California Penal Code 868.7 – (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the magistrate …
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the magistrate may, upon motion of the prosecutor, close the examination in the manner described in Section 868 during the testimony of a witness:
(1) Who is a minor or a dependent person, as defined in paragraph (3) of subdivision (f) of Section 288, with a substantial cognitive impairment and is the complaining victim of a sex offense, where testimony before the general public would be likely to cause serious psychological harm to the witness and where no alternative procedures, including, but not limited to, video recorded deposition or contemporaneous examination in another place communicated to the courtroom by means of closed-circuit television, are available to avoid the perceived harm.
Terms Used In California Penal Code 868.7
- Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
- Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
- magistrate: signifies any one of the officers mentioned in Section 808. See California Penal Code 7
- person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See California Penal Code 7
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
- Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
(2) Whose life would be subject to a substantial risk in appearing before the general public, and where no alternative security measures, including, but not limited to, efforts to conceal his or her features or physical description, searches of members of the public attending the examination, or the temporary exclusion of other actual or potential witnesses, would be adequate to minimize the perceived threat.
(b) In any case where public access to the courtroom is restricted during the examination of a witness pursuant to this section, a transcript of the testimony of the witness shall be made available to the public as soon as is practicable.
(Amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 88, Sec. 73. (AB 176) Effective January 1, 2010.)