{"id":23006,"date":"2018-01-26T13:46:53","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T19:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23006"},"modified":"2018-01-26T15:50:32","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T21:50:32","slug":"senators-consider-bill-to-limit-child-depositions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23006","title":{"rendered":"Senators consider bill to limit child depositions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children questioned as witnesses in criminal court cases would be given additional consideration under a bill discussed by lawmakers Jan. 23 and 25.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Sue Crawford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under LB589, introduced by Bellevue Sen. Sue Crawford, no deposition of a child would be granted if a video-recorded forensic interview already has been conducted by an accredited child advocacy center, unless the deposition would aid in the disclosure of evidence vital to a defendant\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

Crawford said the bill is the next step in the process to protect victims of sexual abuse, trafficking and molestation, while also preserving the due process rights of the accused.<\/p>\n

\u201cA child is more susceptible to traumatic revictimization, especially if a deposition is conducted several months after the forensic interview,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is critical we take action to prevent the revictimization of vulnerable children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge granting the deposition would be required to implement any protective measures to shield the child from harm or distress, harassment or intimidation. Such measures could include designating a specific time and location for the deposition to take place, limiting the scope of the deposition, providing a victim advocate or guardian ad litem, physically excluding the defendant from the deposition or any other reasonable protection for the child.<\/p>\n

Children in many cases do not have the same legal representation as adults, said Lincoln Sen. Mike Hilgers in support of the measure. He said the bill would not eliminate a defendant\u2019s right to depose an accuser, but it would make it reasonably more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis says we\u2019re not going to take away a defendant\u2019s right to depositions, but we are going to increase the burden,\u201d Hilgers said. \u201cWe want to make sure this is narrowly tailored to protect the rights of the child while not unreasonably taking away the rights of the defendant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellevue Sen. Carol Blood also spoke in support of the bill, saying that child victims must be protected from mental harm in addition to physical harm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our job as adults to empower and protect the children of Nebraska,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we can prevent them from reliving the experience of exploitation and abuse, that is a just purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protections set out under LB589 would apply to all minors involved in a case, including witnesses, said Columbus Sen. Paul Schumacher. He agreed with the concept behind the bill, but said the language was too broad and could unfairly limit a prosecutor\u2019s ability to question underage witnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think the law we have now is adequate to protect everyone\u2019s best interests,\u201d Schumacher said. \u201cThis bill probably goes too far in limiting the ability to ferret out the truth in those cases where the truth isn\u2019t always obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne agreed, adding that without the right to depose an underage victim, he would lose the leverage to talk some of his clients into taking a plea deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason people plea or settle is because often times their attorney will walk them through what a witness might say and they feel they can\u2019t win,\u201d he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have that available to me under this bill unless I go through another burden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several amendments were pending when the Legislature adjourned for the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children questioned as witnesses in criminal court cases would be given additional consideration under a bill discussed by lawmakers Jan. 23 and 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-23006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-sue-crawford"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/LB589Crawford1-25-18a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23011,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006\/revisions\/23011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}