State v. Phillips

This criminal case involves the admissibility of certain out-of-court statements of a child victim of sexual abuse. The trial court ruled that the child, who was four years old at the time of trial, was unavailable as a witness. The court received the child’s statements that defendant sexually abused her but excluded the child’s statements offered by defendant as impeachment. After trial to the court, defendant was found guilty of sexual abuse in the first degree. ORS 163.425 (1989). 1 The Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction without opinion. State v. Phillips, 112 Or App 158, 827 P2d…