Sartin v. Taylor

414 P.3d 412, 290 Or. App. 63
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided February 7, 2018·No. A157094·Published

Opinion

HADLOCK, J.

*65Petitioner was convicted of sexually abusing a young girl and of invading the personal privacy of her teenaged sister. After his convictions were affirmed on direct appeal, petitioner sought post-conviction relief, alleging that he had been denied constitutionally adequate assistance of counsel both at trial and on appeal because his lawyers had not challenged the admission of certain testimony on the ground that it was inadmissible "vouching" evidence. The post-conviction court denied relief on those claims. On appeal from the judgment denying post-conviction relief, we affirm.

As explained in more detail below, we write to address only a limited number of the issues that petitioner raises on appeal. We therefore do not comprehensively describe the events that led to petitioner's convictions and to the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. Instead, we summarize only those facts pertinent to the issues that we address in this opinion; we do so in a manner consistent with the post-conviction court's implicit and explicit factual determinations.

Petitioner lived with his girlfriend, Goings, and her two daughters, 16-year-old M and 7-year-old S. Goings and the girls' father were divorced. In early February 2010, M told her grandmother and her father's girlfriend, Foster, that petitioner had been touching her breasts. Foster alerted police the following day and an investigation ensued. A detective, McCuistion, interviewed M, S, and their *414mother at the family's home after petitioner had been taken to a police station. M was very upset and said she "couldn't believe that they had * * * told the police." M repeatedly expressed worry about how angry her mother would be at her; she also said "that they had just kind of exaggerated it and thought the worst and * * * she just didn't want to be taken away from her mom." However, M also reported having been abused by petitioner, telling McCuistion that petitioner had intentionally touched her on the vagina when she was in the eighth grade. M also reported that she had seen adult pornography on petitioner's computer. *66McCuistion also questioned S, who did not disclose any abuse at that point. When McCuistion asked S whether a big person had ever touched her private areas, she looked at McCuistion for 25 to 30 seconds, with tears welling up in her eyes, then said that her dog is white.

When McCuistion told Goings that M had confirmed some of the reported abuse, Goings did not exhibit any emotion or make any statements indicating concern. However, the Department of Human Services (DHS) planned at that point that the children could remain with their mother, who "was going to be protective of the children."

Soon thereafter, M was evaluated at Juliet's House, which was described as a "local child advocacy and abuse center for children, where they provide medical and physical examinations and also forensic child interviews." M was interviewed by a counselor, Warner; she also was evaluated by a physician, Sandberg, who did not discover any significant abnormalities during M's physical examination. During the Juliet's House evaluation, M stated that petitioner had sexually abused her on three occasions "with his hand to the genital area," both above and beneath her clothing. M also talked about Goings, saying that "her mom would become suicidal" if M and S were removed from her care. "[O]ver and over again," M expressed concern that she was going to be taken away from her mother, who M did not think could survive without her children. M told Warner that she had "regularly" asked S if petitioner had ever touched her, but S had always said no. M also said that she was afraid that S "was going to say something that would get herself in trouble and their mom, and that the kids would end up being taken away."

As a result of his medical examination of M, Sandberg made treatment recommendations that included no contact with petitioner, child counseling, and family counseling because "there seemed to be a lot of emotional turmoil in the family and it seemed like they needed some help and support through this."

Around this time, a DHS caseworker, Dunfee, formulated a safety plan that involved leaving the children in their mother's care because mother then "appeared to *67believe her daughters and wanted to be protective of her daughters."

S was evaluated at Juliet's House about a week later; that evaluation included both an interview by Warner and a physical examination by Sandberg. Sandberg did not discover anything unusual during S's physical examination. During her interview, S said that, after the police left the house after their initial visit, M and Goings had argued, "yelling back and forth, 'It's your fault,' 'No. It's your fault,' while they were shaking their fists" at each other (S called the argument a "fist fight," possibly because of the shaken fists). The argument related to M having made the statements to Foster that Foster then reported to police.

When the Juliet's House evaluators asked S about touching, she responded by saying something like, "I can't talk about that, because there are some things at home that other big people don't need to know about." She did not disclose abuse at that time. She did, however, describe pornography that she had heard, while petitioner was viewing it on the computer, and said that it was inappropriate. Sandberg recommended that S have no contact with petitioner and that she participate in counseling.

Following her interview of S, Warner met with others, including DHS caseworker Dunfee. Warner testified at trial about concerns that were expressed during that meeting:

"hearing the description of the fist fight and all the chaos that had been in the family, it certainly seemed to us as though *415[S] might have lots of reasons for not wanting to make things any worse. She felt like she was kind of guarded about what she said."

Dunfee also testified that she became concerned based on the statements that S made during her evaluation "and the way she said them that she was coached in what she had said." Based on those concerns, DHS petitioned for legal custody of the children, removed them from mother's care, and placed them with their father and Foster.

Several weeks later, S was evaluated at Juliet's House again because S had been "playing with herself" in the bathtub and told Foster that petitioner "washes in *68between her legs and told her to wash" and "showed [her] how to play." S also said that petitioner touched her breasts. She told Foster that she had promised petitioner that she would not tell anybody about "him touching her girls and her cha cha," which is what she called her breasts and her vaginal area.

Siepmann, a therapist and forensic interviewer who works at Juliet's House, participated in S's second evaluation, as did a nurse practitioner, Montesano.

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Sartin v. Taylor, 414 P.3d 412, 290 Or. App. 63 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

414 P.3d 412 (Sartin v. Taylor) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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