People v. Myles

Defendant was convicted of 3 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of his minor step-granddaughters. Court found minors and their mother to be credible witnesses and found Defendant not to be a credible witness. No ineffective assistance of counsel in not objecting to admission of minors' recorded statements to trained forensic interviewer. Testimony of minors and their mother was consistent and was found credible, and thus outcome of trial would have likely been the same even without the recordings.  No error in Defendant not being present when court viewed the recorded interviews with minors. Defendant made no objection to court viewing videos outside of his presence, he saw the videos himself, witnesses in videos testified in open court where Defendant had opportunity to confront and cross-examine them, and he was aware of all the State's evidence when he decided to testify in his own defense. (STEIGMANN and DeARMOND, concurring.)