Opinion ID: 1741825
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of the Defendant's Letters to Impeach Witness

Text: ¶ 36. Finally, the defendant also attacks the State's use of certain letters written by the defendant to his girlfriend. The State first attempted to use the letters in its cross-examination of the girlfriend to establish the use of particular words by the defendant. The circuit court allowed their use for that purpose. The State then attempted to use language from the letters to impeach the girlfriend's credibility by showing she was lying out of fear of the defendant. The circuit court sustained the defendant's objection and barred the evidence. ¶ 37. Later, during the cross-examination of the sister, the sister referenced one of the letters on her own initiative, characterized statements therein as harmless, and indicated that the defendant was just fooling around. The circuit court then allowed the State to enter five excerpts from that letter for the purposes of impeaching the sister. The statements included: (i) I've got to wax your ass; (ii) Don't make me pull your eyeball out of your head; (iii) I'm beating your ass, too; (iv) [D]on't make me break on your ass; (v) I'm going to cut of your God dam [sic] arm and beat you to death with it. ¶ 38. The State also attempted to use the excerpts in its cross-examination of the defendant. The circuit court barred the testimony as inherently prejudicial. Finally, the State referenced the previously listed statements three times in its closing arguments, apparently to show a character trait of the defendant. ¶ 39. We note first that the defendant explicitly concedes the appropriateness of the circuit court's admission of the letters to prove the defendant's common choice of words. While the record is ambiguous, the circuit court apparently allowed the State to reference the threatening statements to either show that the sister was biased toward the defendant, or to impeach the sister's testimony that the letters were nonthreatening. Even assuming that the excerpts could have been admitted with proper evidentiary license, the circuit court should have also considered the prejudicial nature of the excerpts and weighed that prejudice in the balance with the probative nature of the evidence. [13] ¶ 40. Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. . . . Wis. Stat. § 904.03. Evidence is prejudicial if it has a tendency to influence the outcome by improper means or if it appeals to the jury's sympathies, arouses its sense of horror, provokes its instinct to punish or otherwise causes a jury to base its decision on something other than the established propositions in the case. Gonzalez v. City of Franklin, 137 Wis. 2d 109, 138, 403 N.W.2d 747 (1987)(quoting Lease America Corp. v. Ins. Co. of North America, 88 Wis. 2d 395, 401, 276 N.W.2d 767 (1979) (internal quotation marks omitted)). [14] ¶ 41. We agree with the conclusion of the court of appeals that admission of excerpts of the letters and reference to those excerpts in closing arguments were unfairly prejudicial to the defendant. Even if the excerpts were probative of the State's attack on the sister's credibility or the accuracy of her description of the defendant, the excerpts conveyed an underlying message about the character of the defendant that a jury would find hard to ignore. Character evidence is generally barred at trial because it tends to show that a person acted in conformity with a particular characteristic, or that the person suffers from a propensity to engage in a specific pattern of conductproof that is generally irrelevant to the issue of whether the defendant committed a crime in this case. See State v. Evers, 139 Wis. 2d 424, 431, 407 N.W.2d 256 (1987); State v. Balistreri, 106 Wis. 2d 741, 757, 317 N.W.2d 493 (1982). [9] ¶ 42. As the State acknowledged at oral arguments, the excerpts were inflammatory. Any probative value incumbent in the excerpts was outweighed by the threat of the defendant's vitriolic assertions being misused by the jury. The circuit court should have ruled the hostile excerpts from the letters inadmissible under Wis. Stat. § 904.03. [15] ¶ 43. Having determined that the circuit court did err in allowing the State to cross-examine the sister about the threats contained in the excerpts of the defendant's letter, we must next consider whether that error was harmless. Under State v. Dyess, the test for harmless error is whether there is a reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the conviction. Dyess, 124 Wis. 2d 525, 543, 370 N.W.2d 222 (1985). If that question is answered in the affirmative, the defendant's conviction must be reversed. See id. ¶ 44. Based on the substantial amount of physical evidence corroborating the allegations of the complainant, we determine that the circuit court's error in admitting the evidence was harmless. While the defendant acknowledges that he had an altercation with the complainant, he denies the allegations of sexual assault, denies that the dispute ever reached the basement of the home, denies that he threatened the complainant with a knife, and denies that the complainant received any injuries beyond a scratch to the face. ¶ 45. Yet, photographs of the complainant taken by the police after the incident demonstrate injuries, including a long cut to the complainant's hand, which are consistent with her allegations that the parties struggled over a knife brandished by the defendant. The subsequent discovery of the knife with which the wound was allegedly inflicted, a knife that the defendant acknowledges owning, also supports the complainant's version of events. ¶ 46. Moreover, the police discovered bloodstains in the basement of the home, the location of the alleged attempted sexual assault of the complainant by the defendant. Other physical evidence, such as the stained and torn condition of the clothing the complainant was wearing on the night of the attack, the discovery of a $20 bill which the defendant allegedly left the complainant after taking the rest of her money, and the disarray of specific household goods disturbed by the complainant's attempts to escape, also support the complainant's allegations over the defendant's denials. [16] ¶ 47. We also find convincing the complainant's initial refusal to identify her attacker when the police arrived. Only after the police had searched her entire home and assured her that no one else was present did the complainant identify the defendant as her assailant. Such reticence is consistent with a fear of additional attacks and inconsistent with the defendant's proffered theory that the complainant purposefully attempted to set him up.