Court Opinion

ID: 9561036
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:01:41.447769+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:29.929048
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
dissenting.
This case involves a petition for an adjudication of delinquency of a 14-year-old boy for child molestation in allegedly exposing himself to his two-year-old sister and a three-year-old girl and making the sister touch his penis. Before the trial commenced, defendant sought to exclude from trial the statements of the three-year-old to her mother and in the presence of a friend of her mother and the child’s videotaped statement to a juvenile detective. As indicated in the majority opinion, the court determined the child was not competent to testify as a sworn witness, ruled that OCGA § 24-3-16 was therefore inapplicable, and dismissed the petition.
I respectfully dissent for the reasons set out in the special concurrence in Westbrook v. State, 186 Ga. App. 493, 498 (368 SE2d 131) (1988).