Juvenile court entered adjudication order finding 3-year-old and 1-year-old abused and neglected due to injurious environment and substantial risk of physical injury. Father of minors testified that DVD marked as People's Exhibit was a video of Respondent mother abusing his 3-year-old daughter, which showed Respondent repeatedly hitting child with a spatula and stick on various parts of her body while dragging her across the floor. Minor's father and DCFS investigator both testified that video was accurate portrayal of the 2 persons shown on the video, and Respondent admitting to having personal knowledge of incident shown in video and to being present at time video was taken. Thus, camera used to record video was operational at the time and was able to record sufficiently clearly so that persons in video and their actions were identifiable. No evidence that video had been altered or tampered with to render it unreliable or untrustworthy. Thus, juvenile court did not abuse its discretion in admitting video, and its adjudication findings were not against manifest weight of evidence. (LAMPKIN and REYES, concurring.)
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Abuse and Neglect