United States v. Tome
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
61 F.3d 1446 (1995)
Matthew Wayne Tome (defendant) was charged with sexually abusing his four-year-old daughter, A.T. Several witnesses, including three treating pediatricians (Kuper, Reich, and Speigel) and a caseworker, testified that A.T. told them Tome had abused her; a fourth witness, babysitter Lisa Rocha, testified similarly. The trial court initially admitted these statements as prior consistent statements rebutting a claim that A.T.'s mother coached her, but the Supreme Court later held that rule didn't apply because A.T.'s alleged motive to fabricate predated the statements, and remanded to the court of appeals to decide whether another hearsay exception could still justify admitting the testimony.
Whether, when a child sexual-abuse victim identifies her assailant to a treating physician, the physician's in-court testimony about that identification is admissible under FRE 803(4) as reasonably pertinent to her medical treatment or diagnosis.