HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County judge has agreed to schedule a Frye hearing to consider the use of expert testimony in a pending child abuse and pornography case.

Judge Wade Kagarise recently granted the request filed by defense attorney R. Thomas Forr on behalf of 70-year-old Robert D. Gates, an Allegheny Township man accused of photographing and assaulting three young girls between 2012 and 2015.

In a June 16 courtroom proceeding, Forr told Kagarise that a Frye hearing is necessary to evaluate testimony and qualifications of a potential expert witness as to the tactics used by child abusers and victim reactions.

A Frye hearing, named for a landmark ruling, provides the chance to examine witness qualifications and potential testimony for what is considered to be novel scientific evidence and its acceptance within a scientific community.

First Assistant District Attorney Jackie Bernard tried to convince Kagarise at the June 16 hearing that 40-plus states already allow this kind of testimony, some dating back to the 1980s. She also told Kagarise that of two potential expert witnesses in this case, both meet the state’s qualifications to testify.

Forr disagreed and claimed that one of the potential expert witnesses, social worker Kimberly Duffy of York County, has a long history of interviewing child abuse victims but no training in the field of victimology and/or grooming of child abuse victims. Forr also objected to the potential second expert witness, psychologist Veronique Valliere, as untimely.

Kagarise, in his latest order, directed attorneys to provide potential dates as to when they and their witnesses could appear at a Frye hearing.

“This court,” Kagarise said, “will conduct a hearing in this matter to determine whether the proffered testimony has gained general acceptance by the relevant scientific community.”

In 2012, Pennsylvania lawmakers adopted legislation allowing witnesses with knowledge beyond the average layperson to testify in sexual assault cases about things such as grooming tactics used by abusers to entice their victims into compliance.

In asking for the Frye hearing, Forr took issue with the kind of testimony that could be permitted. He suggested that jurors are capable, without hearing from expert witnesses, of understanding that victims of sexual assault may have different reactions and responses.

Allegheny Township police arrested Gates in September 2015 and charged him with 60 counts of child pornography. Court documents indicate that he took sexually-explicit pictures of a young girl, believed to be 5 or 6 years old, between January 2013 and early 2015.

In March 2016, police filed 20 more counts in connection with sexual abuse of three young girls, including charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child. In May 2016, police added a third criminal case reflecting an additional victim.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.