Opinion ID: 2425742
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Reading from prior statements.

Text: Appellant asserts that the trial court erred in allowing the deputy prosecuting attorney to introduce evidence of other alleged incidents, by reading from prior statements, during the examination of witnesses, to the extreme prejudice of the appellant. Appellant admits that he did not timely object to the prosecutor's line of questioning, but argues that the prejudice was so great that this Court should apply an exception to the contemporaneous-objection rule under Wicks v. State, 270 Ark. 781, 606 S.W.2d 366 (1980), whereby a trial court should intervene on its own motion to correct a serious error. We disagree.
Appellant testified in his own defense. During the cross-examination of appellant, the State asked appellant if he committed numerous sexual acts which the victim had previously testified had occurred. In conducting the cross-examination, the deputy prosecutor repeatedly referred to a statement given by the victim to Deputy Sheriff Gladys Dulyea. Again, appellant admits that he did not timely object to the prosecutor's line of questioning. After extensive cross-examination concerning statements the victim made to law enforcement about the specific instances of abuse, the appellant made the following single objection: COUNSEL FOR APPELLANT: Your Honor, I'm going to have to object. I don't mind if he wants to cross the situations that the girl spoke of, but to just rattle on forever without evidence or testimony that [the victim] wrote up her own, I feel is improper. The trial court sustained the objection, stating that the deputy prosecutor should not read the statement. To preserve an issue for appeal, a defendant must object at the first opportunity. Smallwood v. State, 326 Ark. 813, 935 S.W.2d 530 (1996); Hill v. State, 285 Ark. 77, 685 S.W.2d 495 (1995). In addition, a defendant must renew his objection each time he is questioned about a matter; and, when a question previously objected to is repeated, and there is no second objection, the matter is waived on appeal. See Stephens v. State, 328 Ark. 81, 941 S.W.2d 411 (1997); Walker v. State, 301 Ark. 218, 783 S.W.2d 44 (1990). In the case at bar, appellant certainly failed to object at the first opportunity. Furthermore, he only objected to one of many questions concerning the victim's statement. This issue was, therefore, not preserved for appeal.
During the cross-examination by the State of defense witness Keith Vaughan, one of appellant's sons, the State inquired about statements Keith had made to Mary Beth Whipkey, a Department of Human Services social worker. The witness remembered being interviewed by someone but professed not to know by whom he was interviewed nor to remember the substance of the statement he gave. Furthermore, Keith also stated that he could not recall whether or not he had been interviewed by Deputy Sheriff Gladys Dulyea. He denied making the statements in question. The appellant made no objection during the cross-examination of Keith Vaughan concerning his statement to Ms. Whipkey. He made the following single objection to a question by the State concerning Keith Vaughan's statements to Gladys Dulyea: COUNSEL FOR APPELLANT: I'm going to have to make an objection. On inspection this is the typed statement that somebody else typed. He didn't sign it. I would have to question the authenticity of it. He's asking several times why did she put this is or did she put that in. He didn't say it. He didn't type it. If he[`s] contesting it, I'd have to ask for the veracity and accuracy of this document before he can cross-examine him with it. This objection was untimely as it came after extensive cross-examination concerning the statement. Again, in order to properly preserve these issues for appeal, the defendant must timely object at the first opportunity. Furthermore, appellant did not object to further questioning regarding the statements. Therefore, this issue, likewise, was not preserved for appeal. Appellant's argument that this Court should apply the third exception enumerated in Wicks v. State, supra , to the case at bar is not convincing. In Wicks , this Court stated that it implied in Wilson v. State, 126 Ark. 354, 190 S.W. 441 (1916), that no objection is necessary if the trial court fails to control a prosecutor's closing argument and allows him to go too far: Appellant can not predicate error upon the failure of the court to make a ruling that he did not at the time ask the court to make, unless the remarks were so flagrant and so highly prejudicial in character as to make it the duty of the court on its own motion to have instructed the jury not to consider the same. See Kansas City So. Ry. Co. v. Murphy, 74 Ark. 256 [85 S.W. 428 (1905) ]; Harding v. State, 94 Ark. 65 [126 S.W. 90 (1910) ]. quoting Wilson v. State . The Court, in Wicks , further stated: It must be noted that, first, we did not reverse the judgment in Wilson, and second, the quoted statement was taken essentially from the cited Murphy case, where we went on to say explicitly that if the court fails to restrain an improper argument, counsel should make a definite objection and call for a ruling. We have mentioned the Wilson suggestion in two recent cases, but in neither one was the judgment actually reversed because of the trial court's failure to act on its own motion. Ply v. State, 270 Ark. 554, 606 S.W.2d 556 (1980); Wilson and Dancy v. State, 261 Ark. 820, 552 S.W.2d 223 (1977). Thus every statement of the original Wilson suggestion has been obiter dictum, because no judgment has been reversed on account of the trial court's failure to intervene. Such a reversal would necessarily be an extremely rare exception to our basic rule. Wicks v. State , 270 at 786-87, 606 S.W.2d 366 (emphasis added). Appellant has failed to demonstrate that the State's cross-examination of either appellant or Keith Vaughan was so flagrant and so highly prejudicial in character as to make it the duty of the court, on its own motion, to have instructed the jury not to consider the same, without the necessity of an objection by appellant. In sum, because of appellant's failure to preserve these points on appeal, the trial court will be affirmed.