State v. Ortega

2008 NMCA 001, 175 P.3d 929, 143 N.M. 261
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 19, 2007
Docket26,533
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 2008 NMCA 001 (State v. Ortega) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ortega, 2008 NMCA 001, 175 P.3d 929, 143 N.M. 261 (N.M. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

KENNEDY, Judge.

{1} In this case we hold that the circumstances under which hearsay statements that were made by a child victim of criminal sexual penetration to a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) nurse are testimonial and subject to analysis under the Confrontation Clause. The district court’s order excluded the statements for the following reasons: (1) the SANE nurse’s primary reason for questioning Child was to obtain information about the alleged sexual abuse, (2) the SANE nurse was acting in concert with law enforcement, and (3) Child’s statements were testimonial and subject to the Confrontation Clause. We affirm, but also hold that contrary to the district court’s belief, a statement obtained under these circumstances would not be obtained for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment.

BACKGROUND

Facts Regarding Child and Her Examination

{2} Child’s mother overheard her live-in boyfriend, Defendant Joe Ortega, state to another person that he was going to be the “first to do” the eight-year-old Child. Mother believed that he was talking about having sex with her daughter. The following day, mother and Child had a conversation in which Child broke down and told her mother that she had been sexually molested by each Defendant. Two days after this conversation, Mother took Child to the Española Hospital emergency room. The staff at the emergency room contacted law enforcement and the SANE program at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Santa Fe. Officer Lewandowski from the State Police responded and talked to the head nurse in the SANE program, Nurse Lopez, who was out of town at a conference. It was determined that an immediate, acute physical examination of Child for injuries and to collect and preserve evidence was required.

{3} Officer Lewandowski and Child’s mother brought Child to the emergency room for the SANE examination. During the examination, a “sexual assault exam kit” examination was performed by Nurse Green to collect physical evidence (e.g., vaginal swabs, urine sample) for forensic examination. As she had been instructed, Nurse Green did not ask Child questions or take a history from her. Nurse Green gave the evidence she had collected to Officer Lewandowski following the exam. Child was given no medical treatment at that time. Nurse Green testified that she prepared the sexual assault exam kit for the purpose of collecting evidence, but did not take a history from Child because she was not performing a full SANE examination.

{4} Sometime after the physical examination, Child participated in a videotaped Safe-house interview. Four days after the acute examination, another SANE examination was performed by Nurse Lopez. This examination did not include the “evidence-collecting function” of the full SANE examination, because Nurse Green had already performed that portion of the exam. Nurse Lopez testified regarding the importance of taking a history and relating that history to the symptoms present in Child.

{5} Nurse Lopez did not see the Española Hospital report concerning Child or the chart from Nurse Green’s examination prior to her examination. She did speak with Officer Lewandowski who told her that Child had disclosed child abuse. Nurse Lopez asked Child why she was there, at which time, Child gave a spontaneous narrative; which was an occurrence that Nurse Lopez regarded as common, as “probably 99 percent of the children ... will say they know exactly why they are here and they spontaneously will give a disclosure.” Nurse Lopez took down the information by hand, which is her common practice. Again, Child was not provided medical treatment. Nurse Lopez stated that her duty as a member of the SANE multidisciplinary team was to forward the information she gathered to the New Mexico State Police, the District Attorney’s office, and the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs.

Facts Concerning SANE Programs and Their Operations

{6} In this case, three professionals associated with the SANE program testified in the district court. In addition to Nurses Green and Lopez, Dr. Jamie Lisa Gagan testified in her capacity as the medical director of the SANE program. She is a medical doctor, as required by the U.S. Department of Justice for SANE programs. Dr. Gagan was out of town with Nurse Lopez when Child was brought to the Española Hospital emergency room and joined in the consultation with Nurse Green as to what to do.

Other Procedural Facts

{7} The district attorney’s investigator attempted to make contact with Child prior to trial, without success. Child’s mother reported that she did not know of her daughter’s whereabouts because Child’s biological father had taken her away. The father did not cooperate, alternatively telling the district attorney’s investigator that he wanted to protect his daughter from further trauma and that he was afraid of Defendant. The State’s investigator was unable to determine Child’s whereabouts. The district court ruled that the State had not exhausted every reasonable means of procuring Child’s testimony, and therefore the State had not made a sufficient showing of her unavailability to testily.

{8} The State filed a motion in limine on January 12, 2006, to allow the use of the videotaped Safehouse interview in lieu of testimony, following which Defendants filed a joint motion in limine seeking to exclude the in-court testimony and out-of-court statements of Child. The district court initially allowed the admission of the statements made to Nurse Lopez, and transcribed by her, but limited it to those parts relevant to establish the basis for medical diagnosis or treatment. The following day, the district court sent out an explanatory letter changing its ruling to allow the use of the transcript as substantive evidence of the truth of the matters discussed therein, as a statement made for medical diagnosis and treatment under Rule 11 — 803(D) NMRA. The district court further noted that this Court had recently decided State v. Romero, 2006-NMCA-045, 139 N.M. 386, 133 P.3d 842 [hereinafter Romero I\ aff'd, 2007-NMSC-013, 141 N.M. 403, 156 P.3d 694, which by its fact-dependent analysis might compel the reconsideration of its order. Defendants promptly filed a motion for reconsideration, and the district court conducted an evidentiary hearing. Following the hearing, the district court’s order reiterated its prior exclusion of the Safehouse videotaped statement, and granted Defendant’s motion in limine to exclude evidence of Child’s statements to Nurse Lopez. In announcing its ruling from the bench, the district court gave a commendably thorough exposition of its thinking. The State only appeals the ruling excluding evidence of Nurse Lopez’s transcription of Child’s statements to her during the SANE interview.

DISCUSSION

{9} Focusing then solely on the exclusion of the statements given by Child as contained in the report of Nurse Lopez, the State asserts that: (1) the district court applied an incorrect legal standard that has since been modified or overruled by Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813, 126 S.Ct.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2008 NMCA 001, 175 P.3d 929, 143 N.M. 261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ortega-nmctapp-2007.