, Harold Denton, Linn County Attorney, and Nicholas Maybanks, Assistant Linn County Attorney, for appellant.

Thomas J. O'Flaherty of O'Flaherty Law Firm, North Liberty, for appellee.

Alice A. Phillips of American Prosecutors Research Institute, Alexandria, Virginia, for amicus curiae.

HECHT, Justice.

The issue presented in this interlocutory appeal is whether the videotaped statements of J.G., a ten-year-old child, are admissible under the Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution at James Bentley's trial on sexual abuse charges. Because we conclude J.G.'s statements are testimonial, J.G. is unavailable to testify at trial, and Bentley had no opportunity for cross-examination, we affirm the district court's ruling that the videotaped statements are inadmissible under the Confrontation Clause.

I. Factual Background.

On November 16, 2004, J.G. was interviewed by Roseanne Matuszek, a counselor at St. Luke's Child Protection Center (CPC).¹ The interview was arranged by Officer Ann Deutmeyer, an investigator employed by the Cedar Rapids Police Department, and Pam Holtz, a representative of the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS). Officer Deutmeyer and Holtz watched and listened to the interview through an "observation window." During the videotaped interview, J.G. made numerous statements alleging James Bentley sexually abused her. Bentley's brother murdered J.G. on or around March 24, 2005. Other facts relevant to the disposition of this appeal will be presented below in our analysis of the legal issue presented.

II. Procedural Background.

Two days after J.G.'s interview at the CPC, the Linn County Attorney charged Bentley with the crime of sexual abuse in the second degree, in violation of Iowa Code sections 709.1 and 709.3 (2003). Soon afterward, the Benton County Attorney filed similar charges against Bentley.

Bentley filed in both cases a motion for a preliminary determination of the admissibility of J.G.'s videotaped interview under the Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution. The district court ruled admission of the videotape would not violate the Confrontation Clause. After we denied Bentley's application for review of that ruling, he filed a motion in limine seeking to prevent the videotape's admission at trial.

After a hearing on the motion in limine, the district court held admission of the videotape would violate Bentley's constitutional right to confront a witness against him.² The State filed an application for discretionary review, which we granted. We stayed the district court proceedings pending resolution of this matter.

III. Standard of Review.

We review de novo claims involving the Confrontation Clause. State v. Hallum, 606 N.W.2d 351, 354 (Iowa 2000).

IV. Analysis.

The Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution guarantees to Bentley the right "to be confronted with the witnesses against him." U.S. Const. amend. VI. In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), the United States Supreme Court held tape-recorded statements police officers elicited during a custodial interrogation of the defendant's wife were inadmissible at the defendant's trial because they were testimonial, the declarant was unavailable at trial, and the defendant had no prior opportunity for cross-examination. 541 U.S. at 38-40, 68-69, 124 S.Ct. at 1357, 1374, 158 L.Ed.2d at 184-85, 203. The Court reasoned that the text and history of the Sixth Amendment support two inferences: (1) "[T]he principal evil at which the Confrontation Clause was directed was the civil-law mode of criminal procedure, and particularly its use of ex parte examinations as evidence against the accused"; and (2) "[T]he Framers would not have allowed admission of testimonial statements of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-examination." Id. at 50, 53-54, 124 S.Ct. at 1363, 1365, 158 L.Ed.2d at 192, 194. Because the parties agree that J.G. is, tragically, "unavailable," and Bentley had no prior opportunity to cross-examine J.G., the admissibility of J.G.'s videotaped statements depends on whether they are "testimonial" if offered against Bentley in this case. If the statements are testimonial, they are inadmissible against Bentley at trial; but if they are nontestimonial, the Confrontation Clause does not prevent their admission.

Prior to Crawford, the government bore the burden of proving constitutional admissibility in response to a Confrontation Clause challenge. United States v. Arnold, 486 F.3d 177, 213 (6th Cir.2007) (Nelson Moore, J., dissenting) (citing Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805, 816, 110 S.Ct. 3139, 3147, 111 L.Ed.2d 638, 652 (1990); Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 74-75, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 2543, 65 L.Ed.2d 597, 613 (1980)). It does not appear that Crawford altered this allocation of the burden of proof. Id. Accordingly, we conclude the government bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that J.G.'s statements are nontestimonial.

The Court's view expressed in Crawford that the Framers intended the Confrontation Clause to preclude admission of "testimonial" statements made by unavailable witnesses who have not been subjected to cross-examination was based, in part, on the Confrontation Clause's express reference to "witnesses against the accused" — that is, to those who "bear testimony" against the accused, whether in court or out of court. Crawford, 541 U.S. at 51, 124 S.Ct. at 1364, 158 L.Ed.2d at 192 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). One who "bears testimony" makes "[a] solemn declaration or affirmation . . . for the purpose of establishing or proving some fact." Id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

The Court identified in Crawford "[v]arious formulations of th[e] core class of `testimonial' statements" that the Confrontation Clause was intended to address: "ex parte in-court testimony or its functional equivalent," "extrajudicial statements . . . contained in formalized testimonial materials," and "statements that were made under circumstances which would lead an objective witness reasonably to believe that the statement[s] would be available for use at a later trial." Id. at 51-52, 124 S.Ct. at 1364, 158 L.Ed.2d at 193 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Although the Court did not offer a comprehensive definition of "testimonial statement," its opinion noted that even if a "narrow standard" is used to determine whether statements are testimonial, "[s]tatements taken by police officers in the course of interrogations," such as the declarant's statements in Crawford, are testimonial. Id. at 52, 124 S.Ct. at 1364, 158 L.Ed.2d at 193.

As the court noted in Crawford, "one can imagine various definitions of interrogation." 541 U.S. at 53 n. 4, 124 S.Ct. at 1365 n. 4, 158 L.Ed.2d at 194 n. 4. Using the term in its colloquial sense, as the court did in Crawford, see id., we conclude the interview of J.G. was essentially a substitute for police interrogation at the station house. Representatives of the police department and DHS were present and participated in the interview. J.G. was informed at the outset of the conversation that a police officer was present and listening. The questions posed were calculated to elicit from J.G. factual details of the past criminal acts that Bentley had allegedly perpetrated against her. When the interview was concluded, the officer left the CPC with a videotaped copy of the interview which she considered evidence to be used against Bentley. The recorded interview conducted with the participation of a police officer is in our view a "modern practice[] with closest kinship to the abuses at which the Confrontation Clause was directed." Crawford, 541 U.S. at 68, 124 S.Ct. at 1374, 158 L.Ed.2d at 203.

Upon our de novo review, we conclude the government has not met its burden of proving the recorded statements of J.G. identifying Bentley as her abuser and describing his acts of alleged sexual abuse are nontestimonial. The extensive involvement of a police officer in the interview leads us to conclude J.G.'s statements were in effect "taken by [a] police officer[] in the course of [an] interrogation[]." Crawford, 541 U.S. at 52, 124 S.Ct. at 1364, 158 L.Ed.2d at 193.

A "community task force steering committee," which included some law enforcement personnel, organized the CPC. The record discloses a close, ongoing relationship has persisted between the CPC and representatives of local law enforcement agencies. The CPC acknowledges that one of its objectives is to provide centralized access to services, including law enforcement services. The police department's standard operating procedure calls for the referral of child victims of sexual abuse to the CPC for "forensic interviews." Law enforcement officials make continuing education workshops available to CPC employees, and Matuszek has attended such seminars.

Holtz and Officer Deutmeyer arranged the appointment for J.G.'s interview at the CPC. Immediately before and after J.G.'s interview, a "multi-disciplinary team," which included Officer Deutmeyer, met to discuss the case. Such meetings of CPC team members routinely include discussions of whether crimes have been committed against the child-interviewee and the identities of the perpetrators of those crimes.

Officer Deutmeyer confirmed that CPC interviews with children generally focus "on the alleged crime." In fact, the interview of J.G. in this case illustrates the typical CPC interview protocol. Matuszek briefly engaged in casual "rapport building" as the interview began, but the subject of her questions...