Opinion ID: 721360
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cross-Examination of Trooper Loring

Text: 5 Trooper Loring, an investigator with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, was one of the officers involved in the execution of a search warrant at Caldwell's home and surrounding property. The search warrant came at the culmination of an investigation launched in response to the discovery of large numbers of marijuana plants growing on property adjoining Caldwell's. As part of his duties, Loring filed a report on the execution of the search warrant. 6 In his trial testimony, Loring offered several significant details about the search warrant execution that he had not included in his report. At least twice during cross-examination, Caldwell's lawyer attempted to question Loring about his failure to note those details in his report. The court sustained the government's objections to the questions accepting the government's position that none of the statements in the report were inconsistent with Loring's trial testimony, that he had been under no duty to record every detail in the report, and that the line of inquiry was argumentative. 7 We find no abuse of discretion in the trial court's rulings. Caldwell's cross-examination of Loring was long and thorough. The court reasonably determined that there was no objective basis for the defense's implicit argument that the damaging details, if true, would have been in Loring's report. Having so determined, it was equally reasonable to curtail the cross-examination with respect to the omission of those details from the report.