Marin County Department of Social Services v. John C.

Opinion

KING, J. This case presents the same issue as in In re Amber B., post, page 682 [236 Cal. Rptr. 623] whether the trial court erred in admitting expert opinion testimony that appellant had committed child sexual abuse. We conclude the court erred, but the error was harmless.

John C. appeals from an order declaring his twin children Christine and Michael to be dependent children of the juvenile court (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 300). We affirm.

Two separate petitions, filed by the Marin County Department of Social Services and later amended to conform to proof, alleged that John had sexually molested Christine and Michael when they were three years old. At the hearing on the petitions the department presented testimony by a psychiatrist, Dr. David Corwin, who had examined the children on one occasion. Over John’s objection the court permitted Dr. Corwin to testify he believed the twins’ claims that John had molested them.

Dr. Corwin’s conclusion was based primarily on “what the children told me” and “the way in which they told me.” Specifically, he relied on the consistency of their reports of abuse and the manner in which they reported the abuse, their demonstrations of emotion during the interview, the absence of any deprecation of their father, their demonstrated ability to discriminate between events that did or did not occur, their behavior with anatomically correct dolls, and the general “air of realism” in their assertions.

The department also presented opinion testimony by a therapist and two social workers that the twins’ claims of abuse by John were true. The social workers’ opinions were based on the manner in which the twins reported the abuse; the therapist’s opinion was based on her assertion that “children don’t lie.”

[679]The children, who were five and one-half years old at the time of the dependency hearing, also testified. They described numerous acts of sexual abuse by John.

The court ruled that the twins had been sexually abused. The court’s dispositional order included findings that (1) John had stuck his finger in Christine’s vagina and anus, had put his penis on or near her vaginal and anal openings, and had made Christine play with his penis, and (2) John had put his penis on or near Michael’s anus, had played with Michael’s penis, and had had Michael play with John’s penis. The court declared the children to be dependent children of the juvenile court, placed them in the custody of their mother under the department’s supervision, afforded John supervised visitation, and required counseling for all parties.