People v. Cruz CA4/3

FACTS

In January 2010, seven-year-old R.J. and her family were living in an apartment with several other relatives, including her aunt T.M. and appellant. (Although appellant was R.J.’s second cousin, she referred to him as her uncle.) One day, T.M. arrived home and found appellant and R.J. alone on the living room sofa. Appellant’s pants were completely down, and when R.J. stood up, she began adjusting her sweatpants. Appellant claimed nothing was going on, but when T.M. took R.J. aside, she indicated appellant molested her whenever her mother wasn’t around. T.M. relayed this information to R.J.’s parents, and the next day they took R.J. to the hospital. However, they left before she was examined because they feared that, as undocumented immigrants, they would have R.J. taken away from them if the authorities found out she had been molested by a relative. Later that day, the police came to their house to investigate. Based on the same fear, her parents instructed R.J. not to reveal the molestation, so she kept quiet about it. The following day, though, they brought R.J. in to be interviewed by a social worker. Concerned her mother would go to jail, R.J. initially denied she had…