Case Title: State v. Cloutier

Citation: 163 Vt 598, 656 A.2d 633

Docket Number: 93-623

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1994-12-15T00:00:00Z

Document:
STATE_V_CLOUTIER.93-623; 163 Vt 598; 656 A.2d 633

[Filed 15-Dec-1994]

                           ENTRY ORDER

                 SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 93-623

                       OCTOBER TERM, 1994


State of Vermont             }         APPEALED FROM:
                             }
                             }
     v.                      }         District Court of Vermont,
                             }         Unit No. 2, Addison Circuit
Ronald L. Cloutier           }
                             }         DOCKET NO. 193-4-93Ancr


        In the above entitled cause the Clerk will enter:


 Defendant appeals from a jury conviction under 13 V.S.A.  2602 (lewd
conduct with a child).  Defendant contends that (1) the trial court erred
when it denied his motion to introduce the child's deposition in its
entirety, and (2) there was insufficient evidence to prove defendant was
capable of forming an intent to appeal to his sexual desires, or that
defendant wilfully acted with such intent.  We affirm. 

 Defendant, a trusted friend of the victim's family, babysat the
five-year-old child several times a week.  Defendant worked nights and often
napped with the child in the afternoon.  This case arose when the child told
her aunt and her mother that defendant rubbed her during their naps together
and that she no longer wished to take naps with him. 

 Defendant deposed the child and introduced portions of the deposition into
evidence for purposes of impeaching and contradicting the child's hearsay
statements admitted under V.R.E. 804a.  The court did not admit the
deposition in its entirety, but allowed defendant to read parts of the
deposition into evidence during cross-examination of the child. 

 The child's deposition is not admissible under V.R.E. 804a.  V.R.E. 804a
provides a hearsay exception for statements by putative victims ten years of
age or younger after certain criteria are met.  State v. Weeks, 160 Vt. 393,
399,