How do you get around hearsay in a DWI with Child case where the officer only asks the child her name and how old she is and never asks defendant for this information.

Also, defendant is sole guardian of the child? Can I subpoena defendant to bring child to court? {Child is 7 years old.}If not, what other ideas are there to get around this and prove this element up. Trial is set in April.

Thanks in advance!

Couldn't you just offer a photo of the child? Surely at that young an age a juror could reasonably infer the child was younger than 14.

That's great! We're going to subpoena the child's school records (hopefully with a pic) and the principal to testify to her name and date of birth. Then we can have our officer testify that the child in the picture is the child that was in the car the night of the offense.

Thanks!!!

With the parent being arrested, who was the child released to and with what documentation?

I've even issued a subpoena to our County Clerk for a certified copy of the child's birth certificate and introduced that. That will also give you the name of the other parent--who often times is only too happy to come to court and share their opinion of the Defendant with the jury.

I realize this is somewhat late to suggest but wouldn't asking for Name and Age possibly be admissible under Rule 803 (3) as "physical condition"?

Update: We couldn't find the child's school records, but have since come up with the idea of proving the child's name and age in a "chain of custody" manner. We have subpoenaed the child's aunt who picked her up that night to have her testify to that she in fact picked up the child, the child's name and age, and the officer can testify that was the child he released to that person. Will also have a copy of the child's birth certificate in case aunt freezes up and refuses to cooperate.

Thanks again for all the ideas!

If the child is unavailable as a witness, see 804:
(3) Statement of personal or family history.
(A) A statement concerning the declarant's own birth, adoption, marriage, divorce, legitimacy, relationship by blood, adoption, or marriage, ancestry, or other similar fact of personal or family history even though declarant had no means of acquiring personal knowledge of the matter stated...

Seems like you could also subpoena the child through the defendant, and when the defendant fails to bring the child to court, the child is unavailable.