State v. Foreman

157 P.3d 228, 212 Or. App. 109, 2007 Ore. App. LEXIS 510
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided April 11, 2007·No. 01081917, A119825·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

*111 ROSENBLUM, J.

Defendant appeals following his conviction and sentencing for one count each of first-degree sexual abuse, ORS 163.427, and first-degree sodomy, ORS 163.405. He assigns error to the trial court’s admission into evidence of hearsay statements made by the three-year-old victim to her mother. He also asserts that the trial court committed plain error in admitting evidence of statements that the victim made to a doctor, in violation of defendant’s rights under the Confrontation Clause. Finally, he argues that the trial court violated his right to a jury trial by sentencing him under Measure 11 rather than under the sentencing guidelines. We affirm.

The facts pertinent to this appeal are undisputed. The material facts pertain primarily to defendant’s first assignment of error, in which he challenges the trial court’s ruling on a motion in limine made by the state. The state correctly anticipated that the court would later rule that G, the victim of defendant’s offenses, was not competent to testify at trial. 1 It therefore made a motion in limine to determine whether her mother could testify about statements that G had made to her concerning the abuse. Because the facts of the case are primarily relevant to that motion, except where noted, we draw the facts from the record of that hearing.

At the time of the offenses for which defendant was convicted, G and mother lived in a trailer park in Sweet Home. G was three years old. G’s great-grandmother lived in a trailer a few spaces away. Defendant, who lived in Lafayette, is great-grandmother’s son and G’s great-uncle.

At the hearing on the state’s motion in limine, mother testified to the facts that follow. Sometime in September, October, or November of 2000, G spent a night with great-grandmother in her home. When mother picked G up the next morning at about 8:30, defendant was there. Mother testified that, sometime between a week and a month later, G spent the night with mother’s aunt. She complained to mother’s aunt that urinating was painful, and mother’s *112 aunt told mother about the complaint when she picked G up the next day. Mother, who had herself been sexually abused as a child, became concerned that G had been abused. Later that evening, mother took G to the grocery store. As they walked from the parking lot to the store, using a tone she described as “friendly’ and “playful,” she asked G, “[H]as anybody ever touched you in your private parts?” G said, “Yes.” Mother asked her, “Well, now who would do a thing like that?” G responded, “My Uncle Bob,” referring to defendant. Mother asked her where he had touched her, and G pointed to her genital area. Mother then asked her where the touching had happened, and G told her that it had happened at great-grandmother’s home. Mother decided to make a doctor’s appointment to have G examined, and she asked her no further questions.

According to mother’s testimony, around the same time, some of G’s behavior changed. Mother testified that, in addition to complaining that it hurt to go to the bathroom, “she didn’t want anyone to wipe her, and she very seldom would wipe herself.” According to mother, G had not previously had any trouble wiping herself and had been comfortable with allowing adults to do it for her. Mother testified that G also became uncomfortable with changing her clothes with anyone around, which had not previously been the case.

Mother also testified that G would no longer go to the bathroom by herself. A day or two after G told mother that defendant had abused her, mother and G were at great-grandmother’s home when G had to use the bathroom. She would not go by herself, so mother accompanied her. As they walked down the hall toward the bathroom, they passed great-grandmother’s guest bedroom. According to mother, G stopped and, without any prompting, said, “This is where Uncle Bob was touching me. He had me on the bed.”

At the hearing on the state’s motion in limine, the state also called Dr. Chervenak, a doctor at a child victim assessment center, as a witness. She testified that she examined G on November 22,2000. Chervenak testified that, after giving G a physical examination, she excused mother and a nurse from the room and interviewed G privately:

*113 “My routine at that point is to remind them that I’m a doctor. And so I say, ‘I’m a doctor and I see lots and lots of kids that have been hurt or touched in ways they didn’t like.’ And I pause. And I say, ‘Did that ever happen to you?’ And then I write down what they answer.
“Q: You said those things to her?
“A: Yes, I did.
“Q: What happened next?
“A: She said, Yes.’ And I said to her, ‘Can you tell me more about that?’ And when she’s saying this part, she says yes, she’s looking down at the floor. And I said, ‘Can you tell me more about that?’ And she said, ‘Uncle Bob.’ And then she looked up and she looked right at me and she said, ‘He was naked. He did not have clothes on.’ And she was very— she had kind of a serious expression on her face when she said that. And I asked her to tell me more about — I said, ‘Can you tell me more about that?’ And she said, ‘His knot was moving around a lot.’
“And I happened to have a — I have a lot of stuffed animals in the room- — and I had a stuffed bear sitting next to me, and I picked up the stuffed bear, it’s about this big, and I said, ‘Can you point to the bear, where is this knot? Where would the knot be on this bear?’ And she pointed at the crotch of the bear, where the genital area would be located. And I asked [G], ‘Where did Uncle Bob touch you?’ And she said, ‘In his house.’ And then I asked her, ‘Where on your body did Uncle Bob touch you?’ And she looked at me and pointed to her genitalia and she said, ‘He touched me right here.’ And she said that with — it was sort of emphatic.”

Chervenak testified that G indicated that defendant had touched her genitalia with his hands and with his penis. The doctor asked “if anything had touched her mouth * * *.” She testified that G told her, ‘Yes. I was choking real bad.” When Chervenak asked G what had touched her mouth, G replied, “His knot.” According to Chervenak, G then spontaneously said, “I told him to stop.” She next testified that she asked G whether defendant had said anything when that was happening and G “said he went, ‘Okay, okay, okay,’ and she put her two hands up like this.” G also told her that she was crying.

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State v. Foreman, 157 P.3d 228, 212 Or. App. 109, 2007 Ore. App. LEXIS 510 (Or. Ct. App. 2007).

157 P.3d 228 (State v. Foreman) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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