Amends TCA Title 24, Chapter 7 and Title 37.

Under present law, a video recording of an interview of a child by a forensic interviewer containing a statement made by the child under 13 years of age describing any act of sexual contact performed with or on the child by another is admissible and may be considered for its bearing on any matter to which it is relevant in evidence at the trial of the person for any offense arising from the sexual contact if certain statutory requirements are met. This bill rewrites the above provision to include a statement made by a child under 18 years of age, instead of 13. This bill also adds that the statement may be describing abusive or violent contact with or on the child, instead of just sexual contact; and adds that the statement may describe an act of sexual, abusive, or violent contact performed by a person with or on another person and witnessed by the child. The bill further provides that the evidence contained in this provision is admissible and may be considered for its bearing on any matter to which it is relevant in evidence at any stage of a criminal proceeding or juvenile proceeding of the person, as opposed to just at the trial of the person. QUALIFICATIONS OF INTERVIEWER Present law authorizes a video recording to be admitted as provided above if, among other requirements, the interview was conducted by a forensic interviewer who met certain qualifications at the time the video recording was made, including that the interviewer had experience equivalent to three years of full-time professional work in one or a combination of the following areas: (1) Child protective services; (2) Criminal justice; (3) Clinical evaluation; (4) Counseling; or (5) Forensic interviewing or other comparable work with children. This bill adds as an alternative to the above requirement, that the interview was conducted by a forensic interviewer who had been supervised by an experienced forensic interviewer for a minimum of 20 forensic interviews and had completed a minimum of eight hours of interviewing under the supervision of a qualified forensic interviewer of children. ON MARCH 13, 2023, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 557, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 makes the following changes to this bill: (1) Revises what the child's statement may be describing to, instead, provide that the statement made by a child under 18 may be describing an act of sexual or physically violent contact, removing abusive contact, performed with or on the child by a person, or performed by a person with or on another and witnessed by the child; (2) Removes juvenile court proceedings from the forensic interview's scope of admissibility, and adds that the evidence may be considered at any stage of a criminal proceeding of the person for any offense arising from the sexual or physically violent contact if the requirements of this amendment are met; (3) Removes the provision that states a video recording admitted pursuant to this section is discoverable in proceedings governed by the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure; and (4) Adds a new section to this bill that revises present law provisions governing basic rights at a hearing in juvenile court by adding the following: (A) A video recording of a child by a forensic interviewer, as described in this amendment, is admissible and may be considered for its bearing on any matter to which it is relevant in evidence at any stage of proceedings in an action under laws governing juveniles, if the requirements of this (4) are met; (B) Except for delinquency and unruly conduct proceedings, a video recording may generally be admissible if the following conditions are met: (i) The video recording is shown to the reasonable satisfaction of the court to possess particularized guarantees of trustworthiness, as determined by the court in accordance with law; (ii) The interview was conducted by a qualified forensic interviewer at the time the video recording was made; (iii) The recording is both visual and oral and is recorded on film or videotape or by other similar audiovisual means; (iv) The entire interview of the child was recorded on the video recording and the video recording is unaltered and accurately reflects the interview of the child; and (v) Every voice heard on the video recording is properly identified as determined by the court; (C) In delinquency and unruly conduct proceedings, a video recording may be admissible if the admissibility requirements of present law provisions governing evidence and witnesses have been met; (D) If a video recording is offered into evidence, then the court must make specific findings of fact on the record as to the basis for the court's ruling regarding the admission or denial of admission of the video recording; and enter a protective order to restrict the video recording from further disclosure or dissemination; and (E) A video recording offered into evidence is not a public record. The court must order the video recording to be sealed and preserved following the conclusion of any proceeding.