Opinion ID: 2607402
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: allowing a witness to be impeached with expunged criminal convictions.

Text: K.S.A. 60-421 prohibits the introduction into evidence of the conviction of a witness for a crime not involving dishonesty or false statement for the purpose of impairing the credibility of the witness. Plaintiff argues that the trial court improperly allowed defendant to impeach Sandra with evidence of three expunged convictions. The three convictions were: (1) a 1973 conviction for knowingly and with intent to defraud forging a prescription to obtain drugs (K.S.A. 21-3710); (2) a 1976 conviction for attempting to introduce a contraband substance, the drug Valium, into a penal institution (K.S.A. 21-3826); and (3) a 1982 conviction for obtaining a prescription-only drug by fraudulent means (K.S.A. 21-4214). Expungement of criminal records is governed by K.S.A. 21-4619(f), which provides that [a]fter the order of expungement is entered, the petitioner shall be treated as not having been convicted of the crime. Other sections provide exceptions to the general rule and specific circumstances under which the custodian of the expunged records may disclose the existence of the records. However, these exceptions are inapplicable to the present action. K.S.A. 21-4619 prohibits the district court from allowing the defendant to obtain the expunged criminal records of Sandra Juby. In addition, the Kansas Legislature specifically provided that once a conviction has been expunged, the witness may legally testify that he or she has not been convicted of the crime. K.S.A. 21-4619(h). When a petition for expungement is filed, the court sets a date for hearing and gives notice to the prosecuting attorney. All petitions for expungement are docketed in the original criminal action. Any person who may have relevant information about the petition may testify at the hearing. The court may inquire into the background of the petitioner and has access to any reports or records relating to the petitioner that are on file with the Secretary of Corrections or the Kansas Parole Board. The court shall order the petitioner's conviction expunged if it finds (1) the petitioner has not been convicted of a felony in the past two years and no proceeding involving any such crime is presently pending or being instituted against the petitioner; (2) the circumstances and behavior of the petitioner warrant the expungement; and (3) the expungement is consistent with the public welfare. K.S.A. 21-4619 relates to expungement of the fact of conviction. With some exceptions, it prohibits the disclosure of the fact of conviction of a crime and the existence of records relating to that conviction if the conviction has been properly expunged. Where a conviction has been expunged, K.S.A. 21-4619 does not prohibit admission of evidence of acts constituting the crime, if those acts are relevant to a fact in issue. The acts must be proven by evidence other than evidence of the fact of conviction and the existence of records relating to the conviction. For support that expunged criminal convictions cannot be used to impeach a witness, the plaintiff cites a federal district court case and cases from the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Missouri Court of Appeals. In Ann L v. X Corp., 133 F.R.D. 433 (W.D.N.Y. 1990), the plaintiffs sought damages in products liability arising out of an injury to their small child. The defendant obtained possession of relevant records from the county's social service department about the injured child's parents. The plaintiffs moved for a protective order to suppress the records which had previously been ordered expunged by an Administrative Law Judge in accordance with a New York social service law. The federal court found the suppression order was a proper remedy where the defendants obtained records from the county department of social services without providing notice to the plaintiffs. Though the department had failed to comply with the expungement procedure as ordered by the Administrative Law Judge, the records were not discoverable. In Bergel v. Kassebaum, 577 S.W.2d 863 (Mo. App. 1978), plaintiff was arrested in a shopping center as a possible suspect in a rape case. It was soon determined that plaintiff was not the person who had committed the rape and the plaintiff was released without being charged. Subsequently, the plaintiff brought a false imprisonment suit against an off-duty police officer, a police officer, and a private citizen. More than a year after his arrest, the plaintiff attempted to obtain the record of his arrest. Missouri law provided that if any person is arrested and not charged with an offense against the law within 30 days of arrest, all records of the arrest and of any detention or confinement incident thereto shall thereafter be closed records to all persons except the person arrested. If there is no conviction within one year after the records are closed, all records of the arrest and of any detention or confinement incident thereto shall be expunged. Plaintiff discovered the records of his arrest had been destroyed in accordance with the law. During the trial, plaintiff attempted to introduce evidence of the expunged records. The trial court prohibited the introduction of that evidence. On appeal, the Missouri Court of Appeals found the statutory language does not support a partial expungement, and assumed where the legislature provides all records of the arrest and any detention or confinement incident thereto shall be expunged, it meant that the records should be destroyed. It determined that the destroyed records were not available to the plaintiff for use in his false imprisonment action. In State v. Anderson, 160 Wis.2d 435, 466 N.W.2d 681 (Ct. App. 1991), Anderson was charged and convicted of battery. After trial, Anderson's counsel discovered in the State's case file evidence that a State's witness had been convicted of a misdemeanor. The file also revealed that the conviction had been expunged pursuant to law. Anderson moved for a new trial because the State had failed to disclose to him material evidence which he could have used to impeach the witness. The State argued that because the witness' conviction had been expunged under the law, it was no longer a conviction which could be used to impeach the witness and, therefore, the State was not obligated to disclose the witness' conviction to the defendant. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals found that evidence of an expunged conviction is not admissible to attack the credibility of a witness; thus, the fact that the State's witness had been convicted of a crime which had been expunged was not material evidence which the State was required to disclose to the defendant. In State v. Wilkins, 215 Kan. 145, 523 P.2d 728 (1974), we reached the opposite conclusion. Frank Wilkins was found guilty by a jury of burglary and theft and was committed to the custody of the Secretary of Corrections. The State's evidence was indirect or circumstantial and defendant's guilt was largely based on possession and use of a stolen shotgun within three hours after the shotgun had been stolen. On appeal, Wilkins contended the trial court erred in refusing to issue a protective order against the use of a juvenile record of a defense witness. The question presented was whether the right to confrontation and cross-examination of witnesses under § 10 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights and the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution takes precedence over statutory provisions against disclosure of juvenile records in the juvenile court. The Wilkins court noted the question raised concerns about a witness, not the accused. It observed that our statutes which apply to evidence sought to be introduced to impeach the credibility of an accused are more restrictive than those which apply to witnesses generally. The court stated that a rule of exclusion of such evidence would be a double-edged sword. If adopted, the rule of exclusion would be operable both when a witness with a juvenile record is called to testify on behalf of the State and when such a witness is called by the accused. Here, Wilkins did not want the credibility of his witness impeached, but in the next case, if such a witness testifies against a defendant, the right of that defendant to test the credibility and truthfulness of the witness by cross-examination might well appear indispensable to a fair trial. The court held that the State's policy interest in protecting the confidentiality of a juvenile offender's record must yield to the right of effective cross-examination to test the credibility of a witness because of the right to confrontation. We have not specifically determined whether expunged criminal convictions may be obtained by a defendant in a civil case and used in cross-examination of a witness or a party. The trial court, in ruling the expunged records could be used to cross-examine Sandra, relied on the dicta from Stephens v. Van Arsdale, 227 Kan. 676, 693, 609 P.2d 972 (1980). Van Arsdale, was an original action in mandamus against the clerk of the Sedgwick County District Court. The action arose from the clerk's denial of the press' access to certain court files of criminal proceedings. The press challenged the constitutionality of the expungement statute, claiming K.S.A. 21-4619 was invalid as an abridgement of the rights protected by the Bill of Rights of the Kansas Constitution or by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Van Arsdale court noted that the right of the public to access to public records for public inspection is based upon common law. This common-law right to inspect public records has been buttressed in many states by statutory codification. Kansas statutes require all public records to be open unless they are closed by the judges of the court or by some statute. The court concluded there exists no absolute right of access to court records. After balancing the public's conditional right of access to court records on the one hand, and the provisions of K.S.A. 21-4619 on the other, the court concluded that the restriction on public access to the court records imposed by the statute was reasonable and served a valid and legitimate public purpose. The Van Arsdale court then commented: Furthermore, we must recognize the inherent power which courts have over their official records. In an unusual case, where a former offender is directly involved in civil litigation, a district court might in its discretion permit the release of certain documents contained in an expunged file in order to achieve the ends of justice. 227 Kan. at 693. Plaintiff contends Wilkins does not apply because it was a criminal case involving the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation of witnesses against the accused, whereas this action is a civil action not involving the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. Plaintiff contends the dicta from the Van Arsdale case is inapposite here because Sandra is not a former offender directly involved in litigation and this is not an unusual case. Plaintiff further contends K.S.A. 21-4619 is a specific statute which controls over general statutory rules of evidence. A special statute prevails over a general statute unless it appears that the legislature intended to make the general act controlling. When there is a conflict between a statute dealing generally with a subject and another statute dealing specifically with a certain phase of it, the specific statute controls unless it appears that the legislature intended to make the general act controlling. State v. Williams, 250 Kan. 730, Syl. ¶¶ 1, 3, 829 P.2d 892 (1992). Defendant points out that Sandra's convictions were expunged after the original civil litigation had been initiated. He argues the only purpose the expungement served was to obliterate evidence of the mother's negligence. He claims that without those records evidence concerning Sandra's credibility as to her relationship with drugs would have been kept from the jury. Defendant asserts that when this litigation originally commenced in 1985, the convictions were clearly admissible to attack credibility under K.S.A. 60-421 because they involved dishonesty and because, along with other evidence, they indicated a habit of drug abuse by Sandra Juby and so were admissible under K.S.A. 60-450. We continue to agree with the conclusion in Van Arsdale that the courts have inherent power over their official records. In an unusual case, where a defendant, whose former criminal convictions have been expunged, is directly involved in civil litigation, a district court might in its discretion permit the release of certain documents contained in an expunged file in order to achieve the ends of justice. Although it was error to admit the convictions themselves, we must now determine if their admission was reversible error. Plaintiff argues the trial court improperly allowed the defendant to use the 1973, 1976, and 1982 convictions to imply that Sandra used drugs at the time of her pregnancy rather than using the convictions to impeach her credibility as authorized by K.S.A. 60-421. She further contends evidence of the expunged convictions was more prejudicial than probative and therefore should have been excluded. She relies on Van Hoozer v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, 219 Kan. 595, 613, 549 P.2d 1354 (1976), which stated: It is the law of this state that even though evidence is relevant it should be excluded if its probative value is outweighed by its prejudicial effect. We have similarly paraphrased K.S.A. 60-445 in other cases. That statute actually states: Except as in this article otherwise provided, the judge may in his or her discretion exclude evidence if he or she finds that its probative value is substantially outweighed by the risk that its admission will unfairly and harmfully surprise a party who has not had reasonable opportunity to anticipate that such evidence would be offered. The statute restricts the admission of such evidence if the party has not had reasonable opportunity to anticipate such evidence would be admitted. Here, there is no doubt that the plaintiff anticipated such evidence would be admitted. The sole purpose for expunging the witness' prior convictions was to keep the defendant from using the prior convictions to impeach the plaintiff's witness. Under the facts, K.S.A. 60-445 did not prohibit the introduction of the witness' three prior convictions. The plaintiff asserts that the mother's 1973 conviction, which occurred more than three years prior to Bobby's birth, and the 1982 conviction, which occurred 6 years after the pregnancy and birth of Bobby, had little, if any, probative value. Plaintiff points out the lack of probative value of the 1973 and 1982 convictions is important because there is no evidence that Sandra took drugs during her pregnancy or that drugs were prescribed for her during the pregnancy. Plaintiff argues that the evidence could not be used to show a habit of drug abuse because three convictions in 10 years is an insufficient number of instances to warrant a finding of habit under K.S.A. 60-450: Evidence of specific instances of behavior is admissible to prove habit or custom if the evidence is of a sufficient number of such instances to warrant a finding of such habit or custom. Further, plaintiff argues, these instances do not show habit of drug use at the time Bobby was born. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between character and habit. To have a habit one must have the disposition or character to do a particular thing. The fact of habit can be established by testimony of conduct over a period of time. The testimony of specific instances must add up to the fact of habit. There must be enough instances shown to warrant a finding of habit. Isolated or occasional instances of behavior will not prove habit. We agree with the plaintiff that the court erred in admitting the three prior convictions. The convictions were not sufficient for the court to admit as a habit. Defendant responds that aside from the convictions there was independent evidence that Sandra Juby had taken various drugs during her pregnancy that could have caused Bobby's injuries. Debra White testified that in December of 1975 or January of 1976, she and a friend went to the Juby home to pick up crystal, a street amphetamine; while at the Juby household, she, her friend, Sandra, and Sandra's husband used crystal by a hypodermic needle injection. The witness further testified it was common knowledge that the Jubys were selling drugs while Sandra was pregnant. The defendant argues that since the jury found no fault on the part of Sandra Juby, the use of the criminal convictions was harmless error because it had no prejudicial effect in the jury's determination. Harmless error is error which does not prejudice the substantial rights of a party. It affords no basis for a reversal of a judgment and must be disregarded. Hagedorn v. Stormont-Vail Regional Med. Center, 238 Kan. 691, 701, 715 P.2d 2 (1986). We agree. The trial court improperly admitted the prior convictions, but the jury's determination that there was no fault on the part of Sandra Juby indicates the admission of the prior convictions was harmless. Under the facts of this case, the error did not prejudice the substantial rights of the plaintiff; therefore, the admission of the convictions affords no basis for reversal of the judgment and must be disregarded. Affirmed.