Opinion ID: 2234792
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admissibility of Victim's Audiotape Statement

Text: As his remaining issue the defendant contends that the trial court erred in admitting over his objection State's Exhibit 19, the audiotape recording of P.D.'s statement to police. On appeal the defendant asserts, as he did at trial, that the recording is not admissible under the rule of Patterson v. State (1975), 263 Ind. 55, 324 N.E.2d 482, claiming that it was hearsay. We understand the State's response to argue that its Exhibit 19 was properly admitted both as a prior inconsistent statement for impeachment purposes and as substantive testimony under Patterson. The Patterson rule provides for the admissibility as substantive evidence of an out-of-court statement where the declarant provides testimony acknowledging the existence of the statement and its contents, and is available for cross-examination thereon. Lambert v. State (1989), Ind., 534 N.E.2d 235, 237. The charged offense occurred September 22, 1989. Five days later, following her discharge from the hospital, P.D. provided police with details of a brutal attack upon her by the defendant. The recorded statement was taken September 27, 1989. Defense counsel took P.D.'s deposition on April 24, 1990, wherein she acknowledged giving the prior statement to police but testified in a manner diametrically opposed to her version in the recorded statement. On Monday, September 11, 1990, the first day of trial, the State presented Louise Rash, P.D.'s friend and roommate, who testified that P.D. was not at home when police attempted to serve a subpoena on P.D. earlier that morning. Rash stated that P.D. and the defendant were planning to marry and that P.D. had departed for Daytona, Florida, the previous Saturday for the purpose of avoiding the trial. P.D.'s April 24 deposition, State's Exhibit 16, was then admitted in evidence. The recorded statement, State's Exhibit 19, was thereafter admitted as a prior statement inconsistent with P.D.'s deposition testimony. Late on Tuesday, the second day of trial, P.D. appeared in the courtroom and informed the court that she had been served with a subpoena earlier that afternoon. The following day the trial court ruled that her prior deposition, State's Exhibit 16, be withdrawn from evidence because P.D. had become available as a witness. P.D. then testified and admitted having given the prior statement to police and acknowledged its contents, but claimed that most of the assertions therein were false. Within his argument urging error in the admission of State's Exhibit 19, the defendant also asserts that the trial court erred in admitting the predicate basis for its admission, P.D.'s deposition, urging that she was not an unavailable witness. In determining the defendant's claim that the admission of State's Exhibit 19 constitutes reversible error under Patterson, 263 Ind. 55, 324 N.E.2d 482, we are not restricted solely to the circumstances presented to the trial judge at the time of his ruling. A questionable foundation for the admissibility of evidence may be cured by the subsequent testimony. Burton v. State (1986), Ind., 497 N.E.2d 535, 537-38. Errors in the admission of evidence may be rendered harmless by the introduction of subsequent evidence. Hooper v. State (1983), Ind., 443 N.E.2d 822, 825; Hall v. State (1978), 269 Ind. 24, 29, 378 N.E.2d 823, 827. We therefore decline to limit our assessment of the admissibility of State's Exhibit 19 based only on State's Exhibit 16, but will include in our consideration the subsequent in-court testimony of P.D. Although our recent decision in Modesitt v. State (1991), Ind., 578 N.E.2d 649, is perhaps noted more for its prospective repudiation of the Patterson rule, [1] it nevertheless also applied then-existing Patterson jurisprudence and found reversible error where Patterson statements are presented with drumbeat repetition prior to calling the victim as a witness, thus precluding direct, immediate cross-examination and resulting in the victim's veracity being vouchsafed. Modesitt, 578 N.E.2d at 651-52. Like Modesitt, the victim's Patterson statement in the present case was admitted in advance of her in-court testimony. However, unlike the young child victim in Modesitt, P.D. was an adult woman whose story was neither repeated to the jury by multiple witnesses in advance of her testimony nor presented in paraphrased form. Rather, P.D.'s audiotape statement is highly reliable because it was an actual recording of her own words and because she not only acknowledged making the statement, but also admitted that it accurately reflected her report at the time it was given. She was cross-examined by the defense regarding the prior recorded statement. Considering P.D.'s age and maturity, the nature and content of her in-court testimony, the unchallenged accuracy of the audiotape recording, and the extent of actual cross-examination, we decline to find reversible error in the admission of State's Exhibit 19. Judgment affirmed. SHEPARD, C.J., and GIVAN, J., concur. DeBRULER, J., concurs and dissents in separate opinion in which KRAHULIK, J., concurs.