Blount v. Commonwealth

392 S.W.3d 393, 2013 WL 646202, 2013 Ky. LEXIS 15
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 21, 2013
DocketNo. 2012-SC-000002-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 392 S.W.3d 393 (Blount v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blount v. Commonwealth, 392 S.W.3d 393, 2013 WL 646202, 2013 Ky. LEXIS 15 (Ky. 2013).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

Justice VENTERS.

Appellant, Malcolm Blount, appeals as a matter of right, Ky. Const. § 110, from a judgment of the Graves Circuit Court convicting him of two counts of first-degree sodomy and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and sentencing him to twenty years’ imprisonment. The victim of Appellant’s alleged crimes is his step-granddaughter, “Sally,”1 who was under 12 years of age when the abuse allegedly occurred.

The sole issue Appellant raises on appeal is that the trial court erred by allowing testimony from Sally’s mother, and to a lesser extent her father, regarding changes in Sally’s behavior, which the mother implied were symptomatic of child sexual abuse based upon discussions she had with Lori Brown, a clinical psychologist who counseled Sally and her family. Appellant alleges that this testimony amounted to inadmissible evidence of “child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome” (CSAAS).

[395]*395While we conclude that the evidence was improper, we further conclude that the trial court sustained Appellant’s objection to the specific testimony at issue, and granted all of the relief he requested concerning that evidence. We accordingly affirm. We discuss the issue to dispel an apparent belief that, despite our well-established line of cases prohibiting expert opinion on CSAAS, lay witnesses may testify about a putative victim’s behavioral changes to imply what the expert is forbidden from saying directly — that behavioral changes signify sexual abuse.

Appellant was indicted and charged with two counts of first-degree sodomy and five counts of first-degree sexual abuse committed against Sally. The same indictment also charged Appellant with several similar crimes allegedly committed against two other young girls. Because Appellant was acquitted at trial on those charges, no issues relating to them are now before this Court.

At Appellant’s trial, Sally’s mother, Brandi, testified that she was surprised when she first learned that her daughter may have been a victim of sexual abuse. Brandi testified that she had not recognized the significance of her daughter’s behavioral changes around the time of the alleged abuse until going through counseling with Lori Brown for families of sex abuse victims, and that “surely [Sally] would have told us something ... anything. We would have seen the signs.” The prosecutor then asked Brandi, “Did you even know the signs [of sexual abuse] to look for?” Brandi responded, “No, sir, not until after we’ve been to counseling and we, you know, we look back to after, about [Sally] was six and her attitude started changing. You know, she started not letting me fix her hair.” Appellant objected and the trial court sustained the objection, allowing Brandi to testify to what she personally observed, but not to the “signs” that the counselors told her to look for.

As the testimony continued, Brandi said, “People’s [sic] always saying there’s signs [of sexual abuse], well then, looking back, until she was 5 or 6, [Sally] was the happiest kid. Then around first grade, six-years old, she started ... she didn’t really care about herself ... she went from being the best dressed in school to wearing basketball shorts, t-shirts[.]” Brandi continued “[Sally’s hair] was always really cute, and then she was like, ‘don’t touch my hair ... I don’t want you touching me, don’t look at me.’ I didn’t know that was a sympt ... sign.” Appellant again objected, and asked for a mistrial.

Sally’s father, Kevin, also testified. The prosecutor asked him whether he had noticed any changes in Sally when she was around six or seven years old, the time of the alleged abuse. He responded that Sally had always been small for her age but she began gaining weight around that time. Kevin added that he did not know if this was abnormal, that he did not know “what to look for” at the time, implying that later, through counseling, he learned that Sally had exhibited the “signs” of sexual abuse.

The clear import of this testimony was to imply that Sally had displayed the signs of CSAAS that Sally’s parents had learned about through counseling with Brown. Since Bussey v. Commonwealth, 697 S.W.2d 139 (Ky.1985) and Lantrip v. Commonwealth, 713 S.W.2d 816, 817 (Ky.1986) this Court has consistently held that the symptoms, or signs, of the “so-called” child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome are not admissible. Appellant objected appropriately throughout Brandi’s testimony. The trial court recognized the validity of Appellant’s concern, and ruled that Brandi could testify to what she observed concern[396]*396ing the child’s changed behavior, as long as she did not testify that they were “signs” of CSAAS as it had been explained to her by Brown. Thus, it is apparent from the discussions at the bench that the trial court and the prosecutor believed a witness may testify regarding behavioral changes by an alleged victim, and implicit in that belief is that the jury may infer from these behavioral changes that the abuse actually occurred.

After further discussions about the propriety of Brandi’s testimony, the trial court admonished the jury to disregard Brandi’s testimony insofar as it referred to the symptoms or signs of sexual abuse that Brown had told her to look for. The judge instructed the jury not to give that testimony “any evidentiary value.”

Appellant denied committing the crimes and presented his defense that the charges were a total fabrication. He argues that the prosecution was clearly trying to evade the prohibition against CSAAS evidence by insinuating that Sally’s behavioral changes were recognized as symptoms of sexual abuse. In Bussey, Lantrip and several subsequent cases2 we have consistently held that evidence of CSAAS was not admissible because it lacked scientific acceptance. In Newkirk v. Commonwealth, 937 S.W.2d 690 (Ky. 1996), we noted that “[i]n an unbroken line of decisions ... this Court has repeatedly expressed its distrust of expert testimony which purported to determine criminal conduct based on a perceived psychological syndrome.” Id. at 690-91. The multiple rationales for the specific rule against CSAAS testimony include “the lack of diagnostic reliability, the lack of general acceptance within the discipline from which such testimony emanates, and the overwhelmingly persuasive nature of such testimony effectively dominating the decision-making process, uniquely the function of the jury.” Id. at 691.

In Hellstrom v. Commonwealth, 825 S.W.2d 612 (Ky.1992), we reversed a conviction based upon testimony that “ ‘delayed disclosure’ is common in these types of cases.” Id. at 613. We noted that “[b]oth sides recognize that we have reversed a number of cases because of trial error in permitting the use of testimony regarding the so-called ‘child abuse accommodation syndrome’ to bolster the prosecution’s case.” Id. (citations omitted). Further, it does not matter that the witness “listed the symptoms but refrained from classifying them directly as the ‘child sexual abuse syndrome.’ Avoiding the term ‘syndrome’ does not transform inadmissible hearsay into reliable scientific evidence.” Id. at 614.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
392 S.W.3d 393, 2013 WL 646202, 2013 Ky. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blount-v-commonwealth-ky-2013.