Com. v. Hudson-Greenly, J.S. No. 403 MDA 2020
In Commonwealth v. Hudson-Greenly, the defendant was charged with child abuse. During the trial, the child victim was permitted to testify by contemporaneous alternative method pursuant to the Tender Years exception. This decision came after a hearing on the issue, where the child witness was observed and questioned by the judge outside the courtroom. Following a conviction at trial, the defendant appealed, claiming that it was error to allow the child victim to testify by a contemporaneous alternative method.
When reviewing the admissibility of evidence, admissibility is at the discretion of the trial court and will constitute reversible error only by a showing of an abuse of that discretion, and resulting prejudice. The tender years exception allows a witness to testify by contemporaneous alternative means when a determination is made that the child victim will suffer serious emotional distress that would impair the child victim’s ability to communicate. In this case, the court observed through the process of questioning numerous indicia that she would suffer as a result of being in the presence of the defendant.
The order of the trial court clearly indicated that in addition to considering the testimony of the child victim’s adoptive mother, the court had the opportunity to both observe the child’s demeanor and assess her state of mind in the scope of the entire circumstances surrounding the proceeding prior to rendering its decision. The superior court discerns no abuse of discretion. Further, the defendant failed to establish that the decision to allow the child victim to testify via closed-circuit television either harmed or prejudiced her at trial. For these reasons, no error was found on behalf of the trial court judge and therefor the judgment of sentence is affirmed.
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