Opinion ID: 2543466
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alleged Violation of Exclusion Order

Text: ¶ 30 Cramer argues that Mineer's statements to M.L. violated the court's exclusion order under rule 615 and prejudiced him to the extent that the trial court should have granted his motion for a new trial. When an exclusion order has been violated, we review a trial court's denial of a motion for a new trial for abuse of discretion. See State v. McGrath, 749 P.2d 631, 634 (Utah 1988). In performing this review, we consider first Mineer's alleged statements to M.L. regarding the abuse of her sons, then her alleged statements to M.L. about other witnesses' testimony.
¶ 31 Turning first to Mineer's statements regarding the abuse of her sons, we note that Cramer does not claim that Mineer or any other witness presented testimony about the abuse of Mineer's sons. Because rule 615 is directed toward preventing witnesses from changing their testimony based on other evidence adduced at trial (e.g., other witnesses' testimony), Mineer's statements to M.L. about her sons' abuse did not violate rule 615. See Utah R. Evid. 615 (stating that, upon request, court shall order witnesses excluded so that they cannot hear the testimony of other witnesses  (emphasis added)); McGrath, 749 P.2d at 634. We therefore affirm the trial court's conclusion that communication of this information to M.L. did not justify a new trial under rule 615.
¶ 32 Turning next to Mineer's alleged statements about other witnesses' testimony, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Cramer failed to meet his burden under McGrath. As the trial court correctly recognized, under McGrath, a defendant must show that a violation of the exclusion order prejudiced [him] to the extent that a new trial should be granted. McGrath, 749 P.2d at 634 (declining to adopt defendant's argument that prejudice is inherent in [a] violation of an order of exclusion). ¶ 33 The record supports the trial court's conclusion that Cramer did not show sufficient prejudice to justify a new trial. As the trial court noted, Jennifer Durham testified that she heard only small portions of Mineer's statements to M.L., and could not recall specifically what was said about the testimony in court. Even assuming that Mineer told M.L. about other witnesses' testimony, Cramer does not claim that any other witness testified, for example, that Cramer asked M.L. whether the touching felt good. Thus, Cramer made no showing that M.L. changed his testimony as a result of Mineer's statements about other witnesses' testimony. Moreover, in contrast to his argument concerning Mineer's statements about Cramer's abuse of her sons, Cramer does not even argue that the communication of other witnesses' testimony engendered fear in M.L. and, as a result, caused him to change his testimony. Because Cramer did not provide the trial court with evidence that M.L. changed his testimony because of the conversations concerning other witnesses' testimony, id., the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Cramer had not demonstrated that these communications prejudiced [him] to the extent that a mistrial should be granted, id., even assuming these communications violated the exclusion order. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court's conclusion that Mineer's alleged communications to M.L. about other witnesses' testimony did not warrant a new trial under rule 615. [4]