United States v. Dildy

39 F.R.D. 340, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10639
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedJanuary 7, 1966
DocketCrim. No. 1095-65
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 39 F.R.D. 340 (United States v. Dildy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Dildy, 39 F.R.D. 340, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10639 (D.D.C. 1966).

Opinion

LEONARD P. WALSH, District Judge.

Defendant’s motions test the power of the Court. He moves firstly for a psychiatric examination of the prosecutrix in this, an incest case. Secondly, he moves for a blood test to be taken of the prosecutrix and the prosecutrix’ infant son. The motions will be considered in that order.

I

Defendant requests the psychiatric examination of the prosecutrix as a matter of right. He contends that the complainant woman in a sex offense should always be examined by competent experts to determine whether she suffers from some mental or moral delusion or tendency. And he particularly emphasizes the need for such examination when, as in this case, the prosecutrix is a young girl, since defendant alleges that young girls are peculiarly subject to sexual fantasies leading to downright falsification.

In Wilson v. United States, 106 U.S.App.D.C. 226, 271 F.2d 492 (1959), the court intimated in dicta a sympathy with [342]*342Wigmore’s conclusion that “No judge should ever let a sex offense charge go to a jury unless the female complainant’s social history and mental make-up have been examined and testified to by a qualified physician.” That case, however, was decided on other grounds. The court specifically stated that it had not adopted Wigmore’s view in the past and did not adopt it at that time. They merely emphasized that view to confirm the traditional skepticism of the courts when confronted with the accusations of a female complainant in a sex case.

Whatever skepticism the courts may hold, this Court is unable to parlay that skepticism into a power to force a reluctant prosecutrix to take a pretrial mental examination. The court has no such inherent power over citizens who are prospective witnesses in criminal matters. No doubt such testimony would be admissible if the witness voluntarily submitted to the examination. People v. Cowles, 246 Mich. 429, 224 N.W. 387 (1929); Rice v. State, 195 Wis. 181, 217 N.W. 697 (1928). But when the witness refuses to submit to such examination, there is “a great dearth of authority” affording the court the power to compel her. Psychiatric Lie Detection, 21 F.R.D. 199, at p. 215. On the other hand, there is authority indicating that, lacking a' statute, courts are powerless in such situations. Taborsky v. State, 142 Conn. 619, 116 A.2d 433, 49 A.L.R.2d 1238 (1955); Goodwin v. State, 114 Wis. 318, 90 N.W. 170 (1902); Gregg v. State, 69 Okl.Cr. 103, 101 P.2d 289 (1940).

Both Conrad and Wigmore are outspoken proponents of providing the court with power to order such examinations; yet both recognize that such an increase in judicial power is a legislative task. Conrad, Psychiatric Lie Detection, supra, 21 F.R.D. at 216. 3 Wigmore 294(b) sets forth a proposed statute.

Defendant herein asserts that this Court has the power to issue a subpoena directing the prosecutrix to submit to a mental examination. There is no case on this point in the District of Columbia. A precedent for the enforcement of such power was not set in United States v. Dunmore, D.C., D.C.Crim. No. 56-61, Feb. 17, 1961. Indeed, the order in that case was rescinded when the prosecutrix refused to submit to the examination. The subpoena powers of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure fall significantly short of affording a defendant the right to mental examination of an important witness. Indigent defendants are afforded the right to subpoena witnesses to a trial at Government expense, F.R.Cr.P. 17(b). They may move for the production of documentary evidence and objects, F.R.Cr.P. 17(c). But they do not have the right to issue a pretrial subpoena to force a prosecutrix to undergo a mental examination. The corresponding power under the Civil' Rules by which the court can order a party in a controversy to submit to a mental or physical examination in an action in which the mental or physical condition of the party is in controversy is not analogous to the present case. F.R.Civ.P. 35. The witness in a criminal case is not a party to the action. She speaks for the state. Ofttimes she will speak for the state to her own embarrassment and with reluctance. The very absence of such a specific power in the Criminal Rules bespeaks an intended omission. This is particularly true in light of the hard fought battle to sustain the power to order such an examination under Rule 35 of the Civil Rules. Sibbach v. Wilson & Co., Inc., 312 U.S. 1, 61 S.Ct. 422, 89 L.Ed. 479 (1941).

The power to issue such a subpoena is not lightly accrued and should not be lightly implied. Significant values must be balanced. On the one hand, there is support for the taking of mental examinations of the accusing female in a sex case, and particularly in a sex case [343]*343where the prosecutrix is a young girl. American Bar Association Committee on the Improvement of the Law of Evidence, 1937-38 Report; Psychiatric Aid in Evaluating the Credibility of a Prosecuting Witness Charging Rape, 26 Ind. L.J. 98 (1950); Comment, Psychiatric Testimony for Impeachment of Witnesses in Sex Cases, 39 Crim.L.J. 750 (1949); Curran, Expert Psychiatric Ex.amination of the Abnormal Witness, 103 U.Pa.L.R. 999, 1004-1005 (1955); Guttmacher and Weihofen, Psychiatry and The Law 375 (1952); Overholser, The Psychiatrist and the Law, at 50-56; Note, Psychiatric Examination of the Mentally Abnormal Witness, 59 Yale 1324 (1950); McCormick, Evidence, #45 (1954). And particularly see Wigmore’s ■emphatic exhortation at 3 Wigmore, Evidence #924(a) (3d ed., 1940), which includes a thorough compendium supporting this view. The heavy penalty which flows from a conviction for incest is also a strong speaking point on the necessity of a thorough fact-finding (or ^ruthseeking) procedure in the trial of such ■cases.

However, the Court must remember "that such procedures are not the only weight upon the scale which balances human liberties. The liberty of the prosecutrix must also be weighed. The prosecutrix in a sex case is already forced to undergo formidable and ofttimes embarrassing formalities. The government requests a physical examination to •corroborate her testimony. Publicity thrives on such cases. She is forced to testify to the facts of her assault from the witness stand in open court. She is subjected to severe cross examination. It is an insensitive argument which urges that one added burden is minimal in comparison to the already distasteful procedures which the prosecutrix must follow. The continuous accumulation of intimidating and indelicate procedural probings tend to induce to silence all but the most hardened victims. So much as we induce such silence in the victim, we discourage the victim from registering her complaint.

The Court has not set forth the above considerations for the purpose of deciding the question, but merely to indicate some of the weighty factors to be balanced in order to support the position that the power to subpoena a witness to appear for a pre-trial mental examination should not accrue to the court by implication.

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Bluebook (online)
39 F.R.D. 340, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-dildy-dcd-1966.