Opinion ID: 2098650
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Exceptions Relating to Expert Witness Testimony

Text: Exception Nos. 4, 5, and 6 relate to the testimony of Dr. Yale Caplan, the AGC's expert witness. Marcalus takes exception to the hearing judge's failure to find the following: that Caplan testified that there was no way to know if the pills in question were Vicodin absent laboratory tests; that Caplan did not know if the pills in question were Vicodin; and that Caplan did not have any laboratory results to prove that the pills in question were Vicodin. The hearing judge was silent on all three of these issues. With respect to the first of these exceptions, the evidence in the record does not indicate that Caplan testified that there was no way to know if the pills in question were Vicodin absent laboratory tests. When asked about the physical appearance of commercially available Vicodin pills, Caplan stated: [I]f the product is available, it can be identified by one of several means. It can be identified by the markings on it, you know, there [are] compendia to do that or it can be identified by analysis, if one wants to do that, you can essentially have the chemical analysis done. Caplan's testimony addresses non-technical ways of identifying Vicodin; this is sufficient to rebut the argument that he testified that only laboratory tests could identify the pills as Vicodin tablets. Exception No. 4 is therefore overruled. With regard to Exception Nos. 5 and 6, Caplan was called as an expert witness on the classification and effects of Vicodin generally, and not to testify on the specific facts of this case. During the hearing, the following exchange occurred between Marcalus's counsel and Caplan: [COUNSEL]: Now, you have no way of knowing whether or not the substance that was at least said to have been distributed was Vicodin or not, do you? [CAPLAN]: No, not unless you have the tablet available that can be evaluated.    [COUNSEL]: You don't even know if [Marcalus] really had a Vicodin prescription right? [CAPLAN]: Yes, that is right.    [COUNSEL]: And no one has given you any information regarding the technical description of the supposed pill ... involve[d] [in] this matter, allegedly, correct? [CAPLAN]: Yes. It is clear that Caplan neither had personal knowledge that the pills in question were Vicodin nor any laboratory data to support that assertion. And the hearing judge made no finding otherwise. It was not necessary for the hearing judge to make a finding about what a witness did not say. Exception Nos. 5 and 6 are therefore overruled.