State v. Stites

Citations

• 2020 Ohio 4281

Syllabus

RAPE – COMPLICITY – GROSS SEXUAL IMPOSITION – CHILD ENDANGERING – EVIDENCE/WITNESS/TRIAL – GRAND JURY – ALLIED OFFENSES: In defendant's trial for rape, complicity to rape, and gross sexual imposition, testimony from the victims' biological parents and boyfriend recounting the victims' abuse disclosures, and testimony from one of the victim's school counselors stating that the victim had told her she that was \in a dark place\ were hearsay however, the admission of the hearsay statements was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt: all of the victims testified at trial in detail regarding the sexual abuse that they had experienced, and the evidence of sexual abuse was overwhelming. The admission of evidence related to the victims' drug use and mental-health issues, as well as evidence of defendant's drug use was relevant and not unfairly prejudicial: the evidence was probative of whether the victims had been abused by their parents, or whether the abuse allegations had been an elaborate lie to get back at their parents, as defendant had suggested, and defendant's drug use was relevant to her defense that she had refused to tolerate one of the victim's drug use, thus leading that victim to lie about the rapes. Testimony from a victim's school counselor that the victim's struggles could have been caused by sexual abuse and that she was not surprised to learn of the victim's sexual-abuse allegations, and testimony from a police officer describing that child-sexual-abuse victims do not behave in any typical way when disclosing abuse were not expert opinions: the police officer testified regarding his personal experience as a police officer, he was never qualified as an expert, and he did not purport to offer any opinion tied to the facts of this case, and the school counselor did not offer any opinion regarding the cause of the victim's behavior as tied to the facts of the case. The trial court did not violate Crim.R. 6(E) by admitting testimony regarding an earlier grand-jur