Summary
The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed Wallace Cable’s judgment of conviction for first-degree child molestation sexual assault. The court held that the defendant waived hearsay challenges to most statements made by the complaining witness to a child-abuse physician because he failed to renew his objections during trial. It further held that the challenged statement concerning the defendant’s threat that the child would cause him to go to jail was admissible under Rhode Island Rule of Evidence 803(4), and was in any event cumulative and harmless.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the defendant preserved for appellate review hearsay objections to out-of-court statements relayed by Dr. Barron when he objected to the evidence in motions in limine but did not make timely objections during most of the physician's trial testimony.
- Whether Maria's statement that Cable told her not to disclose the assaults because he would go to jail was admissible under Rhode Island Rule of Evidence 803(4) as a statement made for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment.
- Whether any error in admitting that statement was harmless because the statement was cumulative of Maria's own properly admitted testimony.
Holdings
- Hearsay objections to the challenged statements, other than the objection to Maria's statement that Cable said he would go to jail, were waived because the defendant did not renew or make timely objections during the physician's trial testimony.
- The trial justice did not abuse his discretion by admitting Maria's statement that Cable told her not to disclose the assaults or he would go to jail under Rhode Island Rule of Evidence 803(4).
- Even if the statement concerning Cable's threat of imprisonment was not admissible under Rule 803(4), its admission was harmless because Maria independently testified to the same statement without objection.
Key quotations
“The inherent purpose of a motion in limine is to prevent the proponent of potentially prejudicial matter from displaying it to the jury in any manner until the trial court has ruled upon its admissibility in the context of the trial itself.” (at 10-11)
“Statements that narrate details unconnected with either diagnosis or treatment, however, are inadmissible unless they fall under another hearsay exception.” (at 15)
“After performing the evaluation, Dr. Barron concluded that DCYF’s temporary custody, and placement with a relative, should be continued with Maria having no contact with either biological parent.” (at 18)
Factual background
The complaining witness, Maria, testified that Cable, her biological father, sexually assaulted her on a bus and later at his mother's residence when Maria was eleven. Several months later, Maria disclosed the assaults and related self-harm to an after-school-program instructor, who brought her to Hasbro Children's Hospital. During a subsequent evaluation at the Aubin Child Protection Center, Dr. Christine Barron testified about statements Maria made concerning the assaults, Cable's identity, her mental-health history, and Cable's warning that she would be sent to jail if she disclosed the assaults.
Procedural history
The State initially charged Cable with three counts of first-degree child molestation sexual assault and one count of second-degree child molestation sexual assault. One count was dismissed by the State under Rule 48(a), another was dismissed on the defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal, and the remaining two counts went to the jury. The jury acquitted Cable on one count and convicted him on the other; the Superior Court sentenced him to life imprisonment. The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed.
Remand instructions
The papers in the case were remanded to the Superior Court.