Gordon v. State

In order to convict Michael Gordon of third-degree sex offense, the State had to prove that he was at least twenty-one years old at the time he had the alleged inappropriate contact ■with a fourteen-year-old girl. The State sought to do that through the testimony of a police officer who had an opportunity to examine Gordon’s driver’s license and to see the date of birth listed there. Gordon objected to that testimony on hearsay grounds, but the State argued that, even if the date of birth was hearsay, it was admissible as an adoptive admission of a party-opponent under Maryland Rule…