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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 397 Filed 10/29/21 Page 16 of 84
established pattern of victimization—attachment and coercion—experienced by victims of sexual
abuse.
The defense would read Raymond to stand for the proposition that expert testimony is
unreliable if it does not explain “what testing was involved, what data she considered, or how her
conclusions can be verified.” (Def. Mot. 3 at 8). For instance, the defense criticizes Dr. Rocchio
for opining that sexual abuse of minors occurs “frequently,” without specifying whether it occurs
“half the time” or “two-thirds of the time.” (/d. at 7; see id. at 8 (quoting Raymond, 700 F. Supp.
2d at 148-49)). That is not what is required by Daubert in the context of qualitative social science,
and it is not what many courts have held in the context of precisely this form of testimony, as
explained above. To the extent Raymond stands for such a broad proposition, it is contrary to the
law of this Circuit. See United States v. Joseph, 542 F.3d 13, 21-22 (2d Cir. 2008), abrogated on
other grounds as recognized by United States v. Ferguson, 676 F.3d 260, 276 n.14 (2d Cir. 2011)
(recognizing that social science research “cannot have the exactness of hard science
methodologies, and expert testimony need not be based on statistical analysis in order to be
probative” (citation and internal quotation marks omitted)).”
The defendant’s remaining critiques of Dr. Rocchio’s opinion miss the mark. First, the
defendant asserts that Dr. Rocchio’s patients are uncorroborated, and she “simply assumes her
2 Even in Raymond, the Court left open the possibility that the Government could call the expert
in rebuttal to “counter a defense case that victim testimony in this case should not be believed
because the victim delayed in reporting the abuse or did not report it consistently.” 700 F. Supp.
2d at 156. Even were the Court inclined to follow Raymond rather than the cases in this District,
it should similarly revisit permitting Dr. Rocchio to testify about the opinion at issue if the defense
attacks victim credibility.
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| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00005799.jpg |
| File Size | 714.0 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.5% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,107 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 17:03:21.687028 |