State v. Halstead, 83-569

• Decision Date: 13 February 1985
• Docket Number: No. 83-569,83-569
• Citation: 362 N.W.2d 504
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Winston Carl HALSTEAD, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 504

362 N.W.2d 504

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Winston Carl HALSTEAD, Appellant.

No. 83-569.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Feb. 13, 1985.

Charles L. Harrington, Appellate Defender, and Raymond E. Rogers, Asst. Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen., Marcia Mason, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Denver D. Dillard, Co. Atty., for appellee.

Considered by UHLENHOPP, P.J., and HARRIS, McCORMICK, CARTER, and WOLLE, JJ.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

In this proceeding we review a decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals. The principal issue involves the testimony of a psychiatrist regarding the credibility of a witness, a small boy.

Defendant Winston Carl Halstead moved in with the boy's mother on May 4, 1982. The three lived together until some time in late July, when defendant moved to another woman's apartment in the same complex.

On August 2, 1982, the boy told his babysitter about a sexual attack by defendant. The babysitter immediately informed the mother of the child's statement. The mother asked the boy if the story was true, and he replied that it was. She then took the child to the police station where Detective Robert Parr talked first with the mother and then with the boy. The alleged attack took place some time between June 1 and 30, 1982. About six weeks after the report to the police the county attorney filed an information against defendant.

At trial defendant offered a psychiatrist as a witness to testify regarding the boy's mental condition as bearing on his credibility. The trial court sustained the prosecutor's objections to the testimony.

The jury found defendant guilty of second-degree sexual abuse, the court passed sentence, and defendant appealed.

We transferred the case to the court of appeals, where defendant raised four grounds for reversal. That court rejected the first and third of them, sustained the second one relating to exclusion of the psychiatrist's testimony, and preserved the fourth, regarding ineffective assistance of counsel, for postconviction proceedings.

The State petitioned for further review. We granted the petition.

Of the four issues involved, we are satisfied the court of appeals correctly decided the first and third adversely to defendant, and we find no necessity to address those issues as they involve settled principles of law. The second issue, however, involves a novel legal point and we proceed initially to that question: whether the trial court erred in excluding the testimony of a psychiatrist by whom defendant sought to impeach the boy as a witness, primarily on the basis of subnormal intelligence.

I. The general rule in this jurisdiction is one of liberality in the admission of opinion evidence. State v. Hummell, 228 N.W.2d 77, 82 (Iowa 1975). We have also stated that the decision as to admissibility of such testimony rests in the trial court's discretion, and we will reverse only on a clear showing of abuse of discretion. Id. This is a difficult standard to meet. State v. Morrison, 323 N.W.2d 254, 256 (Iowa 1982).

We agree that a party is entitled to try to impeach a witness' credibility as it is reflected in his ability to observe, remember, or recount. State v. Harvey, 242 N.W.2d 330, 336 (Iowa 1976). The question is whether a trial court is required to accept expert testimony regarding a witness' ability in those respects when the substance of the testimony of the expert is that the witness is of subnormal intelligence or another non-organic mental illness, as distinguished from "some impairment of the mental or physical faculties by injury, disease, or habit...." Annot., 20 A.L.R.3d 684, 689 (1968).

In this case Dr. Luke E. Tsai, who testified extensively regarding the boy's competency at a hearing before the court, sought to testify at trial that the boy had an I.Q. of 84 which is borderline mentally retarded. In addition he sought to testify that the boy had an attention deficit disorder associated with a hyperactive condition and might tell matters that he thought were true but which were untrue.

This court has held that evidence of mental capacity is admissible as bearing on the issue of credibility when the witness was judicially adjudged insane prior to the act which gave rise to the case. State v. Alberts, 199 Iowa 815, 202 N.W. 519 (1925). We do not have such facts here.

Courts in other jurisdictions are divided on the issue before us, with a majority opposing admissibility. As stated in Annotation, 20 A.L.R.3d 684, 689 (1968):

If ... the characteristic attacked does not involve some organic or mental disorder, or some impairment of the mental of physical faculties by injury, disease, or habit, expert testimony is usually excluded. Exclusion along this line has most frequently occurred with respect to the witness's subnormal intelligence or weak memory ... and the ability or desire to be truthful.

In our opinion the better rule, however, is that the decision on admissibility should be left to the discretion of the trial court under the circumstances of the particular case, guided by the question of whether the expert's opinion will be helpful to the jury in performing its function. Lamazares v. Valdez, 353 So.2d 1257, 1258 (Fla.1978); Annotation, 20 A.L.R.3d 684, 689 (1968); see also State v. Klueber, 81 S.D. 223, 229, 132 N.W.2d 847, 850 (1965); Juviler, Psychiatric Opinions as to Credibility of Witnesses: A Suggested Approach, 48 Cal.L.Rev. 648 (1960).

This is not a case that required the trial court to admit the testimony. Dr. Tsai's testimony added nothing that was not or could not have been brought out by examination of the child as a witness. Additionally, nothing that he related as to the boy's credibility was beyond the common understanding of the jury.

Following a period of testing of the child done by others, Dr. Tsai evaluated the child in a twenty- to thirty-minute meeting at the request of the child's school, an evaluation unrelated to the case at bar. After establishing Dr. Tsai's qualifications, defense counsel questioned him as to what he recalled about the boy. The doctor stated that the child was hyperactive, and had an "undersocialized aggressive conduct disorder" and an I.Q. of 84 or 85 which would be classified as borderline mental retardation. Counsel then asked Dr. Tsai specifically as to the effect of hyperactivity on the boy's ability to answer questions. Dr. Tsai replied:

I believe it depends on the nature of the questions. It is not because of the short attention. The major problem is with his ability to understand the questions, that's more important, and if the question is not too long, or if the answer is not to be too long, then he should be able to answer.

Defendant then sought to establish that the boy had a very limited understanding of the concept of time. Dr. Tsai answered affirmatively that the child had difficulty with time. Defendant also raised this point, however, on cross-examination of the boy at trial, and established beyond question the boy's difficulty in this regard. We are at a loss to see what an expert opinion would add on this point.

Defendant then questioned the doctor about the boy's regard for school, and Dr. Tsai recalled that the boy had told him his teachers beat him up. Dr. Tsai testified, however, that he spoke only incidentally to a teacher about the remark and the teacher registered surprise at hearing it. He did not inquire further of the boy what the boy meant by the statement. He stated that he placed little weight on this point.

Defendant's attorney then engaged in the following colloquy with Dr. Tsai:

Q. When you were interviewing [the boy] did you make clear to him that it was important that he give you truthful responses to your questions? A. No. usually we don't do that. In our practice we try to make the child as comfortable as relaxed as possible, and we try just--my style, you see, is just kind of a chat with the child, so we are not involving, investigating things, so we just usually conduct it in a conversational style, and take from there what we combine with other information to make a judgment, so I did not specifically tell him that you have to tell me the truth, or it's very important that you tell the truth. The practice over there is somewhat different to the practice in other...