United States v. Jarvison

409 F.3d 1221, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 9363, 2005 WL 1208928
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMay 23, 2005
Docket04-2093
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 409 F.3d 1221 (United States v. Jarvison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Jarvison, 409 F.3d 1221, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 9363, 2005 WL 1208928 (10th Cir. 2005).

Opinions

LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

In this interlocutory appeal involving a claim that the defendant, Ben Jarvison, is not validly married, the United States contests the district court’s exclusion of testimony on the basis of the spousal testimonial privilege. As part of' the underlying child sexual abuse prosecution, the United States sought to compel the testimony of Esther Jarvison who they contend observed the abuse and could testify as to statements concerning the abuse made to her by both the defendant Ben Jarvison and the alleged victim. After determining that the Jarvisons had a valid marriage, the district court denied the government’s motion to compel Esther’s testimony. On appeal, the government argues that the district court erred in refusing to compel Esther’s testimony on the basis of the spousal testimonial privilege, and in the alternative invites us to create a new exception to the spousal testimonial privilege for child abuse cases. Exercising jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3731, we AFFIRM the district court’s order denying the government’s motion to compel Esther Jarvi-son’s testimony and decline the government’s invitation to create a new exception allowing courts to compel adverse spousal testimony in cases involving allegations of child abuse.

I

This appeal centers around Esther Jar-vison’s (“Esther”) refusal to testify against Ben Jarvison (“Jarvison”) in a criminal case in which Jarvison is accused of sexually abusing their granddaughter, Jane Doe. After the government indicted Jarvi-son for aggravated sexual abuse of a minor child in Indian Country, it attempted to compel Esther to testify against Jarvison. Esther, an 85-year-old Navajo woman who speaks quite limited English, and Jar-vison, who is 77 years old, are residents of the Navajo Indian Reservation and enrolled members of the Navajo Tribe. Jar-vison also speaks only limited English, and communicates mostly in Navajo. The testimony proffered by the government involves statements allegedly made by Esther to Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and Navajo Police investigators in an untaped, English-language interview. The government contends that Esther stated that she observed the child touch Jarvison’s penis “over his pants,” that Jane [1223]*1223Doe allegedly told Esther that Jarvison had touched her private parts, and that Jarvison told Esther that the child had touched him over the crotch of his pants and he had told her not to do so.1 Esther denies that she made such statements.

As part of its pretrial preparations, the government served Esther with a subpoena to compel testimony two days before a pretrial hearing in this case. During the hearing, Esther emphatically stated that she did not want to testify against her husband and that she and Jarvison had married in a traditional Navajo ceremony in Coyote Canyon within the Navajo Reservation on June 25, 1953. The district court found that the Jarvisons had a valid marriage based on this 1953 traditional Navajo ceremony, and concluded that the spousal testimonial privilege applied under Trammel v. United States, 445 U.S. 40, 100 S.Ct. 906, 63 L.Ed.2d 186 (1980).

Before the district court, the government argued that the marriage was not valid because: (1) Esther had not testified to every element of a “traditional ceremony” under the Navajo Code; (2) the Jarvi-sons had not recorded the traditional marriage with the Navajo tribal government; and (3) an intervening relationship with Esther’s daughter had extinguished any marriage. The government’s proffer included proposed evidence that the Jarvi-sons lived together from 1953 until 1965, at which point Esther moved out upon Jarvi-son’s commencement of a sexual relationship with Esther’s daughter from a prior marriage. Jarvison had two children with Esther prior to 1965, and four children with the daughter over the next fifteen years. In 1980, the relationship with the daughter ended, and Esther moved back in with Jarvison. Over the ensuing years, Esther and Jarvison separated and reconciled multiple times, and in 2000 began to live together again on a full-time basis. The documents submitted by the government reflect that in 2002, when the alleged sexual abuse occurred, Esther was living with Jarvison and was still cohabiting with him in 2003 when interviewed by the FBI and Navajo Police about the alleged abuse. These FBI statements relied upon by the government state that “[Esther] JARVI-SON and BEN have been married for over 50 years.”

The court allowed the government to present a witness from the Navajo Vital Records Office to testify to certain records on Jarvison maintained by the Navajo Nation that stated “no” in the block marked “married,” but did list Esther as Jarvison’s “wife.” These documents also listed all of Jarvison’s children as Esther and Jarvison’s. After the court denied its motion to compel Esther’s testimony on the basis of the existence of a valid marriage and the spousal testimonial privilege under Trammel, the government requested reconsideration and moved to supplement the record with additional documentary evidence to show that no valid marriage had ever occurred. These two exhibits consisted of the two investigatory reports made in 2003. The court admitted the documents but found they contained nothing that would cause it to reexamine its conclusion that the Jarvisons were married and that spousal testimonial privilege applied.2 [1224]*1224This interlocutory appeal by the government followed.

II

When reviewing a district court decision to exclude evidence, we review the district court’s decision for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Wittgenstein, 163 F.3d 1164, 1172 (10th Cir.1998). Although we review legal issues de novo, United States v. Kirk, 894 F.2d 1162, 1163 (10th Cir.1990), we must accept the court’s factual findings unless we conclude they were clearly erroneous. Manning v. United States, 146 F.3d 808, 812 (10th Cir.1998). A finding of fact is not clearly erroneous unless “it is without factual support in the record,” or unless the court “after reviewing all the evidence, is left with a definite and firm conviction that the district court erred.” Id. We view the evidence on appeal in the light most favorable to the district court’s ruling, giving due regard to the district court’s opportunity to judge witness credibility, and must uphold any district court finding that is permissible in light of the evidence. Id. at 813.

The United States contends that the district court erred in determining that the Jarvisons were married under traditional Navajo law, and that even if married, the marriage was a sham or moribund and was created solely to avoid testifying. The second argument — that the marriage was a sham or moribund and was created solely to avoid testifying — was not raised or argued below before the district court in either the government’s original motion or motion to reconsider. Accordingly, we decline to address it for the first time on appeal. See Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106

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Bluebook (online)
409 F.3d 1221, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 9363, 2005 WL 1208928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jarvison-ca10-2005.