Marin County Department of Social Services v. John C.

This case presents the same issue as in In re Amber B., post, page 682 [ 236 Cal. Rptr. 623 ] whether the trial court erred in admitting expert opinion testimony that appellant had committed child sexual abuse. We conclude the court erred, but the error was harmless.

John C. appeals from an order declaring his twin children Christine and Michael to be dependent children of the juvenile court (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 300). We affirm.

Two separate petitions, filed by the Marin County Department of Social Services and later amended to conform to proof, alleged that John had sexually molested Christine and Michael when they were three years old. At the hearing on the petitions the department presented testimony by a psychiatrist, Dr. David Corwin, who had examined the children on one occasion. Over John’s objection the court permitted Dr. Corwin to testify he believed the twins’ claims that John had molested them.

Dr. Corwin’s conclusion was based primarily on “what the children told me” and “the way in which they told me.” Specifically, he relied on the consistency of their reports of abuse and the manner in which they reported the abuse, their demonstrations of emotion…