A bill to expand the use of closed-circuit TV for child victims who must testify at trial is running into resistance in the Virginia General Assembly.
In a Loudoun County courtroom in 2016, a young boy testified via closed-circuit TV, offering information that helped convict his father of killing his mother.
The option is rarely used in Northern Virginia courtrooms, but supporters say it can greatly reduce trauma for child victims.
Closed-circuit television wasn’t allowed in a Fairfax County court last year when a 12-year-old girl testified against her father about repeated sex assault.
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“Testifying in front of her father was her biggest fear because he used manipulation in order for her to not say anything about the abuse for several years,” the girl’s mother said.
But she did her research, pushed hard and convinced prosecutors to get the judge’s permission to allow her daughter to testify via closed-circuit TV in an adjacent courtroom. The child’s father was convicted.
“It would have been another severely traumatic situation dumped on top of what was already a lot of trauma,” the girl’s mother said.
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A proposed bill to expand the use of closed-circuit TV would have increased the age limit from 14 to 18, but the bill was already amended to only permit it for children 16 and under.
While the bill won unanimous approval in the House, there is push back in the Senate, chiefly from defense attorneys who say offenders have the constitutional right to directly confront their accuser.
“The idea is that you have the right to confront your accuser, and the reason for that is because when people have to look at each other and say things, it changes their testimony,” said state Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax and Prince William counties. “That’s the reality.”
State Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax and Arlington counties, responded with an emotional story of her own. When she was a victim of sex assault as a child, police put her in the same room as her attacker.
“I was traumatized then, and it is still something that is traumatic. It comes back, it comes back and it’s been more than 70 years,” she said. “We’re talking about children. We can’t re-traumatize them.”
The bill’s supporters argue safeguards are built into the law to make sure defendants and their attorneys can fully challenge an accuser. The Senate put off a vote, but the measure’s sponsor – Del. Karrie Delaney, D-Fairfax and Loudoun counties – says if reelected she’ll work again next year to further expand the ability of child victims to use closed-circuit TV.
