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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 443 Filed 11/12/21 Page17 of 24
B. Opinion 2: The relationship of trust and attachment between an alleged
perpetrator and alleged victim prevents victims from being aware that
what they are experiencing is abuse and can prevent disclosure.
Rocchio’s second opinion—that the relationship of trust and attachment between an
alleged perpetrator and alleged victim prevents victims from being aware that what they are
experiencing is abuse and can prevent disclosure—has several flaws that render it inadmissible.
First, the opinion is unreliable, because it is, in reality, an opinion about grooming
disguised as an opinion about delayed disclosure. In Rocchio’s view, alleged victims delay or fail
to disclose alleged abuse because they were groomed. But because Rocchio’s proposed
grooming testimony is unreliable, not helpful to the trier of fact, and unfairly prejudicial (for all
the reasons given above, supra Part 1.a-1.c), so too is this opinion unreliable, not helpful to the
trier of fact, and unfairly prejudicial.
To reiterate, Rocchio’s opinions are based on her personal experience as a treatment
provider. She assumes her clients are telling the truth, and her clients are a self-selected group of
alleged victims. Rocchio cannot cite an error rate for her conclusions, nor can she say how
representative her patients are of those who suffer sexual abuse. See E.E.O.C., 2010 WL
3466370, at *14 (exclusion of an expert is required where the expert makes “no effort to ensure
that the materials he reviewed were representative”). Her conclusions cannot be tested or
verified, and they are “virtually impregnable for purposes of cross-examination.” Gonyer, 2012
WL 3043020, at *2.
Second, Rocchio apparently has no experience treating alleged perpetrators. So her view
of the “relationship of trust and attachment between an alleged perpetrator and alleged victim” is
entirely one-sided. See Schneider, 2010 WL 3734055, at *2-3. The second opinion Rocchio
proposes to offer is outside her expertise.
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| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00006603.jpg |
| File Size | 712.4 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.0% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,068 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 17:12:44.278900 |