Opinion ID: 309617
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Witness Knauf's Refusal To Answer Certain Questions

Text: A key witness for the Government was Karen Knauf a co-participant in the crimes charged. It was she who actually passed the forged money orders. She testified that Rogers, along with Spotts, planned where and when she would cash checks and that she saw Rogers forge several of the money orders. During cross-examination, she refused to answer certain questions on the grounds that the answers might tend to incriminate her: while testifying that she loved a certain Stanley Hall, whom she identified as also being involved in the crimes charged, and that she did many things for him, she refused to say whether she had lived with him. Also, while admitting that she was using drugs during the period in which she cashed the money orders, she refused to say which drugs she used, how extensively she used them, and who supplied them. At trial, Rogers objected that these refusals to answer questions so effectively denied him his right to cross-examine the witness regarding her credibility generally and her powers to observe that her entire testimony on direct examination should be stricken. On appeal, Rogers presses only one point. He argues that while the witness was within her rights in refusing to answer questions directed to her drug use, by her so doing Rogers was precluded from establishing that the witness' ability to observe and remember the events about which she testified was impaired. See Wilson v. United States, 232 U.S. 563, 568, 34 S.Ct. 347, 349, 58 L.Ed. 728 (1914). Rogers contends such ability goes to the reliability of the witness' entire direct testimony. A witness' refusal on Fifth Amendment grounds to answer otherwise permissible questions may, but need not necessarily, violate the defendant's Sixth Amendment right as to part or all of the witness' testimony. United States v. Collier, 362 F.2d 135 (7th Cir.), cert. den., 385 U.S. 779, 87 S.Ct. 519, 17 L.Ed.2d 439 (1966); United States v. Cardillo, 316 F.2d 606 (2d Cir.), cert. den., 375 U.S. 822, 84 S.Ct. 60, 11 L.Ed.2d 55 (1963). See also Smith v. Illinois, 390 U.S. 129, 133 n. 8, 88 S.Ct. 748, 751, 19 L.Ed.2d 956 (1968); United States v. Saletko, 452 F.2d 193, 195-196, cert. den., 405 U.S. 1040, 92 S.Ct. 1311, 31 L.Ed.2d 581 (1972). The basis for determining whether a defendant's Sixth Amendment right was violated has been stated as follows: The ultimate inquiry is whether the defendant has been deprived of his right to test the truth of the direct testimony. . . . The distinction is generally drawn between invoking the privilege as to collateral matters, not requiring the striking of direct testimony, and invoking it as to direct matters. . . . But the line between direct and collateral is not clear, and the question in each case must finally be whether defendant's inability to make the inquiry created a substantial danger of prejudice by depriving him of the ability to test the truth of the witness's direct testimony. Fountain, supra, at 384 F.2d 628. Such a judgment is to be made upon the whole record, and, on the record in the instant case, we conclude that Rogers' right to cross-examination was not so limited as to warrant striking Knauf's testimony. In general terms, the truthfulness of Knauf's testimony, including her ability to observe and remember events, was broadly and incisively attacked in depth by three attorneys, and the witness' refusal to answer [did not add] critical weight to the prosecution's case in a form not subject to cross-examination. . . . Collier, supra 362 F.2d at 139 n. 4, quoting Fletcher v. United States, 118 U.S.App.D.C. 137, 332 F.2d 724, 726 (1964). More specifically, as the trial court stressed, the witness was not testifying as to a single brief occurrence for which her powers of precise observation would be specially important. Rather, she testified about a series of meetings and transactions occurring over a period of two months with individuals well known to her. Moreover, in testifying about these events, the witness generally limited herself to readily observable elements thereof; she rarely testified about elements, such as particular statements by Rogers, which would require a particularly accurate memory. Finally, the witness' testimony as to Rogers, who alone of the defendants asserts that his right to cross-examination was too limited, was strongly supported by the testimony of the handwriting expert that Rogers forged the money orders identified in Counts I through VIII.