United States Eighth Circuit

Defendant's conviction for aggravated sexual abuse of a child is affirmed where: 1) the district court was not required to make a finding on the record as to each of the Fed. R. Evid. 807 requirements and the Thunder Horse factors as long as the record demonstrated that the district court considered the relevant factors; 2) because defendant did not show that playing the entire DVD recording of the forensic interview with the victim had a substantial influence on the jury's verdict, any error in admitting it was harmless; and 3) a witness was qualified to give her lay opinion based on her personal knowledge and perception of the victim and her experience performing forensic interviews of allegedly abused children.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/05/2010
• Published 01/05/2010

Judges

• GRUENDER, Circuit Judge., Before RILEY, SMITH and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Christopher J. Lancaster, Assistant, Federal Public Defender's Office, Fargo, ND, Peter James Smith, Oxford, WI, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl, U.S. Attorney‘s Office, Fargo, ND, for Appellee.