Opinion ID: 546213
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Basis for Refusal.

Text: 56 The facts are these. Dr. Kinsbourne (a pediatric neurologist) and Dr. Cushna (Matthew's attending psychologist) treated Matthew at least since early 1987. Both men testified in the first round of BSEA hearings, devoted to the 1986-87 IEP. Dr. Marcus, a specialist in child psychiatry, began caring for Matthew in the fall of 1987. All three doctors were treating him when the second set of BSEA hearings, devoted to the 1987-88 IEP, commenced. Appellants' lawyer indicated that he would squirrel the witnesses away until the court trial. The hearing officer implored counsel to adduce the witnesses' testimony and warned him against undermining the administrative process. 6 Despite this request and warning, appellants steadfastly refused to produce the experts, citing an avowed distrust of the BSEA proceedings. Concord tried to subpoena them, but only Dr. Marcus responded. He testified over the parents' protest. 57 When the case went before the district court, appellants wanted to have this trio of witnesses testify. Defendants objected. The judge granted their motion in limine. Appellants claim that preclusion was unwarranted. 58 We start with bedrock. A court's customary discretion in evidentiary matters is channeled by the special goals and procedures of the Act. See Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 791. As a means of assuring that the administrative process is accorded its due weight and that judicial review does not become a trial de novo, thereby rendering the administrative hearing nugatory, a party seeking to introduce additional evidence at the district court level must provide some solid justification for doing so. To determine whether this burden has been satisfied, judicial inquiry begins with the administrative record. A district court: 59 should weigh heavily the important concerns of not allowing a party to undercut the statutory role of administrative expertise, the unfairness involved in one party's reserving its best evidence for trial, the reason the witness did not testify at the administrative hearing, and the conservation of judicial resources. 60 Id. 61 Here, the parents were given every opportunity to present the desired testimony at the administrative level. They flatly refused. The unfairness of appellants' gambit is patent--as is the potentially insidious effect of rewarding such a maneuver. In its wisdom, Congress prescribed a two-tier model for these cases. To allow litigants to husband their witnesses, arbitrarily withholding them from the administrative process, would effectively sabotage the statutory scheme. 62 The hearing officer, echoing these concerns, found categorically that there was no good reason why the witnesses were not brought forward; appellants' strategy was based on an intent to withhold relevant evidence from the administrative hearing, to demean the statutory role of administrative expertise, and to bypass the due process framework generated by federal and state provisions in order to reserve the evidence for a judicial trial. Before us, and below, the parents conceded that the core element of this finding was true: they deliberately withheld the witnesses from the second round of BSEA proceedings, preferring to use them in court. And they have come forward with no convincing explanation why their game of cat-and-mouse should have been countenanced or the evidence admitted in the district court. 7 63 We refuse to reduce the proceedings before the state agency to a mere dress rehearsal by allowing appellants to transform the Act's judicial review mechanism into an unrestricted trial de novo. Where parties could have, but purposely chose not to, call certain witnesses at the administrative hearing, the district court has discretion to exclude the testimony on judicial review. See Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 790 (it is an appropriate limit in many cases ... to disallow testimony for all who did, or could have, testified before the administrative hearing) (emphasis supplied); accord A.W. v. Northwest R-1 School Dist., 813 F.2d 158, 165 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 847, 108 S.Ct. 144, 98 L.Ed.2d 100 (1987); School Bd. of Prince William County v. Malone, 762 F.2d 1210, 1218 n. 12 (4th Cir.1985). In the absence of special circumstances, courts should ordinarily exercise that discretion in favor of excluding the belatedly offered evidence. 8 64 To be sure, district courts are empowered to hear testimony not presented before the state agency. Yet, that power is a hedge against injustice. Injustice cannot credibly be claimed when, as here, parties willfully elect to leapfrog the agency proceedings. While the legislative history of the Act reflects the understanding that exhaustion is not a rigid requirement ... litigants are discouraged from weakening the position of the agency by flouting its processes. Ezratty v. Puerto Rico, 648 F.2d 770, 774 (1st Cir.1981); see also Leonard v. McKenzie, 869 F.2d 1558, 1563 (D.C.Cir.1989) (declining to entertain issue not raised before hearing officer); David D., 775 F.2d at 424 (same). Counsel's unfounded disdain for the administrative process, without more, cannot persuade us to ignore both our own precedents and the elaborate protocol mandated by Congress. We discern no abuse of the lower court's sound discretion in this situation. 65