Opinion ID: 202321
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plaintiff's response to the testimony about the identity of the investigating police officer

Text: 17 Plaintiff's counsel did not object to the defense witnesses' testimony regarding Officer Sein. He did not ask the court for a continuance so that he could call Officer Sein as a rebuttal witness, nor did he seek any other sanction for a discovery violation. Instead, during his cross-examinations of Rivera and Sierra, plaintiff's counsel asked both witnesses whether the defendants had called Officer Sein as a witness for the defense, which they had not. Later, during his closing argument, plaintiff's counsel focused on the fact that the defendants did not call Officer Sein as a witness: 2 18 [R]egarding Mr. Matos, he mentioned that he only spoke to Officer Sein, the other policeman that was with Mr. Ortiz at the scene of the accident. The fact is that they knew about Officer Sein's existence since the date of the accident, since 1999. Yet Sears decided not to call him to testify. He did not come here to testify.... 19 Now, why was Mr. Sein not brought? Was Sears afraid that Officer Sein would not corroborate Mr. Matos's version? Were they afraid that Officer Sein would have said that he never spoke with Matos at the scene of the accident[?] Even more important, were they afraid that he could corroborate that Matos stated that he had no witnesses[?] The fact is that Officer Sein did not come to testify. 3 20 At no time during the trial did plaintiff's counsel argue to the district court that the testimony of the defense witnesses regarding Officer Sein was unfairly surprising, that he needed a continuance to respond to the testimony, or that the testimony constituted evidence of fraud. 21