In United States v. Kootswatewa, --- F.3d ---, No. 16-10228 (9th Cir. 2018), the Court affirmed the defendant's conviction for sexually abusing a developmentally delayed 11-year-old girl.
First, it held the district court properly admitted the girl's statements to a nurse practitioner concerning the nature of the
abuse and the identity of her abuser. This was permissible under Fed. R. Evid. 803(4) as a statement made for purposes of medical diagnosis. The Court further held the statement about the identity of the abuser was permissible because "medical
providers need to know who abused a child in order to protect
her from future abuse at the hands of the same perpetrator,
and to assist in diagnosing and treating the psychological and
emotional injuries caused by sexual abuse."
Second, the Court held the district court properly admitted, in the government's rebuttal case, the girl's statements to a law enforcement officer about what happened, in order to rebut defense counsel’s suggestion that her in-court testimony had been tainted by her mother’s alleged coaching.
The testimony came in under Fed. R. Evid. 801(d)(1)(B)(i), as a prior consistent statement. To this end, the Court held that, under the Rule, testimony is admissible even if the prior statement tends to rebut just one of the improper motives or influences suggesting by the opposing party. The Court also held that, although the prior statement differed from the trial testimony as to the location of the abuse, it was sufficiently consistent as to the nature of what occurred.
Finally, the Court rejected the defendant's argument about prosecutorial misconduct in closing.
