299 F. Supp. 2d 84 - Gersten v. Senkowski’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 1 district · 4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[i]n light of the daughter's allegations of continuing rape and sodomy over a period of years, the absence of physical indicia of such abuse would necessarily have been troubling to a trier of fact.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re MPA · Gersten v. Senkowski

2. “another critical opportunity to damage the daughter's credibility,”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Burch v. Millas · Gersten v. Senkowski

3. “The Court: Let me ask you this, Mr. Subjack [the District Attorney]. Taking only the purpose to which Dr. Bongiovanni was called at the criminal trial and not expanded to the other areas I discussed with Mr. Fagan, the essence of a psychologist’s testimony on child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome is, for lack of a better way of saying it, things are not as they appear, ladies and gentlemen of the jury- Mr. Subjack: Correct. The Court: Now, would you agree with me that a defense attorney should stand up and cross-examine that psychologist and say that things are as they appear or that they could be as they appear, couldn’t they, Doctor? If you boil child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome down to its elements, the delayed disclosure is not inconsistent with sexual abuse. Friendliness with the perpetrator is not inconsistent with sexual abuse, and the inconsistency in relating the story is not inconsistent with being a victim of sexual abuse. Shouldn’t defense attorneys stand up and say that if the child had promptly disclosed it, you would have said that’s not inconsistent, too, wouldn’t you Doctor? And if the child had been consistent, you’d say that’s indicative of sexual abuse, isn’t it Doctor. I mean, shouldn’t those questions have been asked of Dr. Bongiovanni and if so, does that rise to the level of ineffective assistance of counsel? Mr. Subjack: If you are asking the question would I have asked some of those questions, I certainly would not have asked all of them.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Burch v. Millas