Opinion ID: 1351466
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Other Instances of Prosecutorial Misconduct

Text: The prosecution sought to discredit an expert defense witness, Dr. Benjamin Grunbaum, who disputed the methods used by prosecution witnesses in obtaining electrophoretic evidence from blood, saliva and semen stains found on the victim and defendant. Toward the beginning of the cross-examination, the prosecutor asked Dr. Grunbaum if he had testified on the losing side in the trial of Angelo Buono, the so-called Hillside Strangler. Defendant's objection was sustained, although he did not request a curative admonition. The prosecutor then ended that line of inquiry. (9) Defendant now argues that the prosecutor's question was improper and, by undermining a defense expert's credibility, deprived him of a fair trial. He cites People v. McGreen (1980) 107 Cal. App.3d 504, 514-519 [166 Cal. Rptr. 360], in support of this contention. The claim is without merit. The present case is far removed from McGreen, in which the prosecutor persisted in making unfounded attacks on an expert witness's honesty and ethical reliability, despite the court's repeated sustaining of defense objections to that line of questioning. The McGreen court held that continued references to the witness's commission of perjury constituted prejudicial error, in spite of the fact that the trial court admonished the jury to disregard such insinuations. (107 Cal. App.3d at pp. 517-518.) In the present case, the harm to Dr. Grunbaum's reputation from the prosecutor's question, if any, was slight. A reasonable juror would not be likely to interpret the fact that Dr. Grunbaum testified on the highly technical subject of the validity of electrophoretic testing, even on the losing side of a controversial case, as impugning his honesty or competence. Because an admonition would have cured whatever harm resulted from the improper question, failure to request such an admonition waives the issue on appeal. ( People v. Green, supra, 27 Cal.3d at p. 34.)
(10) Defendant contends the court erred in failing to rule on whether his own serologist could be called by the prosecution as a rebuttal witness. He then contends the prosecutor compounded the error by commenting on the absence of the defense serologist in closing argument. Neither contention identifies prejudicial error. Defendant intended to call Carol Rhodes, a serologist whom he had used as a consulting expert. The prosecutor argued that once Rhodes took the stand she would be subject to cross-examination about any and all confidential communications between her and defense counsel. Defense counsel countered that the prosecution could inquire only into communications that had assisted her in forming her expert opinion. The court agreed with defendant. The prosecutor then asked whether he could call Rhodes on rebuttal, to obtain the same information the court was denying him on cross-examination. The court declined to rule on that issue. Defense counsel did not press the matter, but rested his case. On appeal, defendant contends the failure to rule on the scope of cross-examination deterred his counsel from calling Rhodes, thereby prejudicing his defense. Defendant's lack of objection to the court's omission to rule, however, precludes him from now raising the issue. (See People v. Rogers (1978) 21 Cal.3d 542, 547-548 [146 Cal. Rptr. 732, 579 P.2d 1048].) Prior to making his closing argument, defendant asked that the prosecutor be barred from commenting on Rhodes's failure to appear at trial. He contended, as he does on appeal, that prosecutorial comment would impermissibly burden his exercise of the attorney-client privilege ( People v. Bittaker, supra, 48 Cal.3d 1046, 1104), just as comment on a defendant's failure to take the stand impermissibly burdens the privilege against self-incrimination ( Griffin v. California (1965) 380 U.S. 609 [14 L.Ed.2d 106, 85 S.Ct. 1229]). The court ruled in defendant's favor. Nevertheless the prosecutor, while not mentioning Carol Rhodes by name, referred to the absence of a defense serologist and used the pronoun her. Defendant maintains this is prejudicial error. We disagree. The prosecution is entitled to comment on the state of the evidence, including the lack of conflicting serological evidence. (See People v. Vargas (1973) 9 Cal.3d 470, 475-476 [108 Cal. Rptr. 15, 509 P.2d 959].) Since it is clear from the record that the jury was already aware that Carol Rhodes was the defense serologist, no prejudice resulted from the prosecutor's use of the feminine pronoun when calling attention to the lack of conflicting testimony on the serological evidence.