Case 8.3 Police investigate a reported sexual assault of a t…
Case 8.3 Police investigate a reported sexual assault of a ten year old female. Police were alerted by a school nurse who noticed bruises on her thighs after the child came to her office complaining of lower abdominal pain. The child was interviewed by a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) who asked questions about the assault not to gather evidence but to help the nurse examine and treat the child appropriately. The nurse also performed a rape kit and collected samples for DNA analysis. The child identified a neighborhood handyman as the perpetrator. The accused, Chester Mayhem, had recently worked on the victim’s home where he befriended the victim. Mayhem reportedly had sexually assaulted the child on four separate occasions. The child was reluctant to report the assaults as Mayhem threatened to kill her family if she said anything. The subsequent investigation matched Mayhem’s DNA to three other unsolved sexual assault cases. Mayhems is arrested and charged with multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault.The Supreme Court has ruled that for a child’s out-of-court statement to be admissible, the child’s truthfulness must be “so clear from the surrounding circumstances that the test of cross-examination would be of marginal utility. Which matters have been found to “properly relate to whether hearsay statements made by a child witness in child sexual abuse cases are reliable?