Opinion ID: 2766861
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Officer’s Opinion

Text: [¶21] Jeffrey argues that the trial court erred in allowing the officer to testify to his opinion that “there were lies told” during the OUI trial. He contends that this statement constituted prosecutorial misconduct, that it was nonresponsive to the question asked, and that it usurped the jury’s exclusive function of evaluating how much credence to give to Jeffrey’s testimony. In response, the State contends that the trial court’s immediate instruction cured any prejudice to Jeffrey resulting from the admission of the officer’s opinion. [¶22] We review the admission of the officer’s opinion, to which Jeffrey objected, for clear error or an abuse of discretion. See State v. Kirk, 2005 ME 60, ¶ 7, 873 A.2d 350. In so doing, we defer to the trial court’s determination that a curative instruction will remedy any prejudice caused by the admission of evidence. State v. Dolloff, 2012 ME 130, ¶ 32, 58 A.3d 1032. A curative 12 instruction will “be deemed inadequate to eliminate prejudice” only “where there are exceptionally prejudicial circumstances or prosecutorial bad faith.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). [¶23] Jeffrey’s attempt to characterize the officer’s opinion as prosecutorial misconduct fails because it conflates the officer with a prosecutor. Moreover, the officer’s testimony that “there were lies told” during the OUI trial was in response to defense counsel’s questioning. Defense counsel did not object the first time that the officer expressed his opinion that “lies were told in court” during the OUI trial, opting instead to continue with a line of inquiry intended to impeach the officer by demonstrating that he was biased. After asking whether the officer disagreed with Jeffrey’s acquittal in the OUI case, defense counsel asked an open-ended question about the nature of the OUI investigation. In response, the officer expressed his opinion for a second time that “there were lies told” during the OUI trial. Defense counsel then objected, and the court immediately instructed the jury that it should not consider the officer’s opinion when evaluating the truth or falsity of Jeffrey’s testimony during the OUI trial. [¶24] The officer’s opinion was relevant to the issue of the officer’s bias and was elicited by the defense. The court issued an immediate curative instruction when requested by the defense. Under these circumstances, Jeffrey cannot establish that the court abused its discretion in allowing the opinion in 13 evidence, or that the opinion was prejudicial to him. The trial court determined that its curative instruction would remedy any prejudice to Jeffrey caused by admission of the officer’s opinion. We defer to this determination and presume that the jury followed the court’s instruction. See Dolloff, 2012 ME 130, ¶ 55, 58 A.3d 1032.