Chapter 945 Oregon Laws 1999

Session Law

AN ACT

HB 3395

Relating to evidence; creating new provisions; and amending ORS 40.460.

Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:

SECTION 1. ORS 40.460 is amended to read:

40.460. The following are not excluded by ORS 40.455, even though the declarant is available as a witness:

(1) (Reserved.)

(2) A statement relating to a startling event or condition made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event or condition.

(3) A statement of the declarant's then existing state of mind, emotion, sensation or physical condition, such as intent, plan, motive, design, mental feeling, pain or bodily health, but not including a statement of memory or belief to prove the fact remembered or believed unless it relates to the execution, revocation, identification, or terms of the declarant's will.

(4) Statements made for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment and describing medical history, or past or present symptoms, pain or sensations, or the inception or general character of the cause of external source thereof insofar as reasonably pertinent to diagnosis or treatment.

(5) A memorandum or record concerning a matter about which a witness once had knowledge but now has insufficient recollection to enable the witness to testify fully and accurately, shown to have been made or adopted by the witness when the matter was fresh in the memory of the witness and to reflect that knowledge correctly. If admitted, the memorandum or record may be read into evidence but may not itself be received as an exhibit unless offered by an adverse party.

(6) A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, unless the source of information or the method of circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. The term "business" as used in this subsection includes business, institution, association, profession, occupation, and calling of every kind, whether or not conducted for profit.

(7) Evidence that a matter is not included in the memoranda, reports, records, or data compilations, and in any form, kept in accordance with the provisions of subsection (6) of this section, to prove the nonoccurrence or nonexistence of the matter, if the matter was of a kind of which a memorandum, report, record, or data compilation was regularly made and preserved, unless the sources of information or other circumstances indicate lack of trustworthiness.

(8) Records, reports, statements, or data compilations, in any form, of public offices or agencies, setting forth:

(a) The activities of the office or agency;

(b) Matters observed pursuant to duty imposed by law as to which matters there was a duty to report, excluding however, in criminal cases matters observed by police officers and other law enforcement personnel; or

(c) In civil actions and proceedings and against the government in criminal cases, factual findings, resulting from an investigation made pursuant to authority granted by law, unless the sources of information or other circumstances indicate lack of trustworthiness.

(9) Records or data compilations, in any form, of births, fetal deaths, deaths or marriages, if the report thereof was made to a public office pursuant to requirements of law.

(10) To prove the absence of a record, report, statement, or data compilation, in any form, or the nonoccurrence or nonexistence of a matter of which a record, report, statement, or data compilation, in any form, was regularly made and preserved by a public office or agency, evidence in the form of a certification in accordance with ORS 40.510, or testimony, that diligent search failed to disclose the record, report, statement, or data compilation, or entry.

(11) Statements of births, marriages, divorces, deaths, legitimacy, ancestry, relationship by blood or marriage, or other similar facts of personal or family history, contained in a regularly kept record of a religious organization.

(12) A statement of fact contained in a certificate that the maker performed a marriage or other ceremony or administered a sacrament, made by a clergyman, public official, or other person authorized by the rules or practices of a religious organization or by law to perform the act certified, and purporting to have been issued at the time of the act or within a reasonable time thereafter.

(13) Statements of facts concerning personal or family history contained in family bibles, genealogies, charts, engravings on rings, inscriptions on family portraits, engravings on urns, crypts, or tombstones, or the like.

(14) The record of a document purporting to establish or affect an interest in property, as proof of content of the original recorded document and its execution and delivery by each person by whom it purports to have been executed, if the record is a record of a public office and an applicable statute authorizes the recording of documents of that kind in that office.

(15) A statement contained in a document purporting to establish or affect an interest in property if the matter stated was relevant to the purpose of the document, unless dealings with the property since the document was made have been inconsistent with the truth of the statement or the purport of the document.

(16) Statements in a document in existence 20 years or more the authenticity of which is established.

(17) Market quotations, tabulations, lists, directories, or other published compilations, generally used and relied upon by the public or by persons in particular occupations.

(18) (Reserved.)

(18a)(a) A complaint of sexual misconduct or complaint of abuse as defined in ORS 107.705 or 419B.005 made by the witness after the commission of the alleged misconduct or abuse at issue. Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection, such evidence must be confined to the fact that the complaint was made.

(b) A statement made by [a child victim or person with developmental disabilities as described in paragraph (d) of this subsection] a person[, which statement concerns] concerning an act of abuse, as defined in ORS 107.705 or 419B.005, [or sexual conduct performed with or on the child or person with developmental disabilities by another,] is not excluded by ORS 40.455 if the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant either testifies at the proceeding and is subject to cross-examination or [is] was chronologically or mentally under 12 years of age at the time the statement was made and is unavailable as a witness. However, [when a witness under 12 years of age or a person with developmental disabilities] if a declarant is unavailable [as a witness], the statement may be admitted in evidence only if the proponent establishes that the time, content and circumstances of the statement provide indicia of reliability, and in a criminal trial that there is corroborative evidence of the act of abuse [or sexual conduct] and of the alleged perpetrator's opportunity to participate in the conduct and that the statement possesses indicia of reliability as is constitutionally required to be admitted. No statement may be admitted under this paragraph unless the proponent of the statement makes known to the adverse party the proponent's intention to offer the statement and the particulars of the statement no later than 15 days before trial, except for good cause shown. For purposes of this paragraph, in addition to those situations described in ORS 40.465 (1), the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant shall be considered "unavailable" if the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant has a substantial lack of memory of the subject matter of the statement, is presently incompetent to testify, is unable to communicate about the abuse or sexual conduct because of fear or other similar reason or is substantially likely, as established by expert testimony, to suffer lasting severe emotional trauma from testifying. Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the court shall examine the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant in chambers and on the record or outside the presence of the jury and on the record. The examination shall be conducted immediately prior to the commencement of the trial in the presence of the attorney and the legal guardian or other suitable adult as designated by the court. If the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant is found to be unavailable, the court shall then determine the admissibility of the evidence. The determinations shall be appealable under ORS 138.060 (3). The purpose of the examination shall be to aid the court in making its findings regarding the availability of the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant as a witness and the reliability of the statement of the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant. In determining whether a statement possesses indicia of reliability under this paragraph, the court may consider, but is not limited to, the following factors:

(A) The personal knowledge of the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant of the event;

(B) The age and maturity of the [child] declarant or extent of disability [of the person with] if the declarant is a person with developmental disabilities;

(C) Certainty that the statement was made, including the credibility of the person testifying about the statement and any motive the person may have to falsify or distort the statement;

(D) Any apparent motive the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant may have to falsify or distort the event, including bias, corruption or coercion;

(E) The timing of the statement of the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant;

(F) Whether more than one person heard the statement;

(G) Whether the [child or person with developmental disabilities] declarant was suffering pain or distress when making the statement;

(H) Whether the [child's] declarant's young age or disability makes it unlikely that the [child] declarant fabricated a statement that represents a graphic, detailed account beyond the [child's] knowledge and experience of the declarant;

(I) Whether the statement has internal consistency or coherence and uses terminology appropriate to the [child's] declarant's age or to the extent of the declarant's disability [of the] if the declarant is a person with developmental disabilities;

(J) Whether the statement is spontaneous or directly responsive to questions; and

(K) Whether the statement was elicited by leading questions.

(d) This subsection applies to a child declarant or an adult declarant with developmental disabilities. For the purposes of this subsection, "developmental disabilities" means any disability attributable to mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy or other disabling neurological condition that requires training or support similar to that required by persons with mental retardation, if either of the following apply:

(A) The disability originates before the person attains 22 years of age, or if the disability is attributable to mental retardation the condition is manifested before the person attains 18 years of age, the disability can be expected to continue indefinitely, and the disability constitutes a substantial handicap to the ability of the person to function in society.

(B) The disability results in a significant subaverage general intellectual functioning with concurrent deficits in adaptive behavior that are manifested during the developmental period.

(19) Reputation among members of a person's family by blood, adoption or marriage, or among a person's associates, or in the community, concerning a person's birth, adoption, marriage, divorce, death, legitimacy, relationship by blood or adoption or marriage, ancestry, or other similar fact of a person's personal or family history.

(20) Reputation in a community, arising before the controversy, as to boundaries of or customs affecting lands in the community, and reputation as to events of general history important to the community or state or nation in which located.

(21) Reputation of a person's character among associates of the person or in the community.

(22) Evidence of a final judgment, entered after a trial or upon a plea of guilty, but not upon a plea of no contest, adjudging a person guilty of a crime other than a traffic offense, to prove any fact essential to sustain the judgment, but not including, when offered by the government in a criminal prosecution for purposes other than impeachment, judgments against persons other than the accused. The pendency of an appeal may be shown but does not affect admissibility.

(23) Judgments as proof of matters of personal, family or general history, or boundaries, essential to the judgment, if the same would be provable by evidence of reputation.

(24) Notwithstanding the limits contained in subsection (18a) of this section, in any proceeding in which a child under 12 years of age at the time of trial, or a person with developmental disabilities as described in subsection (18)(d) of this section, may be called as a witness to testify concerning an act of abuse, as defined in ORS 419B.005, or sexual conduct performed with or on the child or person with developmental disabilities by another, the testimony of the child or person with developmental disabilities taken by contemporaneous examination and cross-examination in another place under the supervision of the trial judge and communicated to the courtroom by closed circuit television or other audiovisual means. Testimony will be allowed as provided in this subsection only if the court finds that there is a substantial likelihood, established by expert testimony, that the child or person with developmental disabilities will suffer severe emotional or psychological harm if required to testify in open court. If the court makes such a finding, the court, on motion of a party, the child, the person with developmental disabilities or the court in a civil proceeding, or on motion of the district attorney, the child or the person with developmental disabilities in a criminal or juvenile proceeding, may order that the testimony of the child or the person with developmental disabilities be taken as described in this subsection. Only the judge, the attorneys for the parties, the parties, individuals necessary to operate the equipment and any individual the court finds would contribute to the welfare and well-being of the child or person with developmental disabilities may be present during the testimony of the child or person with developmental disabilities.

(25) Any document containing data prepared or recorded by the Oregon State Police pursuant to ORS 813.160 (1)(b)(C) or (E), or pursuant to ORS 475.235 (3), if the document is produced by data retrieval from the Law Enforcement Data System or other computer system maintained and operated by the Oregon State Police, and the person retrieving the data attests that the information was retrieved directly from the system and that the document accurately reflects the data retrieved.

(26)(a) A statement that purports to narrate, describe, report or explain an incident of domestic violence, as defined in ORS 135.230, made by a victim of the domestic violence within 24 hours after the incident occurred, if the statement:

(A) Was recorded, either electronically or in writing, or was made to a peace officer as defined in ORS 161.015, corrections officer, youth corrections officer, parole and probation officer, emergency medical technician or firefighter; and

(B) Has sufficient indicia of reliability.

(b) In determining whether a statement has sufficient indicia of reliability under paragraph (a) of this subsection, the court shall consider all circumstances surrounding the statement. The court may consider, but is not limited to, the following factors in determining whether a statement has sufficient indicia of reliability:

(A) The personal knowledge of the declarant.

(B) Whether the statement is corroborated by evidence other than statements that are subject to admission only pursuant to this subsection.

(C) The timing of the statement.

(D) Whether the statement was elicited by leading questions.

(E) Subsequent statements made by the declarant. Recantation by a declarant is not sufficient reason for denying admission of a statement under this subsection in the absence of other factors indicating unreliability.

[(26)(a)] (27)(a) A statement not specifically covered by any of the foregoing exceptions but having equivalent circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness, if the court determines that:

(A) The statement is relevant;

(B) The statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts; and

(C) The general purposes of the Oregon Evidence Code and the interests of justice will best be served by admission of the statement into evidence.

(b) A statement may not be admitted under this subsection unless the proponent of it makes known to the adverse party the intention to offer the statement and the particulars of it, including the name and address of the declarant, sufficiently in advance of the trial or hearing, or as soon as practicable after it becomes apparent that such statement is probative of the issues at hand, to provide the adverse party with a fair opportunity to prepare to meet it.

SECTION 2. The amendments to ORS 40.460 by section 1 of this 1999 Act apply only to trials commenced on or after the effective date of this 1999 Act.

Approved by the Governor August 16, 1999

Filed in the office of Secretary of State August 16, 1999

Effective date October 23, 1999

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