Levinson Case Summary

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In the case United States v. Levinson, 2011 WL 1467225 the issue of FRE Rule 702 is brought up to examine. The case discusses a motion in limine brought up by the plaintiff in order to exclude an expert witness testimony during the trial. The case focuses on the defendant, Levinson, engaging in computer chat and web camera sessions with an undercover police officer. The undercover officer in the sessions posed as the step-father of an eight year old girl. During these chat and web camera sessions Levinson reportedly exposed himself and attempted to view the undercover officer engage in sexual activity with his step-daughter.
The expert witness at issue was Dr. Marty Klein, a licensed family, marriage, and sex therapist in the state of California. Dr. Klein’s testimony regarded these
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In order to constitute knowledge the trial court had to examine the theory and technique upon which the testimony is based off of.
The court ended up finding Dr. Klein’s testimony that the defendant’s chatlogs were similar to other fantasy role-playing chatlogs as unreliable. Their reasoning for this was that the witness failed to establish that his theories and techniques can and have been tested. The court also claimed that due to the theories not obtaining general acceptance his testimony was inadmissible. Due to the fact the Dr. Klein’s testimony was not based on any peer reviewed studies it was not considered an expert testimony.
Dr. Klein’s testimony was also excluded under FRE Rule 704(b). The rule states that expert witness testimony is inadmissible in order to prove the defense’s state of mind. This issue is something left up to the trier of fact to determine. The court decided that whether or not the defendant engaged in the sessions for fantasy was a question left for the jury to decide upon, not an expert