Is scientific or expert evidence admissible only if the expert evidence is generally acceptable to scientists or experts or must the trial court make an independent determination of the validity and reliability of such evidence?

United States v. Platero, 72 F.3d 806, 814-816 (10th Cir. 1995) (reversing conviction for aggravated sexual assault because the trial court's exclusion of evidence of victim's past sexual behavior with another companion violated accused's constitutional rights).The sexual history or predisposition of the alleged victim is admissible if its exclusion would violate a criminal defendant's constitutional rights.

Walden v. Sears Roebuck & Co., 654 F.2d 443, 446 (5th Cir. 1981) (holding, in plaintiff parents' action against defendant retailer for strict liability and negligence, that the trial court erroneously excluded the deposition....For purposes of the hearsay exceptions created by Federal Rule of Evidence 804 or a comparable State rule, a declarant is "unavailable" within the meaning of Rule 804(a) or a comparable State rule if the declarant testifies to a lack of memory of the subject matter of the declarant's statement; but a declarant is not "unavailable" if such claim of lack of memory is due to the procurement or wrongdoing of the proponent of a statement for the purpose of preventing the witness from attending or testifying.

In re Sealed Case, 877 F.2d 976, 980 (D.C. Cir. 1989) (footnotes omitted from the following hard-nosed statement by the court of appeals: "Alternatively, however, the government relies on a waiver caused by the disclosure of one memo to a DCAA auditor, and we think the government is, in this respect, on...If a communication protected by the attorney-client privilege is inadvertently disclosed to a third party, the disclosure results in a waiver of the client's privilege.