Opinion ID: 1187718
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the trial court erred by allowing karen thompson to testify as to the reasons she divorced thompson.

Text: The trial court allowed Karen Thompson (Karen) to testify on cross-examination why she divorced Thompsonbecause he was having an affair with a 21-year-old woman. The trial court indicated that because she testified that she was formerly married to Thompson, this testimony was within the scope of direct examination. However, the substantive testimony on direct was limited to the issue of the alleged victim's advance planning of making a tape of her conversation with Thompson and her prior accusations against other men. The State claims that Thompson failed to object to the State's inquiry of Karen concerning the reason she divorced Thompson. However, Thompson did make a timely objection, both at the time the State first requested a side-bar with the court to discuss whether the State could cross-examine Karen as to the reasons for her divorce from Thompson and immediately after the State asked Karen if she had divorced Thompson. The State's purpose for eliciting Karen's testimony as to the reason she divorced Thompson was to show motive under I.R.E. 404(b). The State assumed Karen would testify that the reason she divorced Thompson was because he was convicted for engaging in lewd and lascivious conduct with their 15-year-old daughter. The State also argued that because evidence of the fact that Thompson had been previously convicted for engaging in lewd conduct with his daughter was already in evidence through the psychological report, the State should be allowed to pursue its line of questioning regarding why Karen divorced Thompson. The trial court allowed the State to ask Karen why she divorced Thompson because it apparently believed evidence of the reason why she divorced Thompson was already in evidence. As noted, this evidence from the psychological report should not have remained in the record. The answer Karen gave in response to the prosecutor's question introduced additional evidence that was not admissible beyond what was in the report.