Opinion ID: 2446955
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Parole officer's testimony

Text: At the time Cleveland committed the offenses for which he was convicted in the present case, he was a parolee under the supervision of parole officer Danny Calvert. In the weeks prior to December 29, 1991, two of the victims, Michelle Nagel and Paula Easter, and several of Ms. Easter's relatives notified Mr. Calvert about the appellant's efforts to contact Ms. Easter. Mr. Calvert then ordered Cleveland to stop phoning or otherwise attempting to reach Ms. Easter. The appellant, as events proved, failed to heed Mr. Calvert's admonition. By a motion in limine, Cleveland endeavored to prevent Mr. Calvert from testifying, asserting that the prejudice resulting from the revelation that the appellant was on parole at the time the crimes were committed would outweigh the probative value of the testimony. The State contended that Calvert's testimony was necessary to support the testimony of Ms. Easter and her relatives regarding the nature of the relationship between Ms. Easter and Cleveland and to counter a statement that the appellant had made following his arrest that he and Ms. Easter had together planned the robbery of the convenience store. The trial judge denied the motion in limine, declaring that Mr. Calvert was an occurrence witness who would offer substantive testimony. He ordered the prohibition of references to Cleveland's prior convictions or incarcerations by other witnesses and pointed out that it was the appellant who had put the allegation of Ms. Easter's participation in the crimes in issue. Further, he stated that he would caution the jury to give no consideration to Mr. Calvert's status as Cleveland's parole officer. The judge then specifically found that the probative value of Mr. Calvert's testimony, when coupled with the admonition, would outweigh any prejudicial effect. Before Mr. Calvert was brought to the witness stand, the State had called Ms. Easter's aunt, Hattie Mae Brown, who described the numerous telephone calls she had received from the appellant and stated that, on December 20, 1991, she went to his [Cleveland's] parole man, whom she identified by name as Danny Calvert. The appellant offered no objection to this reference to the identity and status of Mr. Calvert. After Mr. Calvert took the stand and testified that he was Cleveland's parole officer, the trial court admonished the jury not to infer or speculate or to consider anything else that may have to do or you think may have to do with his position. At the conclusion of the parole officer's testimony, Cleveland moved for a mistrial, contending that Mr. Calvert's testimony served merely to divulge the appellant's criminal past. On the stand, Mr. Calvert made no reference to the appellant's previous convictions. Although some of his testimony duplicated that of Ms. Brown and other family members, he made substantive additions, as the appellant concedes, with reference to his warnings to Cleveland about trying to contact Ms. Easter and Cleveland's stated confusion about his relationship with Ms. Easter. The mere fact that some of the evidence offered by Mr. Calvert was cumulative is not a basis for holding that its admission, otherwise proper, constitutes an abuse of the trial court's discretion. Harris v. State, 295 Ark. 456, 748 S.W.2d 666 (1988). Such a consideration does not warrant invocation of the drastic remedy of mistrial. See King v. State, supra .