Case Name: Gloria Ann ACOSTA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2001-10-24
Citations: 798 So. 2d 809
Docket Number: No. 4D00-2943
Parties: Gloria Ann ACOSTA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: DELL, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 798
Pages: 809–811

Head Matter:
Gloria Ann ACOSTA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 4D00-2943.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
Oct. 24, 2001.
Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Benjamin W. Maserang, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Don M. Rogers, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
KLEIN, J.
We reverse appellant's convictions for uttering a forged instrument and grand theft because of a statement by a police officer bolstering the credibility of a witness.
The basis of the charges in this case were that appellant and two other people forged and cashed a check. One of the others involved, Riley, admitted her complicity, and testified for the state. After the state's handwriting expert testified, defense counsel asked the expert whether he knew what happened to any handwriting samples taken from witness Riley. The expert answered that the only samples submitted to him were of appellant's handwriting.
Following that testimony, the state recalled the detective and asked him why handwriting samples had not been taken from Riley. Appellant objected, but the court overruled the objection. The detective answered: "Up until that point, everything Sarah Riley told me appeared to be truthful." Appellant then moved for a mistrial, but the trial court denied the motion, instead instructing the jury to disregard the comment.
It is clearly error for one witness to testify as to the credibility of another witness. Boatwright v. State, 452 So.2d 666, 668 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984)("It is an invasion of the jury's exclusive province for one witness to offer his personal view on the credibility of a fellow witness."). It is especially harmful where the vouching witness is a police officer because of the great weight afforded an officer's testimony. Page v. State, 738 So.2d 1079 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999).
We conclude that the most logical inference for the jury to have drawn from the detective's statement is that everything he had originally been told by Sarah Riley, about the appellant and Riley having committed the crime with which appellant was charged, "appeared to be truthful." Riley was the key witness for the state, and the state's case hinged primarily on her credibility. She was an admitted participant in the crime, but was not charged. She testified that she had not, but that the appellant had forged the check. The state's handwriting expert could only corroborate her testimony to the extent he believed it was "probable" that it was appellant's handwriting. He found significant similarities between the signature on the check and appellant's handwriting, and dissimilarities which could not be accounted for. This expert has various classifications which he uses to explain the strength of his opinion, and this classification was third from the strongest.
Because Riley's testimony was crucial and the defense's main emphasis was on her lack of credibility, we cannot agree with the State that the error was harmless or that it was cured by the instruction. We therefore reverse and remand for a new trial.
DELL, J., concurs.
GUNTHER J., dissents with opinion.