People v. Julian

246 Cal. Rptr. 3d 517, 34 Cal. App. 5th 878
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedApril 29, 2019
Docket2d Crim. No. B289613
StatusPublished
Cited by103 cases

This text of 246 Cal. Rptr. 3d 517 (People v. Julian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Julian, 246 Cal. Rptr. 3d 517, 34 Cal. App. 5th 878 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

GILBERT, P.J.

*880Sports fans often use "statistical odds" to predict the outcome of a sporting event. Statistical odds, however, are not a substitute for admissible evidence to decide the guilt or innocence of the defendant.

Cody Adam Julian appeals a judgment following his conviction after a jury trial of four counts of lewd acts upon a child ( Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a) ) and one count of sexual penetration with a child under 10 years old (id. , § 288.7, subd. (b)). We conclude, among other things, that 1) the People's expert witness introduced inadmissible statistical evidence that went beyond the permissible scope of child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome (CSAAS) evidence and deprived Julian of a fair trial; 2) Julian's counsel provided ineffective assistance by not objecting to this evidence; and 3) Julian's defense was prejudicially undermined by his counsel's question that *881invited a police detective to give the opinion that the People's witness against Julian was credible. We reverse and remand for a new trial.

FACTS

Julian, 28 years old, moved into a home where four minor sisters resided - child 1, child 2, child 3, and child 4.

Child 2's Testimony

Child 2, 10 years old, testified Julian played games with her and her sisters, including tag and hide and seek. She played a tickle game with Julian and her father. The prosecutor asked her whether Julian "ever put his hands down [her] pants when [she] played the tickle game." She responded, "I don't think so. I don't remember." When he asked the question again, she said, "No."

The prosecutor asked child 2 how many times Julian touched her "private area" when she was seven years old. She answered, "I think maybe, like, once or twice." He asked, "Can you tell me about the very first time you remember it happening[?]" Child 2 responded, "I don't really remember it." She remembered playing hide and seek near a truck. There were "pokey leaves" on the ground. Julian asked her to sit on his lap. She sat there because she did not want to sit on those leaves. Julian put his hand "inside [her] underwear" and put his finger in her "private area" - vagina. On a second occasion, they played hide and seek near a truck. Julian asked her "to sit on his lap." She "went on his lap and then he did the same thing that he did [the first time]."

The prosecutor asked child 2, "[W]hen you hid down by [a] tree one time, did [Julian] do this to you?" She said, "Yes." They were playing hide and seek; she sat *520on his lap. Julian also touched her private area on another occasion when they were on a bed in a recreational vehicle (RV) playing hide and seek. He put his finger in her vagina and her anus. She said it hurt. The prosecutor asked, "How many times did something like this happen in the RV?" She said, "I think, like - like, twice or something." She did not immediately report these incidents. She eventually told child 4 about them.

Julian's counsel asked child 2 about a Child Abuse Interdisciplinary Team (CAIT) interview where child 2 told the interviewer that Julian first sexually assaulted her when she "was still eight." Counsel asked child 2, "[I]f you had said that, would that have been true or would that have been a lie?" She said, "I think it would have been a lie." Counsel asked her about another conflict between her sexual penetration testimony and her CAIT interview. The CAIT interviewer asked her whether Julian had "ever gone inside that part? [Her]

*882private area?" She responded, "Um no, not really." Child 2 testified her answer to the interviewer's question was not "the truth." During the CAIT interview, she said Julian had her "sit in his lap every time." She testified, "That would have been mostly true and a little bit of a lie." She said, "[H]e didn't have me sit on his lap when we were in the RV." Her statement to the CAIT interviewer that Julian did not touch inside her "private area" while in the RV "was a lie." After talking with her mother, she remembered more details than she mentioned in her initial CAIT interview.

The Testimony of Child 2's Sisters

Child 1, eight years old, testified she and her sisters played hide and seek with Julian. She and child 4 "would look," and Julian, child 2, and child 3 would hide. She did not remember Julian doing anything that made her "feel uncomfortable." He did not do anything that made her sisters uncomfortable. Julian did not touch her "in her private area" and she did not "ever see" Julian touch child 2 in that area. She did not remember child 2 telling her that Julian did something to make her feel uncomfortable.

Child 3, seven years old, testified that when they played hide and seek she, Julian, and child 2 would hide in an RV, and child 1 and child 4 would try to find them. She was a "look out" for child 1 and child 4 in the top bed of the RV. Julian and child 2 were hiding in a bed in the back of the RV. Child 3 saw Julian "play a tickling game" with child 2 on her armpits and neck. She did not see Julian touch child 2 in her private parts. She did not remember child 2 ever telling her that Julian did something to her or that she was afraid of Julian. She did not see Julian touch child 1 or child 4 inappropriately.

Child 4, 12 years old, testified Julian had a 20- or 30-minute time limit for hide and seek. He and her two sisters would hide in the RV, her father's shop, his truck, and the forest. One time while playing hide and seek, she saw Julian and child 2 in a bed in the RV. Child 2's face was a little "paler than" normal. Child 4 did not see Julian touch child 1, child 2, or child 3 in an inappropriate way. Sometime in 2016, child 2 said Julian did something to her. Child 4 testified, "I thought she was lying. ... I didn't think he could do something like that." Child 2 did not want child 4 to tell her mother. The next time child 2 mentioned this, child 4 "talked [child 2] into telling [her] mom."

Urquiza's Expert Testimony

Anthony Joseph Urquiza, a clinical psychologist, testified about the CSAAS theory. CSAAS dispels myths people have about the reactions children have to sexual *521abuse, including the myths that: 1) children are sexually abused by strangers, 2) they can escape the abuse "environment," *8833) they would disclose abuse "right away," and 4) they "will be significantly distressed." Most sexually abused children are "sexually abused by somebody" they know. They do not report abuse immediately. Fear motivates them to keep the abuse secret. They learn "the ability to cope" with the abuse. "They submit to the experience."

Statistical Data on False Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse

After presenting CSAAS evidence, the People introduced a new issue - the statistical percentage of false allegations by child sexual abuse victims. Urquiza testified false allegations by children "don't happen very often." "The range of false allegations that are known to law enforcement or [Child Protective Services] ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
246 Cal. Rptr. 3d 517, 34 Cal. App. 5th 878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-julian-calctapp5d-2019.