It may be, under a narrow Evidence Code section 1360 procedure. The victim must still be a minor when the statement is offered, and must have been under 12 when making it. The statement must describe a qualifying act or attempted act of child abuse or neglect, and it cannot already be admissible under another rule. The judge—not the jury—must find it reliable after a hearing outside the jury’s presence. (Evidence Code § 1360)

Section 1360 also requires the child to testify or to be legally unavailable. If the child is unavailable, evidence of the child abuse or neglect must corroborate the statement. The prosecution must give advance notice with enough detail and time for the other side to prepare. A child’s reluctance or refusal to testify does not by itself establish legal unavailability. (Evidence Code § 1360; Evidence Code § 240)

Reliability and confrontation are separate questions

At the section 1360 hearing, the judge considers the statement’s timing, content and circumstances. Preserve the original recording, interview notes, questioner’s identity, who else was present, what was said before and after, and whether the account changed. A police report that paraphrases a statement may raise separate proof or multiple-hearsay issues; the report is not necessarily a substitute for the child’s actual words.

If the child is unavailable and the statement is testimonial, the Sixth Amendment may independently bar its use when the accused had no prior opportunity to cross-examine the child. A section 1360 reliability finding does not replace that constitutional analysis. Whether a statement is testimonial depends on its circumstances and primary purpose, not simply the child’s age or the fact an officer received it. Crawford v. Washington supplies the confrontation rule; People v. Hall illustrates a fact-specific ongoing-emergency analysis and should not be generalized to every child interview. (Crawford v. Washington; People v. Hall)

Ask counsel to compare the exact statement, the child’s age when it was made and at trial, the notice, the hearing evidence, and the child’s testimony or unavailability record. Section 1360 is one hearsay route, not a rule that every childhood statement qualifies.

For more about child-abuse allegations, see the firm’s practice page. For help reviewing proposed child-statement evidence, contact the Law Offices of David S. Chesley at (800) 755-5174.