Hearsay Statements of Child Abuse Victims and Delayed Outcry
By Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
“Hearsay” is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at a trial or hearing, offered into evidence to prove the truth of some matter being asserted. See: Tex. R. of Evid. 801. In English, hearsay is testimony about what somebody heard from somebody else. Hearsay testimony is generally inadmissible in a criminal trial. See: Tex. R. of Evid. 802. However, Article 38.072 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure provides an exception to the hearsay rule by allowing hearsay testimony in the prosecution of an offense committed against children twelve years of age and younger.
§ 38.072 is known as the “child outcry statute.” The statute applies only to statements made (1) by the child against whom the offense was allegedly committed and (2) to the first person to whom the child makes a statement about the offense providing that person is eighteen years of age or older. See: Sims v. State, 12 S.W.3d 499, 500 (Tex.App.-Dallas 1999, pet. ref’d).
The appeals court in Brown v. State, 189 S.W.3d 382 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2006) addressed the “outcry” issue at some length. The case involved a 10-year-old child victim who was sexually assaulted by a friend of her father. The child reported the sexual abuse to her father. The victim was subsequently interviewed, at the behest of investigating officers, by a counselor with the Child Advocacy Center. The victim told the counselor that the first two people she told about the sexual assaults were her father and the girlfriend of the defendant. She also said that she later told her brother, aunt, and uncle. Id., at 384. At trial she prosecution called the counselor as an “outcry” witness to testify and introduced a videotape of the counselor interview with the child victim during the counselor testimony. Id., at 385.
On appeal defendant argued that by allowing the counselor to testify and permitting the introduction of the videotape, the trial court had violated the “outcry” provisions of § 37.072. The appeals court agreed. It pointed out that the victim had made outcries to her father and the defendant’s girlfriend before speaking to the counselor. The State argued that the counselor was the proper outcry witness because the victim gave her a more detailed statement about the sexual abuse than she had the other two persons. The court rejected that argument, saying: (more…)
Subscribe
