Opinion ID: 59493
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Marijuana usage

Text: Captain D's argues that the district court erred in excluding the testimony of its expert witness, Dr. Fredrick Carlton, who would have expressed his opinion that Foradori's marijuana use could have made him more susceptible to spinal injury and memory impairment. Dr. Carlton was not Foradori's treating physician, had never examined Foradori, and had no first hand knowledge of Foradori's alleged admission to marijuana use. Dr. Carlton evidently was willing to testify, based exclusively on another doctor's report of Foradori's statement, [I] smoked some weed, in the emergency room, that his ingestion of an unknown quantity of marijuana could have contributed to Foradori's broken neck. The district court found that the danger of unfair prejudice by the evidence substantially outweighed its probative value under Fed.R.Evid. 403. The court stated that Dr. Carlton would have this court believe that only an intoxicated individual who is struck from behind in an extremely violent manner which causes him to immediately lose consciousness and fall off a retaining wall could suffer a cervical spine injury. The district court concluded that this testimony was highly unlikely to be reliable, did not satisfy Daubert scrutiny, and would only risk misleading the jury under the guise of expert testimony. [28] The district court did not abuse its discretion.