Opinion ID: 1902219
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Control of Narrative Testimony

Text: During her direct examination, Ms. Alphonso mentioned truancy and stealing by Booth as a child. Defense counsel asked whether Booth had ever been caught. When Ms. Alphonso said that he had, counsel asked, And could you tell us what happened? Ms. Alphonso replied, Well, then, he became, he was truant. He eventually got caught and he was then placed in the Boys' Village, where he was raped. The court sustained the prosecutor's general objection and granted his motion to strike, telling the jurors to disregard that last remark as being totally unresponsive. Booth now claims that the court's ruling was reversible error because the expert's answer was responsive and it constituted important, admissible evidence. [13] The court in the instant matter explained that the basis for its ruling was limited to the unresponsiveness of a portion of the answer given in relation to the question that had been asked. Nothing prevented counsel for Booth from asking a more narrowly tailored question to elicit the desired answer from Ms. Alphonso, or from calling Booth to testify based on personal knowledge. Thus, the error, if any, has been waived. See Dietz v. Moore, 277 Md. 1, 9, 351 A.2d 428, 433 (1976) (parties can hardly urge on appeal what they themselves failed to elicit.). Further, the error, if any, is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In Ms. Alphonso's field of expertise she forms opinions based on information obtained from interviewing the subject of the inquiry and persons who know the subject of the inquiry. The information obtained was hearsay when admitted into evidence through Ms. Alphonso. Presumably the trial court was permitting this hearsay to be admitted on the ground that it was information reasonably relied upon by experts in the field. See Consolidated Mechanical Contractors v. Ball, 263 Md. 328, 336, 283 A.2d 154, 158 (1971). Under that rule the hearsay is admitted, not as proof of the underlying facts, but simply as the basis for the opinion by the expert. Maryland Dep't Human Resources v. Bo Peep Day Nursery, 317 Md. 573, 589, 565 A.2d 1015, 1023 (1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1067, 110 S.Ct. 1784, 108 L.Ed.2d 786 (1990); Ellsworth v. Sherne Lingerie, Inc., 303 Md. 581, 603, 495 A.2d 348, 359 (1985); Attorney Grievance Comm'n v. Nothstein, 300 Md. 667, 679, 480 A.2d 807, 813 (1984). Here, Booth has not shown that any opinion which Ms. Alphonso was prepared to express was excluded from evidence because of the exclusion, as unresponsive, of the hearsay concerning the rape of Booth. The argument is that the weight of Ms. Alphonso's opinion was reduced because one factor of its foundations was missing. On the facts here, so ephemeral a claim of prejudice is speculative.