People v. Kreiner

The Court of Appeals has reached conflicting results on the question of what effect the adoption of the Michigan Rules of Evidence has had on the tender years exception to the hearsay rule.1 We hold that the exception no longer exists; hearsay evidence as to what a child of tender years related about the circumstances of a sexual assault may be admitted only if it comes within one of the existing exceptions.2

I

The defendant was charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct3 as a result of what was *374alleged to have occurred between him and a six-year-old girl during the morning of July 3,…