People v. Carter

919 P.2d 862, 1996 WL 84669
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 11, 1996
Docket94CA0438
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 919 P.2d 862 (People v. Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Carter, 919 P.2d 862, 1996 WL 84669 (Colo. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

Opinion by

Chief Judge STERNBERG.

Defendant, William L. Carter, appeals a judgment of conviction entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of multiple sex crimes involving his two young daughters. His principal contention of error relates to the showing of videotaped interviews of the children to the jury. We reverse and remand for a new trial.

When they were four and five years old, the defendant’s daughters told their foster *864 mother that they had been subjected to sexual contact by their father on several occasions two or three years earlier. This information was reported to employees of the Department of Social Services, who contacted the police.

In the course of an investigation that followed, a social services caseworker and a deputy sheriff interviewed the children and recorded some of their interviews on videotape. The girls entered into counselling. Later, at the urging of the sheriffs department, their therapist interviewed them on videotape as well. Neither defendant nor his attorney was present during any of the videotaped interviews.

With regard to other hearsay statements of the children, the district attorney filed a “Notice of Intent to Introduce Hearsay Statements Pursuant to Section 13-25-129” concerning anticipated testimony of the girls’ foster mother, therapist, and the sheriffs deputy. Section 13-25-129, C.R.S. (1987 Repl.Vol. 6A) provides a hearsay exception pertaining to statements of child victims of sexual offenses. The statute requires a hearing to address the availability of the child as a witness and to determine whether there is any corroborating evidence of the allegations.

Approximately one year prior to the trial, defendant’s attorney entered into a stipulation with the prosecutor which stated that defendant waived a hearing to determine the admissibility of the hearsay statements identified in the Notice. Defendant acknowledged in the stipulation that sufficient evidence existed to satisfy the § 13-25-129 requirements, and therefore, he waived his right to the hearing. The stipulation referred to the hearsay testimony by the therapist, foster mother, and deputy sheriff about the children’s statements that were made to them, but it did not refer to the actual videotaped interviews.

The videotape contains some damaging statements by both girls regarding sexual contact by their father. Arguably, the tape also evidences instances in which the therapist used leading questions to elicit the statements. The videotape was admitted as an exhibit and, with the judge not present, was viewed by the jury. After the viewing, the court indicated that the tape would be available to the jury during deliberations. No objection was made to admission of the videotaped statements, to playing the tape to the jury, to the absence of the judge, or to the court’s statement that the tape would be available to the jury during its deliberations.

Defendant was convicted of two counts each of sexual assault on a child when in a position of trust, aggravated incest, and sexual assault on a child with a pattern of abuse and was sentenced to two consecutive sixteen-year terms. This appeal followed.

I.

Defendant argues that the trial court committed plain error when it admitted the videotaped statements. We agree.

A.

In People v. Newbrough, 803 P.2d 155 (Colo.1990), the supreme court dealt with the admissibility of a videotaped interview of the child victim, as distinguished from a videotaped deposition taken pursuant to § 18-3-413, C.R.S. (1986 Repl.Vol. 8B). There, the trial court had admitted the taped interview into evidence under the general child hearsay provision, § 13-25-129, C.R.S. (1987 Repl. Vol. 6A). The supreme court, however, held that child victim videotapes may be admitted only if they are videotaped depositions made in compliance with § 18-3-413.

Here, the videotape did not meet the requirements of § 18-3-413. Thus, the Newb-rough precedent mandates the holding that it was error for the trial court to receive into evidence the videotaped interview of the children.

Other precedent also demonstrates, as defendant contends, that the trial judge erred in absenting himself from the courtroom while the tape was being played, see People v. Garcia, 826 P.2d 1259 (Colo.1992), and in making the tape available for viewing during jury deliberations. See People v. Montoya, 773 P.2d 623 (Colo.App.1989).

*865 B.

Because defendant did not object to the receipt of the videotape into evidence, the question becomes whether the error requires reversal as being plain error.

In People v. Newbrough, supra, 803 P.2d at 161, the supreme court pointed out that a videotaped interview is “undoubtedly more powerful, and thus potentially more prejudicial” than testimony of a witness about what the child said. Because of that potential for prejudice, the supreme court declined to hold the error in admitting the evidence to be harmless.

Based upon the Newbrough precedent, we conclude that plain error occurred in admitting the videotape. Therefore, the judgment of conviction cannot stand.

We do not reach the question whether the absence of the judge from the courtroom while the tape was played for the jury was error requiring reversal. Also, inasmuch as the record is unclear whether the jury actually viewed the tape during its deliberations, we do not address the effect of the tape being made available for viewing by the jury.

On retrial, the videotaped interview must be excluded; however, as is the ease with all perceivers of hearsay declarations, the persons present may testify as to statements made during the interviews if the court finds the hearsay statements to be admissible under § 13-25-129.

C.

The People seek to evade the implications of the Newbrough holding by asserting that § 18-3-413(5), C.R.S. (1995 Cum.Supp.) applies to this ease. Section 18-3-413(5), in effect, legislatively overrules Newbrough in that it provides that § 18-3^413 does not prevent admission of a videotaped statement of an interview which qualifies for admission under § 13-25-129. However, the effective date of § 18-3-413(5) was June 6, 1991. By its own terms, the amendment was applicable to offenses committed on or after that date. The offenses charged here took place between June 1, 1989, and April 10, 1990. See Colo.Sess.Laws 1991, ch. 73, § 18-3-413 at 406. Thus, as the People conceded at oral argument, the amendment has no application in this ease and cannot validate the admission of the videotaped statement.

D.

We are also unpersuaded by the People’s contention that the error of receiving into evidence the videotaped interview should not be grounds for reversal because it was “invited error.”

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Bluebook (online)
919 P.2d 862, 1996 WL 84669, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-carter-coloctapp-1996.