Argued
September 5, 2019
Appeal
from Superior Court, Judicial District of New Haven, Alander,
J.
Page 869
Norman
A. Pattis, Bethany, for the appellant (defendant).
Laurie
N. Feldman, special deputy assistant states attorney, with
whom, on the brief, were Patrick Griffin, states attorney,
and Maxine Wilensky, senior assistant states attorney, for
the appellee (state).
DiPentima,
C. J., and Keller and Bright, Js.
OPINION
BRIGHT,
J.
Page 870
[194
Conn.App. 306] The defendant, Osvaldo DeJesus, appeals from
the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of
four counts of risk of injury to a child in violation of
General Statutes § 53-21 (a) (2), and two counts of sexual
assault in the fourth degree in violation of General Statutes
§ 53a-73a (a) (1) (A).[1] On appeal, the defendant claims that
the trial court (1) improperly admitted into evidence expert
testimony that amounted to impermissible bolstering of the
victims credibility and (2) erred in concluding, during a
pretrial hearing, that the victim was not an adverse party,
thereby precluding defense counsel from asking the victim
leading questions on direct examination. We affirm the
judgment of the trial court.
The
following facts, which the jury reasonably could have found,
and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of this
appeal. The defendant and the victims mother,
M,[2] were in a relationship when, in 2003
or 2004, the defendant moved into the apartment M shared with
her two daughters, D and the victim. At the time, the victim
was two or three years old. Thereafter, the defendant, M, and
her daughters moved to a condominium. In 2005, M gave birth
to the defendants son, S, and the five of them shared the
condominium.
In
2008, when the victim was eight years old, the defendant
began a pattern of sexually assaulting her in the bedroom the
victim shared with D. Over the course of the next two years,
the defendant sexually abused the victim both in and out of
the home. When the victim was ten years old, she began
menstruating, prompting [194 Conn.App. 307] the defendant to
stop the sexual abuse. In 2013, the defendant and M ended
their relationship and, at Ms insistence, the defendant
moved out of the condominium. Because S continued to live
with M, the defendant would stop by the condominium
unannounced and would stay there until S went to sleep. The
victim withheld disclosure of the abuses she had suffered
until she was thirteen years old, at which point she confided
in her cousin, C. Unable to articulate verbally what had
happened, the victim disclosed the news to C by way of a text
message with the expectation that C would keep it a secret.
Several days later, the victims aunt discovered the text
message and relayed the information to M. That night, M took
the victim to the police station where she gave videotaped
and written statements concerning the defendants sexual
abuse. Three days later, the victim went to the child sexual
abuse clinic at Yale New Haven Hospital where she had a
videotaped forensic interview with Rebecha Sullivan, a
licensed clinical social worker.
On the
basis of the victims complaint, the defendant was charged
with two counts of sexual assault in the first degree, four
counts of risk of injury to a child, and two counts of sexual
assault in the fourth degree. Following a jury trial, the
defendant was convicted of all four counts of risk of injury
to a child and both counts of sexual assault in the fourth
degree. He was acquitted of the remaining charges.
Page 871
See footnote 1 of this opinion. The court imposed a total
effective sentence of thirty-two years of incarceration,
execution suspended after twenty years, with fifteen years of
probation and ten years of sex offender registration. This
appeal ...