VIDEOTAPES ASSIST IN CHILD MOLESTATION CASES

Getting a young child to provide the information needed to prosecute an alleged child molester is tricky but not impossible.

Videotaped testimony is one of the tools increasingly used. The taping sessions always involve both a Division of Family Services investigator and the police.

Officer Jeannie Dailey of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, says "doll tapes" are recorded showing the child playing with an anatomically correct doll.

The child also is asked questions by a DFS investigator.

"We have certain guidelines we have to follow so we don't ask leading questions," Dailey said.

The Cape Girardeau police never pursue a molestation case based on a parent's say-so alone, Dailey said.

"It's not enough."

Ian Sutherland, an assistant prosecuting attorney for Cape Girardeau County, currently is prosecuting a case in which a girl was videotaped telling a DFS investigator about the molestation but has refused to talk to the court.

The court has declared the witness unavailable, meaning her videotaped testimony may be used in her stead.

"There's certainly going to be a major squabble about that," Sutherland said, but added there is ample case law to back it up.

Sutherland said courts also have been known to accept as testimony, videotaped conversation between a child and a parent only.

"With a child that age you have to be flexible or you'll never pick it up," he said.