Opinion ID: 2570148
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Tom Dillard

Text: Dillard was pastor of the church in Indiana that defendant and his family attended. He testified about the Lokers' troubled family life, but thought defendant was basically like a normal hyperactive child. On cross-examination, the prosecutor referred to this statement and asked the following questions: Q. I assume that you don't know anything about what he may have been doing behind your back, correct? A. No, sir, very, very little. Q. And I take it the reverend or the pastor is the last guy you come to A. Usually the last one to hear. Q. And I attempted to show Dr. Gaughan's report to you over the recess, correct? A. Yes. Q. And [defense counsel] wouldn't let me do that, correct? A. Right. Q. And that's fine because you wouldn't know the kinds of things [defendant] was doing through his teenage years if they were bad unless he told you or they were brought to your attention, right? A. Yes, sir. Q. Okay. Soso even if you read a report which included a lot of bad things, that'd be news to you, wouldn't it? A. It would be news to me, yes, sir. Q. So your opinions about [defendant] are based on some limited information, are they not? A. Yes, sir. On redirect, defense counsel questioned Dillard further on defendant's problems with church and with his family. The prosecutor then asked: Would you like to know what was going on in [defendant's] mind all the time he was growing up as a teenager and the kinds of things he was doing behind people's backs? Dillard answered: At this point in my life, no. The prosecutor said he understood, and asked no further questions. While Dillard's testimony that defendant was a normal hyperactive child could properly have been rebutted with material from the Gaughan report contemporaneous with his observations of defendant, the prosecutor's references to the bad things in the report were improper. Defense counsel, however, did not object or ask for an admonishment to the jury.