Opinion ID: 1239233
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State's Evidentiary Objections

Text: Graham next argues that the State committed prosecutorial misconduct because the State obstructed Graham's efforts to impeach witnesses by making improper evidentiary objections that were sustained by the district court. Specifically, Graham points to the State's objections during the cross-examination of Roderick M., Officer Goligowski, C.H., and Sergeant Adams, and argues they represent a pattern of obstruction. We begin by noting that Graham's argument that the State could commit prosecutorial misconduct simply by making objections is unusual. Nevertheless, without reaching the question of whether the State's objections could rise to the level of prosecutorial misconduct, we conclude there was no error here. In analyzing Graham's claims, we will first consider the evidentiary questions raised by Graham to determine whether the State's objections were improper under the rules of evidence and then address whether the district court's subsequent ruling was in error. We review a district court's evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. State v. Amos, 658 N.W.2d 201, 203 (Minn.2003). Reversal is warranted only when the ruling resulted in prejudice. Id. But, when the ruling results in the erroneous exclusion of defense evidence in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights, the verdict must be reversed if there is a reasonable possibility that the verdict might have been different if the evidence had been admitted. State v. Post, 512 N.W.2d 99, 102 (Minn. 1994).
During the cross-examination of Roderick M., defense counsel attempted to impeach Roderick with statements attributed to him in an interview summary prepared by Sergeant Adams. Specifically, defense counsel asked about a statement Adams attributed to Roderick which suggested Roderick had left the house earlier than indicated by his trial testimony. Reading from the summary, defense counsel asked if Roderick remembered stating that he ran out his front door. The State objected, and during the bench discussion asserted that a lengthy taped interview existed and that defense counsel should not be able to read a summary into the record. Defense counsel informed the district court that she was not aware of a taped interview. The district court responded by saying [w]e'll talk about that during the break and for [r]ight now if you want to examine him, do it properly and don't argue. Defense counsel proceeded to ask about several statements contained in various police reports without reading from statements and without drawing an objection. After a recess, the State admitted to having made a misstatement because there was no recorded conversation of Roderick M.'s interview. [1] However, the State asserted the objection was valid as to form because defense counsel was literally reading from Officer Adams' summary of an interview verbatim while impeaching the witness. The district court upheld its earlier ruling sustaining the State's objection. Later, during cross-examination of Adams, defense counsel was able to elicit testimony on the statements contained in the interview summary which counsel had been unable to ask of Roderick. Graham later moved for a mistrial on the ground that the court erred when it denied him the opportunity to use impeachment evidence during the cross-examination of Roderick. This motion was denied. Graham now argues that the State was making unfounded objections. We consider the question of whether it was error for the district court to sustain the State's objection to defense counsel's use of Sergeant Adams' summary during the cross-examination of Roderick M. We conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion in sustaining the objection. The issue raised by Graham is whether a witness may be impeached with extrinsic evidence contained in a third-party summary of the witness's statements. To impeach under Minn. R. Evid. 613(a), an inconsistent statement [whether written or not] need not be shown nor its contents disclosed to the witness at that time, but upon request [it] shall be shown or disclosed to opposing counsel. But, extrinsic evidence is not admissible unless the witness is afforded a prior opportunity to explain or deny the same and the opposite party is afforded an opportunity to interrogate the witness thereon, or the interests of justice otherwise require. Minn. R. Evid. 613(b). Rule 613 permits a party to ask about the contents of a third-party statement that have been attributed to a witness. But if the witness has not adopted the statement attributed to him as his own, counsel may not offer extrinsic evidence in the form of reading verbatim from a third-party summary to impeach the witness. Hyde v. Kloos is an early example of this principle. 134 Minn. 165, 168-69, 158 N.W. 920, 921 (1916). In Hyde, we upheld a district court ruling which precluded the use of an affidavit for impeachment. Evidence in the case suggested that the witness being questioned did not speak English, and no foundation had been laid which indicated the witness understood the contents of the affidavit she allegedly signed. Id. Because the party seeking to use the affidavit to impeach the witness could not establish that the witness had made or adopted the statement, we affirmed the district court's decision to bar the use of the affidavit to impeach the witness. Id. Federal courts, applying an identical rule of evidence, have also prohibited attorneys from impeaching by reading verbatim from a third-party summary. For example, in United States v. Saget the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals dealt with the admissibility of witness statements contained in a police summary. 991 F.2d 702, 710 (11th Cir.1993). The court held it was grossly unfair to allow defense counsel to read verbatim from an FBI summary to impeach the witness whose statements it purported to contain unless the witness has subscribed to or otherwise adopted the statement as his own. Id.; see also United States v. Adames, 56 F.3d 737, 744-45 (7th Cir. 1995); United States v. Strother, 49 F.3d 869, 876 (2nd Cir.1995). These cases are also consistent with our holding in State v. Stofflet, 281 N.W.2d 494 (Minn.1979). In Stofflet, the State, without objection, cross-examined a witness using the content of a police summary. Id. at 496. In concluding that the prosecutor was perfectly justified in cross-examining [the witness] about the[ ] statements, we said that: [I]t is the first part of [Rule 613] which, by providing for disclosure to counsel, protect(s) against unwarranted insinuations that a statement has been made when the fact is to the contrary. In this case, the prosecutor was able to produce extrinsic evidence to back up his questions on cross-examination, although he did not; and such evidence had been disclosed to defense counsel. Id. at 497. Although we upheld the State's use of the contents of the summary to question the witness, in Stofflet we assumed the State would have to call the officer who made the summary to the stand in order to introduce extrinsic evidence of the witness's statement. Id. Here, as in Stofflet, defense counsel could, and did, ask questions about the contents of the summaries. But unlike Stofflet, defense counsel attempted to read verbatim from the summary, and therefore to introduce extrinsic evidence of the summary during its cross-examination of Roderick M. The State objected only when defense counsel's language indicated that counsel was reading from the summary. Defense counsel's use of the summary as extrinsic evidence of statements attributed to Roderick was improper. See Kloos, 134 Minn. at 168-69, 158 N.W. at 921; see also Saget, 991 F.2d at 710. The extrinsic evidence of the prior statements had to be obtained from the author of the summary who had heard the oral statements. E.g., Stofflet, 281 N.W.2d at 497. This in fact was done when defense counsel asked Adams, who authored the summary, about the statements. We conclude that the district court did not err in sustaining the State's objection to defense counsel's attempt to read the statement into evidence during the cross-examination of Roderick M. Further, because there was no error in the court's ruling, we conclude that the State's mistake as to the existence of a transcript or tape was harmless.
Officer Goligowski, an investigating officer at the scene of the crime, interviewed Roderick M. and prepared a written summary of the interview. During Roderick's testimony, defense counsel attempted to ask Roderick about his conversation with Goligowski on the night of Furcron's death. Roderick told defense counsel that he did not recall talking with Goligowski and counsel did not proceed to ask specific questions. Then, during the cross-examination of Goligowski, defense counsel began to question Goligowski about statements attributed to Roderick in the written summary. The State objected, arguing that defense counsel's question was improper impeachment because Roderick had not been given the opportunity to admit or deny the statement. The district court sustained the objection and asked defense counsel to move on. Graham claims the impeachment was proper because Roderick M. stated he did not recall talking with Goligowski. He argues that a witness's failure to recollect is sufficiently inconsistent to allow impeachment under Minn. R. Evid. 613 and State v. Amos, 658 N.W.2d 201 (Minn. 2003). Amos stands for the proposition that a court has the discretion to admit a witness's prior statements as inconsistent when it believes the witness is feigning memory loss. Id. at 205-06; see also State v. Caine, 746 N.W.2d 339, 350 (Minn. 2008). But because there is no evidence Roderick was feigning memory loss, Caine and Amos are inapposite here. In State v. Martin, we said that laying the proper foundation for impeachment requires proof that the statement is actually inconsistent or that the declarant fails to recollect it, but we held that the witness must also be given the opportunity to admit, deny or explain the inconsistency in order for the statement to be admissible to impeach the witness. 614 N.W.2d 214, 224 (Minn.2000) (citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). Roderick M. was asked whether he recalled talking with Goligowski, but he was not given the opportunity to admit, deny, or explain specific statements contained in Goligowski's summary of the interview. Therefore, we conclude that the State's objection and the district court's exclusion of the impeachment evidence were proper.
During C.H.'s cross-examination, defense counsel asked, You told [Sergeant] Adams that you had seen these guys before, is that correct, when he asked you? The question was based on statements attributed to C.H. in a written interview summary prepared by Sergeant Adams. The State objected to the use of Adams' interview summary because C.H. had been subject to a lengthy interview which had been recorded. Defense counsel agreed to use a transcript of the interview in questioning, which transcript had been created by defense counsel. After a bench conference, the State made the following statement within earshot of the jury, [y]ou haven't provided [the transcript] to me. The State then objected to the use of the transcript because a copy had not been provided to the State for verification of its accuracy. The district court ruled that defense counsel could ask questions based on the content of the transcript for the remainder of the afternoon but prohibited counsel from using the transcript as extrinsic evidence. When defense counsel later asked C.H., you spoke to ... Sergeant Knight, is that correct? You recall that? The State objected because defense counsel was referring to a summary of the same interview and the summary isn't necessarily accurate.... [A]nd she has an accurate [transcript] that I wasn't provided. That evening a copy of the transcript of the C.H. interview was provided to the State. The next morning the State argued that use of the transcript should be precluded because the late delivery of the transcript was a discovery violation. In addition, the State asserted prejudice as a result of the late delivery, arguing that had the transcript been timely produced, the State's direct examination of C.H. would have changed. The district court ruled that the transcript of C.H.'s interview with Adams and Knight was excluded under the best evidence rule and not admissible unless both parties stipulated to it in advance. The court also restricted the use of the transcript because it was neither a sworn statement nor an accurate transcription. After C.H.'s testimony, defense counsel made a motion to use the tape recording of C.H.'s interview during its cross-examination of Sergeant Adams. Defense counsel sought to use the tape to impeach C.H.'s trial testimony. The State objected on the ground that the tape was an hour long and would not be proper impeachment of the few specific statements Graham thought were material. The district court told defense counsel to first allow the officer to recall the relevant events based on his notes, and then we'll see where we go. During cross-examination, Adams could not recall a statement from the interview and said that reviewing the tape might help his memory. Defense counsel attempted to introduce the tape, and the State objected. The court upheld the State's objection and excluded use of the tape. Turning first to the question of whether defense counsel should have been permitted to ask questions based on the content of the summaries prepared by the officers, we conclude that the district court erred in sustaining the State's objection. It does not appear from the record that defense counsel was attempting to introduce the statement as extrinsic evidence. Accordingly, defense counsel's examination was proper. See Stofflet, 281 N.W.2d at 497; Hyde, 134 Minn. at 168-69, 158 N.W. at 921; see also Saget, 991 F.2d at 710. But the district court's error in excluding the testimony was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Examination of the record reveals that the summaries defense counsel was precluded from using contain few or none of the impeachment points Graham characterizes as essential to his defense. We next consider the district court's decision to exclude the use of the transcript and tape of C.H.'s interview with Sergeants Adams and Knight. C.H. was an eyewitness to the crime. Defense counsel identified several statements from C.H.'s taped interview that counsel was not able to elicit without access to the tape or transcript. These statements included C.H.'s (1) inconsistency on whether he had seen the assailants around the neighborhood; (2) inconsistency on the skin tone of the taller assailant; (3) denial that during his police interview he stated that the shooter was not in the line-up shown to him by Adams and Knight; and (4) statement during the same interview that Roderick M. was not in the house during the robbery. Because C.H. was an eyewitness to the robbery and shooting, his testimony was central to the State's case. Therefore, defense counsel should have been able to introduce inconsistent statements made during his police interview with Sergeants Adams and Knight. Ideally, a transcript of C.H.'s interview should have been prepared by the State, or, alternatively, the transcript made by defense counsel should have been provided to the State for verification, or the district court should have either ordered the State to verify the relevant parts of the transcript or permitted introduction of the tape. But, even if the district court's erroneous exclusion of defense evidence rose to the level of a constitutional violation, we conclude that any error by the district court in precluding both the tape and the transcript was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because there was no reasonable possibility that the verdict might have been different if the evidence had been admitted. Post, 512 N.W.2d at 102. The State presented several other witnesses who identified Graham as the assailant who shot Furcron, and the State produced physical and forensic evidence tying Graham to the area of the crime. Further, defense counsel was able to ask about most of the impeachment facts raised in this appeal, and was limited only in producing extrinsic evidence of the interview. Given the strength of the State's case and the significant corroborating testimony, we hold that there is no reasonable possibility the jury's verdict would have been different had the evidence been admitted.
Graham argues that the State's conduct in the above instances constituted prejudicial misconduct because the State was illegitimately obstructing the impeachment of its witnesses. We disagree. First, many the State's objections were proper and were appropriately sustained by the district court. Second, even where we conclude that an objection resulted in an erroneous court ruling, the State's conduct did not constitute prosecutorial misconduct. On the record before us, none of the State's objections were so egregious or improper as to rise to the level of prosecutorial misconduct.