Court Opinion

ID: 9731413
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:44:45.905916+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:17.806324
License: Public Domain

LILLIE, P. J.
—I concur in the result reached in the scholarly majority opinion on the facts of this case, but I respectfully disagree with the conclusion that the trial court does not have the power to permit closed-circuit testimony by a child victim in a proper case.
*795Penal Code section 288, subdivision (c) expressly mandates that in a prosecution under that section (§ 288, subds. (a) and (b)) the court “shall consider the needs of the child victim and shall do whatever is necessary and constitutionally permissible to prevent psychological harm to the child victim.” (Italics added.) This is a broad grant of power to the court. Certainly closed-circuit testimony is not specifically mentioned, but I find nothing in the statute or in the Joint Committee’s comments indicating that such procedure would be outside the scope of “whatever is necessary ... to prevent psychological harm to the child victim.” Instead, a common sense reading of the statute would seem to permit just such an accommodation to the fears and traumas of a child victim who would suffer psychological harm from testifying in open court.
The statute contains two limitations on the exercise of this power. First, the court is authorized to do whatever is necessary to prevent harm to the child. The determination of this need must be made on the facts of each particular case. I agree with the majority that the showing in this case, consisting only of the testimony of the parents on the issue of the mental health of their minor children, is insufficient to support a finding that a closed-circuit procedure is necessary to prevent harm to these children. The second limitation is that the court may only do what is constitutionally permissible to prevent psychological harm to the child. The majority notes the constitutional questions which may arise from the use of closed-circuit testimony in a criminal case. The court must exercise its power under section 288, subdivision (c) with care and precision in order to protect the constitutional rights of the defendant. The record before us does not reflect the requisite attention to these constitutional concerns. A bare minute order permitting closed-circuit testimony without provision for the precise manner in which it shall be given does not provide the necessary protection of the defendant’s constitutional rights and is therefore not a proper exercise of the court’s authority under section 288, subdivision (c).
A petition for a rehearing was denied December 7, 1984, and the opinion was modified to read as printed above. The petition of real party in interest for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied February 14, 1985. Lucas, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.