Opinion
November 23, 1992
Appeal from the County Court, Suffolk County (Cacciabaudo, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and a new trial is ordered. No questions of fact have been raised or considered.
It was error to admit, over objection, testimony by the victim's teacher, that a diary, kept by the victim and given to the teacher, had an entry that the victim was sexually abused by her father. Although witnesses who have heard a victim complain may testify to the complaint, the complaint must be promptly made for the testimony to be admissible (see, People v McDaniel, 178 A.D.2d 612; People v Hollaway, 132 A.D.2d 940; People v Bradley, 8 A.D.2d 982). In the instant case, the untimeliness of the victim's complaint brings it outside the rule of admissibility. Furthermore, the court incorrectly permitted the victim's teacher to testify to what was written in the victim's diary under the state-of-mind exception to the hearsay rule. The teacher's state of mind in reporting the contents of the diary to her superiors was totally irrelevant to any issue in the case.
We also conclude that the evidence of the defendant's guilt was not overwhelming, and thus "there is no occasion for consideration of any doctrine of harmless error" (People v Crimmins, 36 N.Y.2d 230, 241).
In light of the foregoing determination, we do not address the defendant's remaining contentions. Rosenblatt, J.P., Ritter, Pizzuto and Santucci, JJ., concur.