What is the test for generic testimony from a child victim of sexual abuse?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Mallette, A152263 (Cal. App. 2019):

As explained in People v. Jones (1990) 51 Cal.3d 294, 314, 316, generic testimony from a child victim of sexual abuse is sufficient if it describes "the kind of act or acts committed with sufficient specificity, both to assure that unlawful conduct indeed has occurred and to differentiate between the various types of proscribed conduct (e.g., lewd conduct, intercourse, oral copulation or sodomy)"; the "number of acts committed with sufficient certainty to support each of the counts alleged in the information or indictment (e.g., 'twice a month' or 'every time we went camping')"; and "the general time period in which these acts occurred (e.g., 'the summer before my fourth grade,' or 'during each Sunday morning after he came to live with us'), to assure the acts were committed within the applicable limitation period." (Id. at p. 316.) In a case in which "there is no reasonable likelihood of juror disagreement as to particular acts, and the only question is whether or not the defendant in fact committed all of them," the constitutional requirement of juror unanimity is satisfied if the jury "unanimously agrees the defendant committed all the acts described by the victim." (Id. at p. 322.)

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