SB 5639 - DIGEST

     Requires the interviewer to use a question and answer interviewing format, with questioning as nondirective as possible, to elicit spontaneous responses.  When interviewing the alleged child victim and child witnesses, the interviewer must, whenever possible, record the interview by either the use of videotape or audiotape or certified court stenographer.

     Requires any agency which conducts a child witness interview, including the department, a law enforcement agency, the county prosecutor's office, or the city attorney's office, to make and maintain a verbatim record or near verbatim record of the interview as required by RCW 26.44.030(10).

     Provides that every person who is required to maintain investigation records including verbatim or near verbatim records of child interviews under RCW 26.44.030 and 26.44.035, and who knowingly fails to maintain or destroys those records, shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.