State v. Stahl (2005)

Ohio Court of Appeals, Ninth District · 2005 · Evidence

2005-Ohio-1137 (Ct. App. 2005)

Updated August 22, 2026

EvidenceConfrontation ClauseHearsayMedical diagnosis and treatmentCrawfordtestimonial hearsaynontestimonialEvid.R. 803(4)

Facts

After reporting a rape to police, the adult victim gave Officer Ellis a statement at the police station for the purpose of filing charges. Officer Ellis then drove her to the DOVE unit at St. Thomas Hospital, where Nurse Markowitz conducted a sexual-assault examination, collected physical evidence, tested for disease, and developed a discharge plan. During that exam, the victim described the assault, her injuries, and identified Stahl as the assailant, and the nurse testified that this information was important to diagnosis, treatment, safety planning, and appropriate care. Before trial, the victim died from an unrelated epileptic seizure, and Stahl moved to exclude the nurse's testimony about the victim's statements on Confrontation Clause grounds.

Issue

Whether the victim's statements to the DOVE nurse during a sexual-assault medical examination were testimonial under Crawford, such that their admission would violate the defendant's Sixth Amendment confrontation right when the victim was unavailable and had not been previously cross-examined.

Rule

Under Crawford, only testimonial hearsay implicates the Confrontation Clause requirement of unavailability and prior opportunity for cross-examination. In determining whether statements made for medical diagnosis or treatment are testimonial, the court should examine the particular facts and circumstances of the case rather than treating all such statements as either automatically testimonial or automatically exempt; statements made for medical diagnosis and treatment that are not reasonably expected by an objective witness to be used later at trial are nontestimonial and may be admissible under Evid.R. 803(4).

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

In Columbus, Nora Levin reported a sexual assault to city police and gave a recorded statement at the station to start criminal charges. An officer then took her to Riverbend Medical Center, where Nurse Elena Cruz performed a sexual-assault exam, asked Nora to describe what happened so she could assess likely injuries, infection risks, and a safe discharge plan, and collected swabs and photographs. Nora died in a car crash before trial.

At the defendant's trial, the prosecution offers Nurse Cruz's testimony recounting Nora's description of the assault and identification of the assailant. Under the governing approach, how should the court rule?

Explanation. The controlling rule requires a fact-specific inquiry into whether an objective witness in the declarant's position would reasonably expect the statements to be used later at trial. Statements during a medical exam are not automatically testimonial, and descriptions of the assault plus identification of the assailant can still fall within the medical-diagnosis-or-treatment setting. Here, the victim had already given a formal police statement, and the later exchange with the nurse served medical purposes such as locating injuries, addressing disease risk, and planning safe discharge, so the statements are likely nontestimonial and admissible under the hearsay exception for medical diagnosis or treatment.