State v. Myers

• Decision Date: 21 December 1984
• Docket Number: No. C8-82-1031,C8-82-1031
• Citation: 359 N.W.2d 604
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. James Alan MYERS, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 604

359 N.W.2d 604

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. James Alan MYERS, Appellant.

No. C8-82-1031.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Dec. 21, 1984.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Evidence was sufficient to sustain defendant's conviction for criminal sexual conduct in the second degree.

2. In a prosecution for criminal sexual conduct, the testimony of a minor victim need not be corroborated unless the evidence otherwise adduced is insufficient to sustain conviction.

3. The trial court's refusal to let defendant attack the victim's credibility by testifying about past instances in which complainant may have lied was not a denial of defendant's rights under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution to confront his accuser.

4. It is within the trial court's discretion to admit qualified expert testimony describing the psychological and emotional characteristics typically observed in sexually abused children and those observed in the complainant and giving other background data providing a relevant insight into the conduct and demeanor of the child complainant which the jury could not otherwise bring to its evaluation of her credibility.

5. Defendant opened the door to opinion testimony regarding the truthfulness of complainant's allegations by eliciting the opinion of complainant's mother about the truthfulness of her daughter's allegations.

C. Paul Jones, Public Defender Mark F. Anderson, Asst. Public Defender, Minneapolis, for appellant.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Alan L. Mitchell, St. Louis County Atty., Duluth, Donovan W. Frank, Gary J. Pagliaccetti, Asst. St. Louis County Attys., Virginia, for respondent.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

COYNE, Justice.

On April 15, 1982, a jury found James Alan Myers guilty of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree, Minn.Stat. Sec. 609.343(a) (1982) (sexual contact with a complainant under 13 years of age by an actor who is more than 36 months older than the complainant). Pursuant to the judgment of conviction, Myers was sentenced to a 35-month term of imprisonment. On appeal defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support conviction, that the refusal to permit defendant to testify to occasions on which the complainant may have lied was a deprivation of his constitutional right to confront his accuser, and that the trial court erred in admitting expert psychological testimony describing the behavior and symptoms typically exhibited by sexually abused children and expressing the opinion that the complainant's allegations were not fabricated. We affirm.

Myers was convicted of having criminal sexual contact between August 1980 and July 1981 with the young daughter of the woman with whom he was living. The particular incident which led to these proceedings occurred one morning in either November or December of 1980, when complainant was seven years old. On that morning, while Myers was preparing breakfast in the kitchen of their two-story home, he told complainant to come downstairs from her bedroom and help him. Complainant initially refused but complied when Myers threatened to spank her. Complainant's mother testified that she was in bed when Myers called her daughter and that, because it was quiet downstairs, she got out of bed to see what was happening. She stated that when she arrived downstairs, Myers was sitting on the living room sofa and her daughter was standing directly across the room in the doorway between the living room and kitchen. The mother took complainant upstairs to her bedroom and asked her what had happened. Complainant first responded that she did not know, but ultimately she said that Myers did things to her like he did to her mother. The mother then confronted Myers who said he did not know what the complainant meant.

Some time after this incident the mother told her sister of the complainant's allegations. It was not, however, until several months later, on September 15, 1981, when the complainant's maternal uncle contacted the St. Louis County Department of Social Services, that the authorities were notified of the possibility of abuse. On the following day, Lynn Halenbeck, a St. Louis County Social Worker, talked to the complainant at her school. Halenbeck testified that during the course of their conversation, complainant informed her that Myers would sometimes come into her bedroom at night and touch her on her "chest" and between her legs. Upon further questioning by Halenbeck, complainant detailed the manner in which Myers molested her. Halenbeck also stated that she deduced from complainant's statements that Myers had commenced abusing her when she was six and that the child could not conceptualize the difference between sexual penetration and contact. On the basis of this information, Halenbeck contacted the county attorney's office, and thereafter obtained a court order removing complainant from her home. On October 6, 1981, formal charges were filed against Myers. ¹

The state also presented the testimonies of Dr. John Mathers, an obstetrician and gynecologist who examined complainant on March 1, 1982, and of Dr. Clare Bell, a clinical psychologist at the Range Mental Health Center, who began treating complainant on December 11, 1981. Dr. Mathers testified that his physical examination of complainant revealed that her hymen was intact and that she was otherwise normal for a girl of her age. Dr. Mathers further explained that if there had been penetration there would have been scarring, but the absence of scarring was not inconsistent with pushing on the vagina or penetration through the outer lips.

Dr. Bell testified that commencing on December 11, 1981, she saw complainant on seven occasions in sessions each lasting at least one hour. Dr. Bell stated that in each of these sessions, complainant related the manner in which defendant abused her and that, while she continually added information, the child's allegations remained consistent.

The complainant, who was eight years old at the time of the trial, also testified and substantially repeated her earlier statements to Halenbeck and Bell. When questioned on cross-examination about the theft of some combs and money from a neighbor's house, complainant responded that she did not remember the incident. Finally, complainant testified on cross-examination that she was not happy when Myers commenced living with them.

Defendant testified at trial, denying the allegations of sexual abuse. Myers also sought to testify concerning an occasion when complainant had lied about stealing some combs, but the testimony was excluded on the grounds that it constituted extrinsic impeachment evidence.

Defendant raises several issues which do not require much discussion. His initial contention, that the evidence was legally insufficient to support the verdict, is meritless. Our review of the record, particularly with regard to the young complainant's consistency in describing defendant's acts and her detailed description of the manner in which he perpetrated the abuse, convinces us that there was ample evidence to support the jury's verdict.

For the same reasons, we find no merit in the defendant's contention that corroboration was required for conviction. Minn.Stat. Sec. 609.347, subd. 1 (1982), provides that in a prosecution for criminal sexual conduct the complainant's testimony need not be corroborated. Corroboration of an allegation of sexual abuse of a child is required only if the evidence otherwise adduced is insufficient to sustain conviction. State v. Hesse, 281 N.W.2d 491, 492 (Minn.1979). Hence, our determination that the evidence was legally sufficient to support the verdict disposes of any necessity for corroboration. Moreover, despite the absence of physical corroboration, the child's testimony was, to some extent, corroborated. Her mother's testimony regarding the morning incident in November or December of 1980 and the testimony of Halenbeck and Bell revealing the consistent and positive nature of the complainant's statements supported her allegations. See State v. Wrightington, 323 N.W.2d 793 (Minn.1982).

Neither is there any merit in the defendant's contention that the refusal to let him testify that the complainant had once lied about taking combs from a neighbor's house was a denial of his right under the sixth amendment of the United States Constitution to confront his accuser. Cross-examination is recognized as the principal means by which a defendant may test the credibility of his accuser's testimony. Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 316, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 1110, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974). Defendant's counsel extensively cross-examined the complainant concerning her feelings toward the defendant and about the comb incident. We agree with the trial court that the credibility of a witness may not be attacked by extrinsic proof of specific instances of misconduct, Minn.R.Evid. 608(b), and that in view of the tangential relationship between the proffered testimony and the central issue of the case--the truth of the complainant's allegations of sexual abuse--any probative value of the testimony was far outweighed by its prejudicial effect. State v. Waddell, 308 N.W.2d 303 (Minn.1981).

A more difficult question is raised by the testimony of Dr. Clare Bell, a clinical psychologist at the Range Mental Health Center in Virginia, Minnesota. Dr. Bell, who had been awarded her Ph.D. degree in psychology in 1979, had a caseload of sixty familial sexual abuse cases at the time of the trial. Dr. Bell related what the complainant had told her about the breakfast time incident and other occasions of sexual abuse, and she testified that the complainant's allegations had remained consistent throughout their several meetings.

In addition, Dr. Bell testified to the uniqueness of incest ²--that it ordinarily goes on for a long period of time; unlike most crimes, it is unusual for it to occur only on a single occasion. Over ...