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Criminal Law – Child Abuse – Evidentiary Rulings
Staff Report//March 12, 2025//
Defendant appealed his conviction for child abuse/neglect and domestic assault, challenging the denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal and arguing that the trial court erred in limiting questions about one victim’s drug abuse, denying exclusion of a minor victim’s statements and allowing the minor victim’s deposition recording, as those rulings violated defendant’s Confrontation Clause rights.
Where one victim’s current drug abuse did not bear upon her ability to accurately describe the alleged events and where the minor victim’s out-of-court statements bore sufficient indicia of reliability, there was no error in the trial court’s evidentiary rulings and the evidence was sufficient to support defendant’s conviction.
Judgment is affirmed.
State v. Rugen (MLW No. 82848/Case No. ED112437 – 22 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Stevens, J.) Appeal from circuit court, Franklin County, Hellman, J. (Kevin A. Richardson, for appellant) (Garrick Aplin, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent)
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