Opinion ID: 1292346
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admission of Kotkin report

Text: ¶ 113. Brown objected to the admission of the Kotkin report as hearsay. The circuit court overruled his objection because of the statutory scheme set out by the legislature for ch. 980 proceedings. The court of appeals also analyzed the report in terms of legislative directives that are applicable to petitions for supervised release conducted under Wis. Stat. § 980.08. In my view, that is the correct analysis and therefore, the report was properly admitted. ¶ 114. All agree that as a general rule, hearsay evidence is not admitted over an objection, unless there is an exception that permits its admission. Exceptions to the inadmissibility of hearsay may be established by statute. See R.S. v. Milwaukee County, 162 Wis. 2d 197, 204-07, 470 N.W.2d 260 (1991). The usual place to look for such exceptions is Wis. Stat. ch. 908, which defines and explains the basic evidentiary rules relating to the admission of hearsay. However, that chapter is not the only place where statutory exceptions to the usual hearsay rules are found. There are many other statutes that provide that the rules of evidence do not apply, thereby affording the opportunity to have hearsay evidence admitted. [4] Accordingly, it is reasonable to examine Wis. Stat. § 980.08 to see if it provides an exception to the usual rules regarding the admission of hearsay, as well. ¶ 115. Kotkin prepared the report at issue here at the directive of the court. By filing a petition for supervised release, Brown set in motion the statutory directives that resulted in Kotkin's report and its filing with the court. Stated otherwise, once a petition for supervised release is filed, a circuit court is required to appoint one or more examiners having the specialized knowledge to conduct an examination of the petitioner to assess the petitioner's propensity to reoffend. Wis. Stat. § 980.08(3). When the examination is completed, the examiner is required to furnish a written report of the examination to the court. Id. When the circuit court rules on the petition, it is directed by statute to consider all evidence that makes up the petitioner's mental history. Section 980.08(4). The report prepared under § 980.08(3) is referred to as having been filed with the court in § 980.08(4). Once the report is filed, it is a part of a petitioner's mental history that the court is to consider. See id. ¶ 116. In my view, the statutory scheme set out in regard to conducting an examination, preparing such a report and filing it with the court, when combined with the court's obligation to consider a petitioner's mental history, causes Kotkin's report to be an exception to the general rules regarding the admissibility of hearsay. To then conclude that the court cannot use the very report it is required to obtain and the examiner is required to furnish to the court, makes no sense. While some may say that the law and common sense are not necessarily synonyms, in my view, they should not be strangers. Accordingly, I conclude the Kotkin report was properly admitted, pursuant to the statutory exception provided for in Wis. Stat. § 980.08(3) and (4).