La. Stat. tit. 15 § 440.4

Current with operative changes from the 2024 Third Special Legislative Session

Section 15:440.4 - Method of recording videotape; competency

A. A videotape of a protected person may be offered in evidence either for or against a defendant. To render such a videotape competent evidence, it must be satisfactorily proved:

(1) That such electronic recording was voluntarily made by the protected person.

(2) That no relative of the protected person was present in the room where the recording was made.

(3) That such recording was not made of answers to interrogatories calculated to lead the protected person to make any particular statement.

(4) That the recording is accurate, has not been altered, and reflects what the protected person said.

(5) That the taking of the protected person's statement was supervised by a physician, a social worker, a law enforcement officer, a licensed psychologist, a medical psychologist, a licensed professional counselor, an authorized representative of the Department of Children and Family Services, or a civilian investigator.

B. The department shall develop and promulgate regulations on or before September 12, 1984, regarding training requirements and certification for department personnel designated in Paragraph (A)(5) of this Section who supervise the taking of the protected person's statement.

C. The provisions of this Section, relative to a civilian investigator's ability to render a videotape as competent evidence, shall only apply to a civilian investigator within a parish with a population of not less than three hundred eighty-three thousand and not more than four hundred forty thousand as provided in the most recent federal decennial census.

La. R.S. § 15:440.4

Acts 1984, No. 563, §1; Acts 1986, No. 626, §1; Acts 1999, No. 1309, §3, eff. Jan. 1, 2000; Acts 2001, No. 486, §1, eff. June 21, 2001; Acts 2004, No. 241, §1; Acts 2009, No. 251, §13, eff. Jan. 1, 2010.

Amended by Acts 2024, No. 548,s. 1, eff. 8/1/2024.

Acts 1984, No. 563, §1; Acts 1986, No. 626, §1; Acts 1999, No. 1309, §3, eff. 1/1/2000; Acts 2001, No. 486, §1, eff. 6/21/2001; Acts 2004, No. 241, §1; Acts 2009, No. 251, §13, eff. 1/1/2010.