Opinion ID: 1293219
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Hernandez's Invocation of a Fifth Amendment Privilege

Text: During the course of the trial, Hernandez was charged with committing two felonies under section 4573 and Health and Safety Code section 11350 (conspiracy to smuggle heroin into jail and possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia). The record reveals that immediately following his arrest on those charges, Hernandez lied to the police about his involvement in the foregoing illegal activity. Hernandez was never offered immunity in connection with either felony. On cross-examination of Hernandez at trial, counsel for defendant sought to impeach Hernandez as a drug abuser and habitual liar by questioning him regarding the recent charges filed against him, and the fact that he lied to the police after he was implicated in the drug smuggling scheme. [13] Hernandez, however, asserted the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer any questions pertaining to the drug charges. Defense counsel objected to Hernandez's silence on the ground that it violated defendant's right to confront and cross-examine a witness under the Sixth Amendment. As an alternative to permitting Hernandez to make a limited assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege, defense counsel suggested that Hernandez's testimony either be stricken in its entirety, or that he be granted use immunity in exchange for his testimony. (16) Defendant renews his argument on appeal, claiming that he suffered substantial prejudice because of Hernandez's refusal to respond to questions regarding the charges pending against him. The court held an in camera hearing on the issue. In response to defense counsel's objection to Hernandez's silence on the drug charges, and his suggested alternatives, the prosecutor explained to the court that it was very reluctant to give Mr. Hernandez anything short of a prison term on these new charges, and it just doesn't seem like a good balance to put us in that position just in order so that counsel can do some cross-examining on what is clearly a very collateral area here. The court agreed with the People after determining that it is a collateral charge, that [Hernandez] has an absolute right to remain silent on anything about that charge. Nonetheless, the court stated it would allow counsel to reargue the issue if further discovery on the matter revealed the pending drug charges against Hernandez directly affected the present case (e.g., if the fact of pending charges formed the basis for a deal with the prosecution and hence, a motive to lie). The issue did not arise again. We have consistently held that it is within the trial court's discretion to exclude collateral evidence offered for impeachment purposes (see, e.g., People v. Redmond (1981) 29 Cal.3d 904, 913 [176 Cal. Rptr. 780, 633 P.2d 976]), as well as to exclude evidence that is cumulative, confusing or misleading (Evid. Code, § 352). In addition, as defendant himself observes, he suffered no prejudice as a result of Hernandez's barred testimony because the court allowed him to call other witnesses (including a jailhouse informant) to testify about events leading to the drug smuggling charges against Hernandez. Thus, the jury was well aware of the charges pending against Hernandez and was allowed to draw its own inferences about the relationship between Hernandez's habitual drug use and the credibility of his testimony against defendant. (See Davis v. Alaska (1974) 415 U.S. 308, 318 [39 L.Ed.2d 347, 354-355, 94 S.Ct. 1105].) Accordingly, in our view, defendant had adequate opportunity to inform the jury of the charges pending against Hernandez, and his Sixth Amendment right to confront Hernandez was not significantly compromised by Hernandez's refusal to answer questions regarding the charges pending against him.