Court Opinion

ID: 9670394
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:19:51.121281+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:04.253505
License: Public Domain

Levin, J.
(concurring in result). We have signed the opinion of the Court except for part iv, which contains statements unnecessary to decision in the instant case.1
Archer, J,, concurred with Levin, J.

 The tender years exception, adverted to in part iv, permitted the admission of third-party testimony of the child’s statements only to corroborate the child’s own testimony. See People v Kreiner, 415 Mich 372, 376; 329 NW2d 716 (1982), quoting People v Baker, 251 Mich 322, 326; 232 NW 381 (1930).
Also noteworthy is that the cases referred to in People v Washington, 100 Mich App 628, 633; 300 NW2d 347 (1980), do not authorize rehabilitation where the complainant has been impeached on the basis that he is mistaken or lying unless he has been impeached on the basis that he fabricated the allegation sometime after he made his consistent statement.
Statements made long after the fact, by an easily influenced youngster, after repeated and suggestive questioning by parents, are the sort of statements which should be excluded.