Washington v. Scanlan (Majority and Concurrence)
Annotate this CaseWidower, 82-year-old Leroy Bagnell met 57-year-old defendant Theresa Scanlan in a bar. At first she was introduced to Bagnell's adult children as a friend, later he began referring to her as his girlfriend. In 2014, police responded to a 911 hang-up call made from Bagnell's house. Scanlan answered the door. Police saw Bagnell at the top of the stairs in his underwear, head and forearm bleeding, and a "big, bloody, and bruised lump" on his leg. As a result of that contact, a domestic violence no contact order was issued prohibiting Scanlan from coming within 1,000 feet of Bagnell's house. Bagnell did not seek medical care for his injuries. Months after the no contact order, Bagnell's children checked on their father at the house: they found blood in the entryway, along the walls, and found shattered glass and ceramic on the kitchen floor. They discovered Bagnell in the family room severely bruised from head to toe. The children called 911. Scanlan was found in the garage underneath a blanket in her car with the doors locked. Scanlan was taken into custody; Bagnell was taken to the emergency room, where providers determined in addition to the extensive bruising, Bagnell had two broken fingers, and several skin tears on his legs and arms. Scanlan was charged with second degree assault, felony violation of a no contact order, unlawful imprisonment, and fourth degree assault. Neither Bagnell nor Scanlan testified at trial, but the court admitted several statements Bagnell made to his medical providers. The issue this case presented for the Washington Supreme Court's review centered on whether a crime victim's statements to his medical providers were testimonial, and if so, whether their admission at trial violated the defendant's right of confrontation under the Sixth Amendment. The Supreme Court held the victim's statements were nontestimonial in this case, because they were not made with the primary purpose of creating an out-of-court substitute for testimony.
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