UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Henry TSINNIJINNIE, Defendant-Appellant

Tsinnijinnie appeals his conviction after a jury trial for sexual abuse of a minor. The district court permitted the government to impeach Tsinnijinnie by reading from his plea of guilty in tribal court to a reduced charge of endangering a minor based upon substantially the same conduct which he denied in the district court. The district court also admitted, over defense objections, evidence of Tsinnijinnie’s prior physical abuse of the victim and testimony of an expert witness on child abuse. We affirm.

I. FACTS

Tsinnijinnie lived in a one room trailer with his wife Pauline, their sons, and Pauline’s nine-year-old daughter. One night, Pauline noticed her daughter’s clothes on the floor near the sofa where she slept and asked Tsinnijinnie when the daughter had changed her clothes. He said he didn’t know. The next morning she questioned the girl, who told her that Tsinnijinnie had sexually assaulted her. The girl told her mother it had happened before. Pauline confronted Tsinni-jinnie. She says that he admitted the conduct, admitted it had happened before, and promised it wouldn’t happen again.

Two days later a social worker visited the trailer to work with one of the sons.…