A Teen's Life Disrupted

A 14-year-old boy won his child sex abuse case before trial because the defense thoroughly tested the child’s competence to testify.

Case Summary

The accusation

That 14-year-old Dominic had fondled the genitals of three-year-old Carly, the sister of a boy whose home he often visited.

The charge

Child Molestation in the First Degree.

The possible sentence

Imprisonment until age 21, and life-long consequences such as mandatory sex offender registration.

The defense David Marshall presented

One day Carly’s mother, Sharon, discovered blood in Carly’s panties just after Dominic had left their house. Unaware that many things other than manipulation can cause bleeding from the genitals, Sharon immediately suspected Dominic of molesting Carly. Her unintentionally leading questions elicited a false report from Carly, seeming to confirm Sharon’s suspicion. Because Carly, as a four-year-old, had only primitive memory skills, the false account she gave her mother soon became her reality.

The result

David was able to persuade the prosecuting attorney to dismiss the case before trial.

What helped win the case

When David interviewed Carly in preparation for trial, he tested her ability to give competent testimony. The prosecutor’s child interviewing specialist, when she had interviewed Carly, had told Carly not to guess when she did not know an answer, but only David tested Carly’s ability not to guess. It turned out that Carly could not keep from guessing.

David made this point vivid to the judge when he cross-examined Carly at the hearing to determine whether she was competent to testify. After Carly had been told not to guess when she didn’t know, David drew Carly’s attention to the judge at the hearing. David then asked, “What did the judge have for breakfast this morning?” Carly replied, “A muffin.” Carly was also willing to testify what David had had for breakfast.

This was just one of the forms of Carly’s unreliability that David stressed when he argued the prosecutor should dismiss the case.