Opinion ID: 844274
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Chalkboard Diagram

Text: On September 26, 2002, defendant's appellate counsel filed a request to augment, correct, and settle the record on appeal. Among several other items, defendant asked for a settlement of the chalkboard diagram created by Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Senior Criminalist Elizabeth Devine. During her direct examination, Devine was asked how a criminalist can determine from its appearance the direction a blood droplet has traveled. She requested and was provided with a chalkboard, which she used to illustrate her testimony about the effect of gravity on blood droplets. Because the diagram was drawn on a blackboard and was not admitted into evidence, it would have to be re-created by the witness for the record to be settled. The prosecutor recalled only that the diagram consisted of basic marks ... to indicate blood spatter in a directional way. He suggested that defendant's appellate counsel consult with Devine because the drawing might have been a standard demonstration that she does in these kinds of cases. Defendant's appellate counsel was not able to contact Devine. However, Devine's former supervisor expressed the belief that Devine would not have created her chalkboard diagram spontaneously in court, but would have based it on materials that were likely preserved in her case file. The Attorney General opposed appellate counsel's request to settle the record with a re-creation of Senior Criminalist Devine's chalkboard diagram. At a hearing on November 18, 2002, the trial court also expressed concern about allowing defendant's attorney to try to re-create the diagram from information in Devine's files because the files likely contained information not presented to the jury. Counsel was merely guessing that Devine had in fact re-created something in her file, and the court itself had no memory of the diagram. When counsel persisted in seeking a court order for access to Devine's files, the court refused, explaining the search would be futile: We are not talking about something that the jury was actually given in hand. It was something drawn, they saw whatever was drawn on the board. Accordingly, defendant's request to settle the record on this point was denied. The trial court did not err in refusing to authorize defendant's appellate counsel to search an expert's files in hopes of finding a document resembling a diagram the expert drew on a chalkboard to illustrate and explain her testimony. No attempt was made to preserve the chalk drawing, which was by its nature ephemeral. It was not marked, lodged, or admitted into evidence, nor was a photograph taken to preserve it. Neither the attorneys nor the trial court could recall exactly what the diagram looked like. Assuming record settlement procedures can be used for demonstrative evidence, the diagram was not a proper subject for settlement of the record. [14] (33) The rules authorizing settlement, augmentation, and correction of the record on appeal concern documents `file[d] or lodged' in the superior court and transcripts of `oral proceedings' that occurred therein. [Citations.] These provisionsmuch like the entire network of rules governing matter properly included in the appellate recordare intended to ensure that the record transmitted to the reviewing court preserves and conforms to the proceedings actually undertaken in the trial court. [Citations.] The settlement, augmentation, and correction process does not allow parties to create proceedings, make records, or litigate issues which they neglected to pursue earlier. ( People v. Tuilaepa (1992) 4 Cal.4th 569, 585 [15 Cal.Rptr.2d 382, 842 P.2d 1142].) Defendant's trial counsel took no steps to preserve the diagram Senior Criminalist Devine spontaneously drew during her testimony. The settlement process does not permit defendant to create anew something that he neglected to make part of the record in the first place. The trial court therefore did not abuse its discretion in denying appellate counsel's request to search for a similar diagram in the expert's files.