Opinion ID: 1197787
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Meadors' Confrontation Clause Claim

Text: In his second claim of error, Meadors asserts that the trial court violated his Sixth Amendment right of confrontation [6] by restricting counsel's cross-examination of three of the State's witnesses regarding the victim's gastro-intestinal illness. Walker, his mother, and his physician, Dr. Tuchsen, testified about the extent of Walker's burn injuries. Walker apparently remained in the hospital for at least six weeks, although there was no testimony regarding the precise length of his hospital stay. [7] While at the hospital he underwent surgery for a gastro-intestinal disorder in addition to the burn treatments that he received. The cause of the gastro-intestinal disorder was apparently unrelated to the burn injuries, and Meadors asserted at trial that it resulted from Walker's drug abuse. We assume that Walker's hospital stay would have been shorter had he not suffered from the gastro-intestinal problem. During cross-examination of Walker by Meadors' counsel, Mary Han, the following colloquy took place: Han: Did [the drugs] have any ill-effects on your body, sir? Walker: No. Han: None at all? Walker: Not that I know of. Han: Not that you know of. Did you have an operation in connection[interrupted by objection] At the bench conference that ensued, Han explained that she was attempting to attack Walker's credibility by refuting his statement that he had had no ill effects from drug abuse. The State complained that Han was attempting to bring in mountains of [irrelevant] medical testimony, and the court sustained the State's objection. Han subsequently cross-examined Walker regarding allegedly inconsistent statements made to the arson investigator and others. At a later conference outside the presence of the jury, Han again brought up this issue. After reading from a medical report that indicated that Walker may have suffered from drug-induced gastro-intestinal disease, Han argued that cross-examining Walker regarding this medical condition would be relevant to both Walker's credibility and the issue of great bodily harm. The State argued that the line of questions was both irrelevant and prejudicial in that the defense intended to exploit the [victim] as some sort of `drug dealer' and `drug taker.' Judge Blackhurst then ruled as follows: Well, not surprisingly, in this country, drug dealers and drug users have rights. And one of them is to have the same protections that everybody else has. I will rule again that it is more prejudicial than probative, that it does not go to the issue of credibility. The following day, Han renewed her efforts to bring in the disputed evidence by proffering to the court Dr. Tuchsen's testimony. Dr. Tuchsen testified outside the presence of the jury that Walker had suffered from a potentially life-threatening gastro-intestinal condition and that some unspecified portion of the hospital stay was attributable to that condition. Dr. Tuchsen also testified that the condition may have resulted from Walker's drug abuse, but that there's no real indication that [drug abuse] was the cause of the [gastro-intestinal] problem in Mr. Walker. As best I can tell, I can't really say what the cause of the problem was. The court reaffirmed its earlier ruling. On appeal, Meadors argues that cross-examination of Walker, his mother, and Dr. Tuchsen regarding the gastro-intestinal disorder was relevant to both Walker's credibility and the issue of great bodily harm, and that the trial court erred by refusing to permit this line of cross-examination. The State argues that the proposed cross-examination was not relevant but that, even if it was, the trial court properly excluded it because its prejudicial effect substantially outweighed its relevance. Additionally, the State argues that even if there was a Confrontation Clause violation, it was harmless error. See Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 684, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 1438, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986) (discussing harmless-error analysis). We review the court's ruling under an abuse-of-discretion standard, see Sanchez v. State, 103 N.M. 25, 27, 702 P.2d 345, 347 (1985), and conclude that there was no error. Meadors relies primarily upon Van Arsdall and Sanchez. Van Arsdall was a murder case in which a witness testified for the State that he had seen the defendant at the crime scene. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. at 675, 106 S.Ct. at 1432. Van Arsdall's attorney attempted to cross-examine the witness concerning the prosecutor's agreement to dismiss a public drunkenness charge that had been pending against him. Id. Invoking Delaware Rule of Evidence 403, [8] the trial court refused to permit this line of cross-examination. Id. The Delaware Supreme Court reversed Van Arsdall's conviction on the ground that the limitation on cross-examination had violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront the prosecution's witnesses. Id. at 677, 106 S.Ct. at 1434. Agreeing that there had been a constitutional violation, the United States Supreme Court said, By ... cutting off all questioning about an event that the State conceded had taken place and that a jury might reasonably have found furnished the witness a motive for favoring the prosecution in his testimony, the court's ruling violated [Van Arsdall's] rights secured by the Confrontation Clause. Id. at 679, 106 S.Ct. at 1435. In our view, this passage brings out an important distinction between Van Arsdall and this case. In Van Arsdall, the prosecution did not dispute that it had earlier agreed to dismiss a criminal charge against the witness. Id. at 676, 106 S.Ct. at 1433-34. The Supreme Court recognized that this potentially gave rise to witness bias, a classic ground for impeachment. Here the disputed line of questioning would have impeached Walker's credibility only if it would have given rise to a reasonable inference that Walker testified falsely when he said that he had suffered no adverse effects from drug abuse. Such an inference arises only if there is some nexus between Walker's drug abuse and his gastro-intestinal ailment. According to Dr. Tuchsen, this nexus was, at best, very doubtful. Thus, this line of cross-examination would have been only slightly, if at all, probative of Walker's untruthfulness. In our view, the trial court reasonably concluded that the unfair prejudice to the State arising out of the admission of evidence of Walker's drug dealing and drug abuse outweighed its negligible probative value. Cf. Sanchez, 103 N.M. at 27, 702 P.2d at 347 (quoting Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 320, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 1112, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974)). Meadors argues on appeal that the jury should have been informed that a portion of Walker's hospital stay was attributable to his gastro-intestinal illness and that, because this evidence was excluded, the jury probably inferred that the entire hospital stay resulted from the burns. However, there was no testimony regarding the overall length of Walker's hospital stay, and the jury only heard evidence about the portion of the hospital stay that was attributable to the burn injuries. Furthermore, Dr. Tuchsen's unchallenged testimony was that the burns, which covered 60% of Walker's body, gave rise to a high probability of death and resulted in serious disfigurement. Dr. Tuchsen also testified that Walker underwent numerous skin grafting operations and that he suffered respiratory burn injuries that required him to be hooked up to a respirator for a prolonged period. In light of this unchallenged evidence, Dr. Tuchsen's further testimony regarding the gastro-intestinal illness would not have served to disprove the element of great bodily harm. As the Van Arsdall Court expressly recognized, trial judges retain wide latitude insofar as the Confrontation Clause is concerned to impose reasonable limits on ... cross-examination based on concerns about, among other things, harassment, prejudice, confusion of the issues, the witness' safety, or interrogation that is repetitive or only marginally relevant. 475 U.S. at 679, 106 S.Ct. at 1435. Here the trial court expressed its concern that evidence regarding the victim's drug abuse was likely to prejudice the State by unduly predisposing the jury against the victim. The court balanced the minimally probative and marginally relevant drug abuse evidence against its potentially prejudicial effect and concluded, quite reasonably, that the prejudicial effect substantially outweighed its probative value. We hold that the trial court's limitation of Meadors' cross-examination was not an abuse of discretion.