State Of Washington v. George Edward Savanah, 74924-2

George Savanah was convicted of two counts of third-degree rape of a child and two counts of first-degree incest based on his daughter R’s testimony describing sexual abuse over about seven years and three pregnancies terminated by abortion visits accompanied by Savanah.
R disclosed the abuse to family members (aunt Janet) and friends (Janiece, Juana) within weeks of the last attempted assault; those people testified at trial that R told them she had been sexually assaulted (without giving details).
At a family meeting Janet described Savanah as "defensive," said the family "was supporting" R, and recounted attempts to shield R from Savanah during the confrontation.
Defense raised evidentiary objections pretrial; the trial court admitted the fact-of-complaint testimony and Janet’s statements over objection. Defense did not object at trial to some testimony and did not challenge jury instruction phrasing at trial.
On appeal Savanah challenged admission of the fact-of-complaint evidence as untimely hearsay, alleged improper opinion testimony, asserted ineffective assistance for counsel’s failure to object to some testimony, and claimed instructional and cumulative-error problems. The State conceded one sentencing error: an imposed 10:00 p.m.–5:00 a.m. curfew as a condition of community custody.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Savanah)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
Admissibility of fact-of-complaint evidence (timeliness)	Complaints to Janet, Janiece, Juana were not timely; admission violated the fact-of-complaint rule	Complaints were timely (weeks after last assault) and admissible to show consistency and rebut inference of concealment	Court affirmed admission as within discretion; even if erroneous, error harmless given strong direct evidence from R
Admission of Janet’s statement that family "was supporting" R (opinion on guilt)	Testimony amounted to improper opinion that defendant was guilty; trial counsel’s failure to object was ineffective assistance	Statement was not an explicit opinion on guilt, not authoritative, and not prejudicial	Court held testimony was not an explicit opinion on guilt, not manifest constitutional error; ineffective-assistance claim failed
Jury instruction / unanimity — failure to instruct that deliberations occur only with all 12 jurors present	Failure to instruct violated right to unanimous verdict and fair trial	Record contains no indication jurors deliberated without full panel; no prejudice shown	Court rejected claim for lack of record evidence and actual prejudice
Community custody curfew condition	Curfew unrelated to offense; challenged on appeal	State conceded the curfew was improper	Court accepted concession, affirmed convictions but remanded to strike the curfew condition

State v. Neal, 144 Wn.2d 600 (review standard for evidentiary rulings)
State v. Ferguson, 100 Wn.2d 131 (fact-of-complaint rule; timeliness requirement)
State v. Griffin, 43 Wash. 591 (admissibility of complaint evidence to show consistency)
State v. Montgomery, 163 Wn.2d 577 (limitations on witness opinion about guilt)
State v. Chenoweth, 188 Wn. App. 521 (discussion of timeliness under fact-of-complaint rule)
State v. Johnson, 152 Wn. App. 924 (improper witness opinion/impeachment can be manifest constitutional error)
State v. McFarland, 127 Wn.2d 322 (standard for ineffective assistance of counsel)
State v. Kirkman, 159 Wn.2d 918 (preservation and manifest constitutional error standard)