Opinion ID: 669733
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Impeachment of James Patterson

Text: 14 The government's decision to call James Patterson does not even hint at a bad faith purpose. By all accounts, prior to trial, James Patterson had stated unequivocally that the defendant possessed a gun during the incident in Comer Cox Park. At trial however, he changed his story and testified that the defendant did not have a gun. Consequently, the government introduced his prior inconsistent statements to impeach him. The government had ample reason to believe that Patterson would provide useful evidence. The defendant notes that just prior to trial Patterson purportedly told prosecutors that he was reluctant to testify against a family member (e.g. his cousin). From this the defendant asks us to conclude that the prosecutors knew Patterson would provide false testimony, or at least testimony that would differ from his previous statements. The government is not bound by such speculation when making the decision to call a witness. In fact, quite the opposite is true; an attorney is entitled to assume that a witness will testify truthfully. United States v. Carter, 973 F.2d 1509, 1513 (10th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1289, 122 L.Ed.2d 681 (1993). The prosecutor was entitled to assume Patterson would not change his story to protect family members when he was under oath in open court. Therefore the decision to call Patterson as a witness was well within the parameters of Rule 607 and lacked even a suggestion of bad faith.