Court Opinion

ID: 9760572
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:00:52.637936+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:13.776445
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I believe the statute is constitutional. I would interpret the law so as to provide that competency of the child witness be judicially determined before the evidence in question could be admitted.
In 1978 this Court adopted the federal definition of “unavailability” of a declarant for the purpose of excepting from the hearsay rule declarations against interest. Crawley v. Commonwealth, Ky., 568 S.W.2d 927 (1978); See also Motorist Mutual Insurance Co. v. Hunt, Ky.App., 549 S.W.2d 845 (1977).
The statute requires the child to be competent to stand for cross-examination. KRS 421.350(2) makes clear that the inability to cross-examine the child, because of unavailability renders the videotaped statement inadmissible. Therefore, the statute not only envisions but necessitates a judicial determination of the child’s competency before admission of the videotaped statement into evidence. There is no encroachment into the judiciary’s function of insuring the orderly administration of justice nor a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers. I believe the law is not constitutionally infirm.
The prosecution case was principally the unsworn, out-of-court statement made by the four-year-old victim. There was no physical or medical evidence. Two social workers testified relative to the taking of the statement. The prosecution concluded the case by the playing of the videotaped statement. The victim was present and available in court but was not called as a witness. The defense did not call her either. Gaines testified in his own defense and denied committing any of the alleged offenses. The jury found him guilty of both charges.
The statutory plan of KRS 421.350(2) provides ample opportunity to test the credibility of the evidence and the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find guilt in this case. The videotaped interview of the victim is a statutorily acceptable admission of an unsworn, out-of-court statement and as such is a recognized exception to the hearsay rule. The evidence presented is comparable to any other case in which the victim gives an eyewitness account of the crime. Here the child victim is an eye witness to the alleged crime and the statement was *529taken out of court by means of video tape. The victim was available at trial and physically present for full and complete examination. The defendant did not choose to exercise this right. The trial judge correctly overruled the motion for directed verdict. There was sufficient credibility in the statements of the victim to create a jury question between the opposing testimony of the victim and her father who totally denied the offenses.
The interview with the victim was conducted under circumstances which enhanced the believability of her statement. The videotaped interview was conducted at 4 p.m. on May 3,1985, only five hours after the initial interview at 11 a.m. the same day. There was no evidence of any contact in the interim by the social workers so as to permit any influencing or rehearsing of the taped statement.
Gaines waived his right to cross-examine the victim. KRS 421.350(2)(h) provides the right to cross-examine by requiring that the child victim be available to testify upon the call of either party. The child victim was physically present and available to be sworn and called as a witness. Gaines did not choose to call her for cross-examination and consequently waived his right to claim on appeal that confrontation was denied.
I am persuaded that Jolly v. State, Tex.App., 681 S.W.2d 689, 695 (1984), is correct when it held that a defendant could not claim on appeal that he was denied the right to confront and cross-examine a child victim when the defendant had chosen not to call the child to testify at trial even though she was available. See Also Alexander v. State, Tex.App., 692 S.W.2d 563 (1985). The Texas statute is very similar to KRS 421.350. Additional support for the valid constitutional foundation for the statutory plan may be found in “The Testimony of Child Victims in Sex Abuse Prosecutions: Two Legislative Innovations”, 98 Harvard Law Review 806 (1985); and “The Competency Requirement for the Child Victim of Sexual Abuse: Must We Abandon It?” Comment, 40 U. of Miami Law Review 245 (1985).