Opinion ID: 2600609
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Limitation of Impeachment of Prosecution Witness D. Robertson

Text: Defendant contends the trial court erred in refusing to permit the defense to present significant evidence impeaching prosecution witness D. Robertson, which violated Evidence Code section 352. As we explain, we conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in limiting the impeachment evidence.
As discussed in the immediately proceeding part, prosecution witness Robertson testified to defendant's past acts of child abuse. On crossexamination, the trial court allowed defense counsel to impeach her credibility by eliciting testimony that she had; (1) accused defendant of sexually abusing their daughter, even though the accusation did not result in criminal charges being filed against him; (2) failed to attend a court-ordered appointment for counseling in connection with those allegations; (3) failed to report to the police or seek medical attention for defendant's acts of abuse towards her children; and (4) been arrested in connection with a shooting incident in 1989. The trial court, however, sustained the prosecutor's objections under Evidence Code section 352 to defense questioning about whether defendant had broken up with Robertson because he had caught her in bed with one of his friends, Dean Morgan. In the sidebar discussion about the objection, defense counsel argued Robertson's affair with Morgan was relevant because it explained why defendant had left Robertson and therefore cleared up any misconception the jury might have formed that Robertson left defendant because he abused their children. The court agreed with defense counsel that evidence about who left whom first and for what reason was relevant, and the court allowed the defense to so inquire, but restricted defense counsel from going into detail about any affairs. In his cross-examination, defense counsel established that defendant left Robertson before she made her allegations that defendant was abusing the children. Defense counsel then asked her whether she and defendant had separated because she was having an affair with someone else, and she answered no. The trial court also sustained the prosecutor's relevance objections to certain defense questions connected to Robertson's 1989 shooting incident, namely (1) whether she was having an affair with a man named James Mooney in 1989; (2) whether she shot towards Mooney's wife, Judith Mooney, during the incident; (3) whether she lied to the police and her probation officer about the shooting incident; and (4) whether, when the police investigated the shooting incident, she only agreed to come out of her house after a SWAT team arrived. On redirect examination, the prosecutor established that Robertson was convicted of a misdemeanor for the 1989 shooting incident. On recross examination, Robertson stated she fired two shots from a .270-caliber deer rifle at a location near Judith Mooney's car while Judith Mooney's children were in the car, but she denied shooting at Judith Mooney. The trial court sustained the prosecutor's relevance objection when defense counsel asked her whether her case was originally charged as a felony. Later, when Judith Mooney was scheduled to testify as part of the defense case, the prosecutor objected on Evidence Code 352 grounds to any testimony by Judith Mooney concerning the details of the 1989 shooting incident, which, as Robertson already admitted, had resulted in a misdemeanor conviction against her. Defense counsel opposed the restriction. He argued that Robertson had lied both at the time of the shooting and on the witness stand, and he contended that the defense was entitled to impeach her credibility by calling both Judith Mooney and a police officer named Fontecchio to testify about the incident. Defense counsel made an offer of proof that Judith Mooney would testify that when she had gone to Robertson's residence, Robertson fired shots directly at Mooney and her seven-year-old child while they were both in their car, and that Robertson had pointed the weapon at Mooney's child. Defense counsel said that Officer Fontecchio would testify that he responded to the scene and found three shell casings, that one bullet had struck the ground close to Mooney's car, and that Robertson told him that she shot into the air rather than at anyone in particular. The trial court ruled that Mooney's testimony would be more probative than prejudicial but also stated that, while it would permit Mooney to briefly recite the facts of the shooting incident, it would not allow a detailed examination of the subject. As to Officer Fontecchio, the court found that the probative value of his testimony was outweighed by the risks of consuming undue time, and confusing the jury and the issues to be decided. It therefore sustained the prosecutor's objections to his testimony. As summarized above, Judith Mooney testified that in 1989, Robertson fired three shots from a rifle at Mooney and her children when Mooney went to Robertson's house to talk to her.
A trial court may restrict defense cross-examination of an adverse witness on the grounds stated in Evidence Code section 352. ( People v. Quartermain (1997) 16 Cal.4th 600, 623 [66 Cal.Rptr.2d 609, 941 P.2d 788].) Defendant, however, contends the trial court abused its discretion by excluding testimony concerning Robertson's alleged affairs and Officer Fontecchio's testimony on the 1989 shooting incident. We conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion by excluding both areas of testimony. ( People v. Chatman (2006) 38 Cal.4th 344, 372 [42 Cal.Rptr.3d 621, 133 P.3d 534].) As to the evidence of Robertson's alleged affair with Dean Morgan, the trial court allowed defense counsel to cross-examine Robertson about defendant's motive for leaving her, namely, that it was because of an alleged affair on her part (which she denied). The trial court's ruling allowed the defense to explore the issues relevant to the breakup of defendant and Robertson while properly excluding the irrelevant inquiry into the specifics of her alleged affair with Morgan. Similarly, the trial court properly excluded questioning about Robertson's alleged affair with James Mooney. The relevance of defense counsel's inquiry into the 1989 shooting incident with Judith Mooney was to impeach Robertson for moral turpitude on the basis of a criminal act, which was the shooting, not her alleged affair with James Mooney. Robertson's alleged affair with James Mooney might have revealed the source of the animosity between Robertson and Judith Mooney that may have led to the shooting. But this was a collateral issue properly excluded by the trial court. The court also properly excluded the testimony of Officer Fontecchio. The court allowed Judith Mooney to testify about the shooting incident in connection with the limited issue of Robertson's credibility. As the court noted, what was relevant was a brief recitation by Mooney of the facts of the conduct involved, not a detailed examination or a retrial of the shooting incident. The testimony of Officer Fontecchio would have resulted in precisely such a retrial of a prior offense that Robertson had already admitted. Furthermore [a] trial court's limitation on cross-examination pertaining to the credibility of a witness does not violate the confrontation clause unless a reasonable jury might have received a significantly different impression of the witness's credibility had the excluded cross-examination been permitted. ( People v. Quartermain, supra, 16 Cal.4th at pp. 623-624.) Here, the additional impeachment value of the excluded evidence was minimal in relation to the major areas of impeachment already raised by the admitted evidence, and a reasonable jury would not have received a significantly different impression of Robertson's credibility even if the excluded evidence had been permitted.