In the Interest of S.R.

920 A.2d 1262, 2007 Pa. Super. 79, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 371
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 21, 2007
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 920 A.2d 1262 (In the Interest of S.R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In the Interest of S.R., 920 A.2d 1262, 2007 Pa. Super. 79, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 371 (Pa. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION BY

KLEIN, J.:

¶ 1 S.R., then sixteen years old, appeals from the disposition following an adjudication of delinquency on the charges of aggravated indecent assault and related offenses for allegedly molesting his four-year-old niece, L.K. We conclude L.K’s statements to her mother were non-testimonial and therefore properly admitted under the Tender Years Statute. However, because we conclude that L.K.’s statements from her interview with a forensic interview specialist were testimonial, as recently defined by the United States Supreme Court, admission of those statements violated S.R.’s Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. We therefore reverse and remand for a new adjudicatory hearing.

¶ 2 When L.K. was put on the stand, she broke down and was unable to testify. It is agreed that she was therefore unavailable. The essential testimony proffered was from L.K.’s mother, B.K., (S.R.’s older sister) and Jacqueline Block, a forensic interview specialist with the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance (PCA). B.K. first questioned her daughter when her daughter was simulating sex acts and saying sexually explicit things to her dolls. L.K. told B.K. that her uncle, S.R., had assaulted her sexually. Later, Ms. Block was contacted by the police to do the interview for the police investigation. Ms. Block testified that this procedure was used to limit the number of times the child victim had to be interviewed. Ms. Block was alone with L.K., but a police officer watched through one-way glass. Although L.K. was allowed to color and play, the interview followed the pattern of court testimony.

¶ S The defense does not claim that the trial court erred in finding that the testimony was admissible under the Tender Years Statute. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5985.1.1 Instead, the defense claims that admission of the testimony violates the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution.2 We hold that under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), and Davis v. Washington, — U.S.-, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006), the Mother’s questioning of her daughter was not designed for prosecution and therefore [1264]*1264her statements are non-testimonial, and L.K’s statements to Ms. Block from her interview, carried out under the direction of the police department and for purposes of the investigation and potential prosecution, are testimonial. Ms. Block’s testimony violates the Confrontation Clause as interpreted in Crawford and, more recently, in Davis. We therefore reverse and remand for a new adjudicatory hearing.

Facts

¶ 4 As noted, L.K. became hysterical on the witness stand. The trial court held an in camera hearing and determined that she was not competent to testify. Based on this and on other indications of reliability, the Commonwealth invoked the Tender Years Statute. S.R. does not challenge the trial court’s application of the statute, but rather the constitutionality of its application.

¶ 5 The testimony came from B.K., L.K.’s mother, who is also S.R.’s sister. B.K. testified that she dropped off L.K. at her mother’s home, where S.R. also lived, for babysitting. (N.T. Hearing, 9/7/05, at 9). When B.K. returned, she saw L.K. and S.R. sleeping underneath the covers in S.R.’s bed. Five days later, B.K. saw L.K. playing with her dolls, bending them over and saying, “Do you want me to do it to you?” (Id. at 13-14). When B.K. asked L.K. what was wrong, L.K. asked her mother if S.R. was allowed to put his finger in her butt. (Id. at 15). L.K. then told B.K. that S.R. put his finger in her butt and she told B.K. she didn’t like it. (Id. at 15). Later, B.K. saw L.K. trying to ram a paper towel holder into her baby sister’s rear end, through the diaper, saying “Yeah, you like that, huh? You like that.” (Id. at 28).

¶ 6 When B.K. took her daughter L.K. to the pediatrician, L.K. refused to take off her clothes and let the doctor examine her, and she said that S.R. didn’t do it. (Id. at 21). L.K. began crying and closed her legs tightly. She had never reacted this way before. The pediatrician recommended L.K. be evaluated at St. Christopher’s Hospital. (Id. at 22). That examination was inconclusive.

¶ 7 Later, B.K. testified that L.K. told her more of the details, describing how S.R. used hair gel and put his fingers in her butt. B.K. testified that after that L.K. would not allow anyone to do her hair. (Id. at 27).

¶ 8 The next witness was Jacqueline Block, employed by the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance (PCA) as a “forensic interview specialist.” PCA coordinates and facilitates multi-disciplinary investigations involving child abuse. (Id. at 72). Block was contacted by the police to carry out the interview with L.K. Block testified that she is trained to examine children in a neutral fashion and an appropriate way to avoid traumatizing the child, “and to minimize the number of interviews that a child has to receive over the course of an investigation.” (Id. at 73). Block further stated that this procedure “hopefully diminishes that number by bringing Department of Human Services and the police together and documenting the complete interview.” Id.

¶ 9 While Block conducted the interview alone with L.K., a Philadelphia police officer observed the interview through a one-way mirror. (Id. at 73-74). Block started the interview by determining if L.K. knew the difference between truth and lies, and the interview went much as trial testimony might go. L.K. described how S.R. put his finger in her butt. She described how he used purple gel. (Id. at 79-80). During the interview, Block took a break to conference with “the team” — the police officer and someone from the Department of Health and Human Services. At the end of the interview, Ms. Block asked L.K.:

[1265]*1265“What do you want to happen to Uncle S.R.?” She replied, “I want him to go to jail cause [sic] that’s nasty.” (Id. at 84).

Discussion

¶ 10 Although S.R. raised other issues in his Pa.R.A.P.1925(b) statement, on appeal he only challenges the violation of his right to confront his accuser.

¶ 11 This case is controlled by the United States Supreme Court’s decisions in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004) and Davis v. Washington, — U.S. -, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006). We note that Davis was decided six months after the trial judge wrote his 1925(a) opinion in this case, so obviously Davis was not discussed in that opinion.

¶ 12 In Crawford, Justice Scalia wrote that the Confrontation Clause was designed to curtail the use of ex parte examinations against an accused, particularly interrogations by law enforcement officers. The Court redefined the scope and effect of the Confrontation Clause, specifically overruling, in part, Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980), which conditioned the admissibility of all hearsay evidence on whether it fell under a “firmly rooted hearsay exception” or bore “particularized guarantees of trustworthiness.” 448 U.S. at 66,100 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
920 A.2d 1262, 2007 Pa. Super. 79, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 371, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-interest-of-sr-pasuperct-2007.