People v. Shannon CA4/3

DISCUSSION

I. Admission of Victim’s Videotaped Interview

Shannon contends the trial court erred in admitting the videotaped interview of R.L. in violation of his confrontation rights and section 1360. We find no error.

2 Penal Code section 288a later was renumbered to Penal Code section 287. 3 The Orange County District Attorney charged Shannon with the same offenses in 2017. After a hung jury, the trial court declared a mistrial.

3 A. Facts R.L. is the granddaughter of Shannon’s second wife. On June 29, 2016, when R.L. was four years old, she told her mother that Shannon had licked her vagina, which she referred to as her “powder puff.” The following day, R.L was interviewed at the Orange office of Child Abuse Services Team (CAST). During the CAST interview, R.L. stated that Shannon licked her powder puff when she was alone in her room, lying on her bed. It happened “lots of times.” R.L. demonstrated Shannon’s conduct using teddy bears. Before trial, the prosecution moved to admit R.L.’s videotaped CAST interview pursuant to section 1360. The prosecution argued that R.L. “was able to distinguish between a truth and a lie,” “verbally describe[ ] what [Shannon] had done, and…