Opinion ID: 2509294
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Improper Cross-examination of Victoria Eckstone

Text: Defendant contends the trial court allowed improper impeachment of Victoria Eckstone about whether she called Detective Price from jail and asked for his help in obtaining her release, after she had testified on direct examination that she had felt coerced by Price and the prosecutor into agreeing to talk to them about defendant. Defendant argues that evidence of her arrest on an unrelated matter constituted inadmissible character evidence. Evidence that Ms. Eckstone asked Detective Price for help and did not get it was clearly relevant to her credibility because it could have provided a reason for her hostility to the prosecution. ( People v. Carpenter (1999) 21 Cal.4th 1016, 1054, 90 Cal.Rptr.2d 607, 988 P.2d 531; Evid.Code, § 780, subd. (b).) Moreover, evidence that she sought Price's assistance also tended to undercut her direct testimony that he threatened to arrest her to induce her cooperation in the investigation of the case against defendant. Nor was the brief reference to her having been arrested so prejudicial that the trial court abused its discretion by not excluding it pursuant to Evidence Code section 352.