Case Name: PEOPLE v. STEWART
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1993-04-05
Citations: 199 Mich. App. 199
Docket Number: Docket No. 129343
Parties: PEOPLE v STEWART
Judges: Before: Wahls, P.J., and Michael J. Kelly and Connor, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 199
Pages: 199–201

Head Matter:
PEOPLE v STEWART
Docket No. 129343.
Submitted February 2, 1993, at Detroit.
Decided April 5, 1993, at 10:45 a.m.
Damon Stewart was convicted by a jury in the Recorder’s Court of Detroit, Vera Massey Jones, J., of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. The defendant appealed, claiming that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion for a mistrial in which it was alleged that the arresting officer erroneously was allowed to inject prejudicial irrelevant testimony concerning another criminal act allegedly committed by the defendant.
The Court of Appeals held:
The trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying the motion for a mistrial. The defendant was offered the opportunity to have a curative instruction given, but he declined the offer. Further, any error arising out of the police officer’s testimony was not so prejudicial as to deny the defendant a fair trial or to amount to a miscarriage of justice.
Affirmed.
Connor, J., dissenting, stated that the failure to grant a mistrial amounted to a miscarriage of justice and that a new trial should be granted because the proffered testimony of the police officer suggesting the existence of another similar crime by the defendant denied the defendant a fair trial and the prejudicial effect could not have been cured by an instruction to the jury.
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, John D. O’Hair, Prosecuting Attorney, Timothy A. Baughman, Chief of Research, Training, and Appeals, and Jeffrey Caminsky, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.
Kim D. Johnson, for the defendant on appeal.
Before: Wahls, P.J., and Michael J. Kelly and Connor, JJ.

Opinion:
Michael J. Kelly, J.
Defendant was convicted by a jury of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, MCL 750.520d; MSA 28.788(4), and was sentenced thereafter to five to fifteen years' imprisonment. He now appeals as of right. We affirm.
The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it denied defendant's motion for a mistrial. People v Gonzales, 193 Mich App 263, 265-267; 483 NW2d 458 (1992). Defendant was offered the opportunity to have any error arising out of the testimony of the arresting officer cured by an instruction to the jury. Defendant did not take advantage of this offer. Further, any error that occurred when the officer made an innocuous reference to another criminal act was not so prejudicial as to deny defendant a fair trial or to amount to a miscarriage of justice.
Affirmed.
Wahls, P.J., concurred.