Opinion ID: 2374322
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Testimony Admitted as Prior Consistent Statements or Statements Against Interest

Text: At defendant's second trial, Gerard (Gus) Laverriere, a witness for the State, was declared unavailable and his entire testimony given at the first trial was admitted into evidence. [2] At that first trial, Laverriere testified as follows on direct examination. Sometime in January of 1977, Mr. Fredette asked him to appraise his fire damaged home. Mr. Fredette promised to pay him $5,000 on the condition that he would receive approximately $75,000 from his insurance company as a result of the appraisal. Although Laverriere performed the appraisal and the Fredettes received about $73,500, he was never paid by Fred Fredette. Laverriere then testified to a meeting that he had with Mrs. Fredette in October of 1977. He walked into a cafe that he frequented in Biddeford and saw Mrs. Fredette sitting at a table. He sat at the counter and placed an order. Sometime thereafter Mrs. Fredette asked if she could speak with him in private. After he finished eating, he left the cafe and Mrs. Fredette followed. They got into her car and drove towards the Saco-Old Orchard Beach area. At some point during their travels, Mrs. Fredette offered him $3,500 to find someone to kill her husband; he accepted the offer, never intending to fulfill his promise. She agreed to give him the money on the following Saturday (three or four days later). Prior to receiving the money on Saturday, he testified that he told, among others, Archie Droggitis, Anthony Frenette and Herschel Lerman about his conversation with Mrs. Fredette. On that Saturday, he testified that Mrs. Fredette gave him the $3,500 and requested that he find somebody to kill her husband. Before the cross-examination of Laverriere was read into evidence at the second trial, counsel for both sides met with the trial justice in chambers to discuss defense counsel's objections to reading the entire cross-examination into evidence. During the cross-examination at the first trial, defense counsel impeached Laverriere's direct testimony by establishing that he told the police in June of 1978 and subsequently testified before the grand jury that his meeting with Mrs. Fredette occurred in November of 1977. At the first trial, the trial justice ruled that, pursuant to M.R.Evid. 801(d)(1), [3] these witnesses could testify to prior consistent statements made by Laverriere to rebut a charge of recent fabrication arising from defense counsel's attack on the inconsistent dates. Defense counsel sought a ruling whether the trial justice would allow Droggitis, Lerman and Frenette to testify to Laverriere's prior statements if defendant deleted this portion of the cross-examination. The trial justice first ruled that, notwithstanding his prior ruling, the statements would also be admissible to rebut the impending charge that Laverriere had an improper motive. His reasons for this ruling are not entirely clear. He seemingly accepted the State's argument that the cross-examination would imply Laverriere had a motive to point the finger at Mrs. Fredette to avoid taking the blame for Mr. Fredette's murder. Therefore, because these statements were made prior to the murder, he concluded that they were admissible to rebut the charge of improper motive. He alternatively ruled that the statements made by Laverriere to Frenette, Lerman and Droggitis were admissible as statements against interest pursuant to M.R. Evid. 804(b)(3). Subsequently, over defendant's objections in each case, Frenette, Lerman and Droggitis were allowed to testify in the State's case in chief to statements by Laverriere concerning his meeting with Mrs. Fredette and her solicitation that he find somebody to kill her husband. On appeal, defendant claims the trial justice erred by allowing these witnesses to testify to those statements by Laverriere.