Opinion ID: 2338879
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: chamberland cross-examination

Text: The defendant claims error in the trial court's refusal to allow him the right to cross-examine Clifford Chamberland, a state's witness, in the presence of the jury as to Chamberland's allegedly inconsistent grand jury testimony on the grounds that such refusal denied the defendant his right of confrontation and cross-examination as guaranteed by the state and federal constitutions and amounted to a deprivation of due process of law. Prior to the testimony of Chamberland, three witnesses called by the state identified, a shotgun which the state claimed was used in the murders. The shotgun, introduced into evidence as state's Exhibit BBB, was identified by Christian Noury as the one which William Mindek sold to the defendant and his companion and which the defendant had on the night of October 19, 1974. Similarly, William Mindek identified the shotgun as one which had formerly belonged to him and which he had sold to the defendant. And Donna Avery testified that she recognized Exhibit BBB as a shotgun which Mindek had owned and which the defendant had in his possession on October 16 or 17, 1974. After the foregoing testimony and consequent introduction of the shotgun into evidence, Clifford Chamberland was called as a witness by the prosecution. On direct examination, following Chamberland's testimony as to the defendant's possession of a shotgun on the night of October 22, 1974, the following exchange took place: Q. Mr. Chamberland, may I show you this item which has been marked Exhibit BBB, and ask you if you recognize it (handing) ?
Mr. Herman: Well, now, that doesn't answer the question, if the court pleases. The question is whether or not he recognizes it. I'm going to ask that the answer go out. The Witness: Recognizes the The Court: The answer may go out. The jury will disregard it, that it could be it. Q. Let me ask you if you do recognize it, Mr. Chamberland. A. ThatI thought thethis Mr. Heiman: Well, no, if your Honor please, the question is, Do you recognize it or not? The Witness: Yes. Q. You do recognize it? A. I didn't see it for any length of time or study it. You know, closely. Like it is now. On cross-examination by defense counsel, Chamberland testified that the shotgun, Exhibit BBB, was, according to his recollection, the same weapon that he previously testified was in the defendant's possession on October 22, 1974. [12] Upon further cross-examination, however, the witness stated that the shotgun in evidence must be the same gun he saw, and initially indicated that, at the time of his appearance before the grand jury in this case, the police suggested to him that the weapon he was to be shown in court was the same one that Chamberland claimed to have seen on October 22, 1974. [13] When it became apparent that defense counsel's questioning was directed at what occurred before the grand jury itself, the state objected to any further cross-examination in the presence of the jury. The defendant claimed that, under the sixth amendment to the United States constitution, he had a right to pursue this line of questioning in order to establish that the witness had made a prior inconsistent statement with respect to the identification of the shotgun before the grand jury. The state, on the other hand, objected to such questioning on the grounds that grand jury proceedings are secret and on the grounds of relevancy. [14] The court initially ruled that if this witness made an inconsistent statement anywhere, grand jury room or otherwise, you may inquire as tolimited strictly to what that statement was in the grand jury room on this particular issue, and this only. In the absence of the jury, an offer of proof was then made during which the following exchange between defense counsel and the witness took place: Q. Do you recall, Mr. Chamberland, testifying before the grand jury that you had seen the shotgun so briefly that you were unable to say whether or not that gun was the same gun that you had seen in your home on October the 22nd, 1974? ... A. When I spoke before the grand jury, I think what went on thenat that time, I believe I still wasn't completely positive that it was the same gun. Q. And did you, in fact, so testify before the grand jury, that you had seen the gun so briefly that you were A. No, I didn't Q. Just a minute, pleasethat you were unsure as to whether or not that was, in fact, the same gun that you had seen? A. I did not testify that way before the grand jury. Q. Did you testify that it was the same gun? A. Sort of. I'It looks like the same gun.' I don't believe I gave a definite answer then, either. Q. You didn't give it definite, either, did you? A. I don't think so. After a discussion between the court and counsel over whether Chamberland's grand jury testimony was in fact inconsistent with his testimony at trial, one final question was asked of the witness: Q. You were asked before the grand jury that that was the same gun. You told them you didn't know, it looked like it, isn't that right? A. I said thatthat it looked like the same gun. I just said it looked like the same gun. I mean On the basis of the above testimony, the court sustained the objection of the state to this line of inquiry stating that the proffered testimony was not sufficiently inconsistent so that I would permit the examination. [15] The defendant took an exception and has claimed that ruling to be error in his appeal to this court. The defendant argues that the court's refusal to allow his questioning of Chamberland in the presence of the jury regarding the witness' grand jury testimony was a denial of the defendant's constitutional right to confront this witness. The defendant relies heavily upon a federal habeas corpus case involving the use of grand jury testimony for impeachment purposes during a trial in a court of this state. Chesney v. Robinson, 403 F. Sup. 306 (D. Conn.), aff'd without opinion, 538 F.2d 308 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 867, 97 S. Ct. 177, 50 L. Ed. 2d 147. In Chesney, the trial court sustained the state's objection to defense counsel's attempt to show the inconsistent testimony of a crucial [16] state's witness before the grand jury. The trial court's ruling was based upon the joint grounds that the witness' prior omission in his grand jury testimony would not be inconsistent and that an attempt to question a witness concerning his prior testimony before a grand jury would violate the Connecticut rule of secrecy of grand jury proceedings. Id., 308. On appeal to this court, we affirmed the defendant's conviction. State v. Chesney, 166 Conn. 630, 636-37, 353 A.2d 783, cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1004, 95 S. Ct. 324, 42 L. Ed. 2d 280. In the federal habeas action, Chesney v. Robinson, supra, the District Court concluded that the trial court's ruling, as affirmed by this court, deprived the petitioner of his opportunity to fully present to the jury his theory that the chief prosecution witness had fabricated a significant portion of his testimony. Id., 310. The federal court rejected what it considered to be the reasoning behind this court's affirmance of the defendant's conviction, that is, that, since the grand jurors are sworn to secrecy, and since there is no transcript of the grand jury proceedings, there is no way in which the trial judge could properly determine the preliminary issue of whether a statement or omission before the grand jury was sufficiently inconsistent to justify its introduction for impeachment purposes. (Footnotes omitted.) Id. In contrast, in the present case the trial court explicitly rejected the state's claim that the questioning of Chamberland could not be pursued because of the Connecticut rule of secrecy of grand jury proceedings and because, without a transcript of those proceedings, there is no way to determine if in fact there was an inconsistency. Moreover, also unlike the situation in State v. Chesney, supra, 635-36, the trial court in the present case permitted defense counsel to pursue this line of questioning outside the presence of the jury in order to ascertain the existence of a prior material inconsistency. Consequently, the decision to disallow the questioning of Chamberland in the jury's presence regarding his grand jury testimony was based solely upon the trial court's determination that the statements were not sufficiently inconsistent so as to permit their admission into evidence. In Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S. Ct. 1105, 39 L. Ed. 2d 347, the right to cross-examine was held to outweigh the state's interest in maintaining the secrecy of juvenile court proceedings. And in Dennis v. United States, 384 U.S. 855, 86 S. Ct. 1840, 16 L. Ed. 2d 973, the court held, as a matter of supervision over lower federal courts, that in federal criminal proceedings the interest in grand jury secrecy must yield to the interest in effective cross-examination. Likewise, this court has stated that the general rule regarding the secrecy of grand jury proceedings is not applicable in cases where the testimony of a witness at the trial is different from his testimony before the grand jury. State v. Coffee, 56 Conn. 399, 410, 16 A. 151; State v. Fasset, 16 Conn. 457, 466-67. To say that the interests in secrecy must yield to the right of cross-examination, however, does not compel a conclusion that, in this case, the trial judge erred in refusing to allow the admission of such testimony in the jury's presence. To be admissible, the court must first be persuaded that the statements are indeed inconsistent. United States v. Hale, 422 U.S. 171, 176, 95 S. Ct. 2133, 45 L. Ed. 2d 99; Grunewald v. United States, 353 U.S. 391, 418, 77 S. Ct. 963, 1 L. Ed. 2d 931; Schurgast v. Schumann, 156 Conn. 471, 482, 242 A.2d 695; 3A Wigmore, Evidence (Chadbourn Rev. 1970) § 1040. Since the purpose of such evidence is to induce the tribunal to discard the one statement because the witness has also made another statement which cannot at the same time be true; 3A Wigmore, op. cit.; the inconsistency must be substantial and relate to a material matter. People v. Curtis, 48 Ill. App. 3d 375, 386, 362 N.E.2d 1319; 98 C.J.S., Witnesses § 583. In determining whether an inconsistency actually exists, the testimony of the witness as a whole, or the whole impression or effect of what has been said, must be examined. State v. Hephner, 161 N.W.2d 714, 719 (Iowa); Commonwealth v. West, 312 Mass. 438, 440, 45 N.E.2d 260; State v. Bowen, 247 Mo. 584, 598, 153 S.W. 1033; 3A Wigmore, op. cit.; 98 C.J.S., Witnesses, supra. Moreover, statements from which a possible inference of inconsistency may be drawn are insufficient for the purpose of impeachment. Gilmartin v. D. & N. Transportation Co., 123 Conn. 127, 134-35, 193 A. 726; 98 C.J.S., Witnesses, supra. The relevant trial testimony of Chamberland regarding the identification of Exhibit BBB may be summarized as follows: On direct examination by the state, the witness answered affirmatively when asked if he recognized the shotgun; when that question was again asked, Chamberland stated, I didn't see it for any length of time or study it. You know, closely. Like it is now. On cross-examination, the witness responded in the affirmative when asked whether Exhibit BBB was, according to his recollection, the same weapon that he previously testified was in the defendant's possession on October 22, 1974. Upon further cross-examination, however, Chamberland was asked: [Y]ou don't know whether that's the same gun or not, do you, really? Isn't that right? To that question the witness replied, All I know is it must be. With the jury absent, the witness testified as to what he said before the grand jury as follows: When I spoke before the grand jury I thinkwhat went on thenat that time, I believe I still wasn't completely positive that it was the same gun. Chamberland denied that he told the grand jury that he had seen the gun so briefly that he was unsure as to whether it was the same gun, and indicated that he did not think that he gave a definite answer to the grand jury when asked if Exhibit BBB was the same gun he had seen. Finally, the witness stated that he told the grand jury it looked like the same gun. Taking the testimony of Chamberland in its entirety, and examining the whole impression or effect of what was said, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in limiting the scope of the cross-examination of Chamberland. State v. Dortch, 139 Conn. 317, 325, 93 A.2d 490. In view of all the circumstances, the court could have concluded that the statements sought to be introduced were not sufficiently inconsistent so as to warrant their admission into evidence. Grunewald v. United States, supra; Schurgast v. Schumann, supra; 3A Wigmore, op. cit. The defendant's reliance upon Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S. Ct. 1105, 39 L. Ed. 2d 347, and Smith v. Illinois, 390 U.S. 129, 88 S. Ct. 748, 19 L. Ed. 2d 956, is, therefore, misplaced. The purpose of this line of questioning pursued by the defendant in the present case was obviously to impeach the credibility of the witness. It is important to note that, following the trial court's ruling excluding the inquiry into the witness' grand jury testimony, the witness unequivocally stated upon further questioning by the defense, in the presence of the jury, that he was not positive or sure Exhibit BBB was the same weapon he saw on the night of October 22, 1974. [17] Consequently, unlike the situation in Chesney v. Robinson, supra, 310, the defendant was not deprived of his opportunity to present adequately to the jury his theory that Exhibit BBB was possibly not the same gun seen by Chamberland on October 22.