People v. Taylor

552 N.E.2d 131 (1990)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The victim testified that at about nine that evening she had received a phone call from a friend, telling her that he was in trouble and asking her to meet him at a nearby market in half an hour. Twenty minutes later, the same person called back and changed the meeting place. She arrived at the agreed-upon place, shut off the car engine, and waited. She saw a man approach her car and she unlocked the door to let him in. Only then did she realize that the person who had approached and entered the car was not the friend she had come to meet. D pointed a gun at her, directed her to nearby Clarke's Beach, and once they were there, raped and sodomized her. The victim, a 19-year-old, arrived home around 11:00 p.m., woke her mother, and told her about an attack where she was raped and sodomized at gunpoint on a deserted beach near her home. Her mother called the police. The police arrived around midnight. The victim told the police she did not know who her attacker was. She was taken to the police station, described the events leading up to the attack, and again repeated that she did not know who her attacker was. She was asked to step into a private room to remove the clothes that she had been wearing at the time of the attack so that they could be examined for forensic evidence. While she was alone with her mother, she told her that D had been her attacker. The time was approximately 1:15 a.m. The mother summoned a detective and the victim repeated that d had been the person who attacked her. The victim had known D for years and even saw him at a local convenience store the night before the attack. She was absolutely sure it was D as she had ample opportunity to see his face during the incident. She later identified D as her attacker in two separate lineups. D was arrested on July 31, 1984, and was charged with rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse. Eileen Treacy, an instructor, with experience in counseling sexual assault victims, testified at trial about rape trauma syndrome. The specifics of rape trauma syndrome explained why a victim might have been unwilling during the first few hours after the attack to name D as her attacker where she had known D prior to the incident. It was also explained that it was common for a rape victim to appear quiet and controlled following an attack. The judge accepted this expert testimony. D was convicted for sodomy and attempted rape.

In a second case, an 11-year-old girl testified that Banks (D) approached her while she was playing with friends. Banks (D) told her to come to him and when she did not, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down the street and took her into a garage, and sexually assaulted her. The victim came back to her grandmother's house. The next morning she told the grandmother about the incident and the police were contacted. Banks (D) was arrested and charged with rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, and related crimes based on the age of the victim. The victim and her grandmother both testified about the victim’s behavior following the attack. The testimony revealed that the victim had been suffering from nightmares, had been waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, had been afraid to return to school in the fall, had become generally more fearful, and had been running and staying away from home. P then sought to introduce expert testimony about rape trauma syndrome. The Judge permitted Gandell, an obstetrician-gynecologist, with special training in treating the victims of sexual assault, to testify as to the symptoms commonly associated with rape trauma syndrome. He testified hypothetically that the kind of symptoms demonstrated by the victim were consistent with a diagnosis of rape trauma syndrome. The judge accepted this testimony and Banks (D) was convicted. The appeals were consolidated for review.