Statements made outside of court that cannot be verified at trial are called hearsay, and are generally prohibited. But there are exceptions, one of them being “spontaneous statements,” which are statements made in the moment that don’t leave time for deliberation. Courts have found that these statements tend to accurately reflect what a person was thinking when they said something.
In the case before the Supreme Court this week, a woman called 911 in March 2019, reporting that someone was trying to break into the house where she was working as an aide to a person with a disability.
Responding officers found damage to the front door and Dontrae R. Gray in the back of the house. The woman had bruises and a scratch on her face, and told an officer wearing a body camera that Gray kicked in the door and assaulted her. Gray was on probation for a previous, unrelated assault.
A few days later, the woman partially recanted her story, which is common among victims of intimate partner violence, and refused to appear at Gray’s criminal trial despite a subpoena. Los Angeles County prosecutors tried to introduce the body camera evidence, but a judge refused to allow it.
The criminal case was dismissed, but prosecutors asked a judge to revoke Gray’s probation, and again tried to use the body camera footage as evidence. This time, it worked.
Body camera footage a ‘unique opportunity’
The judge at Gray’s probation revocation hearing ruled that the woman’s statements in the body camera footage indeed qualified as a spontaneous statement, revoked Gray’s probation and ordered him to serve a suspended sentence of seven years in prison.
“The court actually has the unique opportunity to actually see her, hear her and see her,” said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Renee Korn, according to trial transcripts cited on appeal. “It’s not just an audiotape. It’s not just the reiteration of an officer of these statements.