State v. Wixom

366 P.3d 353, 275 Or. App. 824, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 1600
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 30, 2015
DocketC112365CR; A152893
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 366 P.3d 353 (State v. Wixom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wixom, 366 P.3d 353, 275 Or. App. 824, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 1600 (Or. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

NAKAMOTO, J.

Defendant appeals a judgment convicting him of one count of first-degree sexual abuse, ORS 163.427. Before trial, defendant moved for the court’s in camera review of the victim’s juvenile dependency records maintained by the Department of Human Services (DHS), which defendant believed would yield information helpful to the defense at trial. Defendant also moved to exclude a video recording of the victim’s interview conducted at Child Abuse Response and Evaluation Services Northwest (CARES), a child abuse assessment center, after the victim disclosed the abuse. The trial court denied defendant’s pretrial motions. On appeal, defendant argues that the trial court erred in failing to conduct an in camera review of the DHS records, admitting the video recording of the victim’s CARES interview, and allowing the recording in the jury room during deliberations. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

The victim was born in 1998 and is defendant’s stepdaughter. Defendant married the victim’s mother in 2002 and, until their divorce in 2009, defendant and the victim’s mother lived together with the victim as a family. In 2009, DHS removed the victim from her mother’s care, due to her mother’s problems, and the victim was placed in several different foster homes. While the victim was in foster care, defendant maintained his relationship with her through visits.

A year later, the victim was returned to her mother, who lived next door to defendant, and the victim began regularly spending every other weekend at defendant’s house. Eventually, the victim moved to defendant’s house. Several months later, the victim fell asleep while watching a movie with defendant and awoke to find him touching her vagina under her underwear. After the victim reported the incident to her mother, the mother’s boyfriend reported the incident to DHS.

As part of DHS’s investigation, the DHS protective services worker arranged for the victim to be interviewed at CARES. The victim told the interviewer that defendant had [827]*827molested her and described the abuse. The interview was video recorded.

A grand jury issued an indictment charging defendant with one count of first-degree sexual abuse, based on the victim’s disclosures. Before trial, DHS disclosed to the prosecutor and defense counsel its records of its investigation of the allegation that defendant had sexually abused the victim. However, DHS informed defense counsel that it would not produce additional, noninvestigatory records because they were confidential.

Defendant filed a pretrial motion in which he sought to discover DHS’s records pertaining to the victim and her foster care placements. The trial court denied the motion, with leave to renew the request. Defendant did not seek those DHS records again, either before or at trial.

Defendant also filed a pretrial motion to exclude the recorded CARES interview and to preclude the video from going into the jury room. The trial court denied the motion. At trial, the state played the entire video recording of the victim’s interview at CARES, and the recording was in the jury room during the jury’s deliberations.

The jury found defendant guilty of the single charge of first-degree sexual abuse. Defendant now challenges the court’s rulings concerning the DHS records and the video recording of the CARES interview.

II. DISCOVERY OF THE DHS RECORDS

On appeal, defendant first assigns error to the denial of his motion for discovery of the DHS records. He contends that (1) he was statutorily entitled to an in camera review of the DHS records under two discovery statutes, ORS 135.815 and ORS 135.873, because they relate to the victim and no evidentiary privilege protected the records from discovery, and (2) he was constitutionally entitled to an in camera review of the DHS records and to disclosure of relevant and exculpatory material in DHS’s records under a number of provisions of the Oregon and United States constitutions.

[828]*828Whether defendant was entitled to discovery is a question of law, which we review for legal error. See State v. Divito, 330 Or 319, 327-28, 5 P3d 1103 (2000) (noting that “the trial court acted on the basis of a misunderstanding of the law” when it imposed on the state a discovery obligation under ORS 135.815). In reviewing discovery rulings, we are bound by the trial court’s factual findings, if supported by evidence in the record. State v. Brown, 310 Or 347, 366, 800 P2d 259 (1990); State v. Addicks, 34 Or App 557, 560, 579 P2d 289, rev den, 284 Or 80-a (1978). We conclude that defendant did not demonstrate a statutory or constitutional entitlement to an in camera review of the DHS records. The trial court did not err.

As noted earlier, defendant received records of DHS’s investigation of the sexual abuse allegation against defendant. In his motion, defendant sought notes and reports in DHS’s records concerning the victim’s previous placement in foster care and her behavior. The only records at issue in this case are those juvenile dependency documents in the victim’s DHS file, which DHS refused to produce on the ground that they are confidential and protected from review, even by the prosecution.

Defense counsel’s declaration in support of the motion stated that good cause existed for an order to DHS to produce its records, “because after being served with a valid subpoena, DHS has informed defense counsel that absent an Order, such as the one sought, DHS will not comply with the subpoena.” In addition, defense counsel averred that “[defendant believes the requested records are material to the issue of guilt or innocence, and that the materials are favorable to the defense.” Defense counsel also stated that defendant’s interest in receiving exculpatory evidence outweighed the confidential nature of the records. As for defendant’s need for the records, defense counsel explained that “some of this information could be exculpatory”:

“For example, I believe the reports could contain information about potential witnesses in this case, such as [the victim’s] foster parents and biological mother ***. I believe that background information on [the victim’s mother], as well as DHS’s evaluation of [the victim’s] various foster [829]*829placements may provide exculpatory evidence. In addition, I believe the records likely provide information on [the victim’s] family life, as well as her physical and emotional states. Such information could form the basis of a defense that [the victim] has fabricated some or all of the current allegation.”

At the hearing on defendant’s motion for in camera review, defense counsel similarly argued a series of beliefs or “suspicions”:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
366 P.3d 353, 275 Or. App. 824, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 1600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wixom-orctapp-2015.