Opinion ID: 1979227
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Refusal to permit impeachment through pretrial minutes of testimony.

Text: Defendant next contends trial court erred in not allowing him to use Diamond's pretrial minute of testimony for impeachment. Alternatively, he asserts trial court should have limited the prosecutor to the testimony contained in the minute, which stated in relevant part: [T]hat on or about the 7th of August, 1984, Menke was working undercover at Oscar's Lounge located in Newton, Jasper County, Iowa, when he did make a buy from Kevin Todd Bishop of [one-half] gram of cocaine for $50.00; that Menke did give Bishop $60.00 in marked $20 bills ...; that Menke did turn over to [Diamond] on the 7th of August, 1984, a package which was in a pharmacy fold of Hustler magazine ... containing a substance which appeared to be cocaine and a $10.00 bill. (Emphasis added.) During trial, Diamond testified Menke gave him only the package of cocaine in the magazine fold and kept the ten dollars as part of a final settlement with the police department. In his motion for mistrial, defendant asserted Diamond should have been required to testify as set out in the pretrial minute or that defendant should have been permitted to use the pretrial minute as a prior inconsistent statement to impeach this witness. We disagree. Pretrial minutes of testimony must contain a full and fair statement of the witness' expected testimony, Iowa R.Crim.P. 5(3), but need not set out every detail of the expected testimony. They need only alert defendant to the source and nature of the information against him. State v. Ellis, 350 N.W.2d 178, 181 (Iowa 1984). Here defendant made no timely objection that the testimony should be limited or that it had gone beyond the scope of the pretrial minute. His motion for mistrial on this ground came late in the trial. The court did not abuse its discretion by failing to grant a new trial on this ground. See State v. Trudo, 253 N.W.2d 101, 106 (Iowa), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 903, 98 S.Ct. 299, 54 L.Ed.2d 189 (1977). Trial court also did not err in refusing to allow the pretrial minute to be used for impeachment purposes. Certainly, [a] witness may be impeached by showing his testimony upon a material matter is inconsistent with a prior statement made by him.  State v. Frommelt, 159 N.W.2d 532, 535 (Iowa 1968) (emphasis added); see Iowa R.Evid. 801(d). In some early cases, this court suggested that minutes of sworn testimony given before a grand jury might be admissible at a later trial to impeach a witness. See, e.g., State v. De Bont, 223 Iowa 721, 722-23, 273 N.W. 873, 874 (1937); State v. Huckins, 212 Iowa 283, 287, 234 N.W. 554, 557 (1931). But see State v. Hillsman, 281 N.W.2d 114, 117-18 (Iowa 1979) (implying Huckins may not accurately reflect the current law). Here, however, the pretrial minute was not Diamond's sworn statement. Moreover, he made no report to the county attorney's office detailing the recovery of the ten dollars and took no part in preparation of the pretrial minute. The pretrial minute therefore did not constitute a prior inconsistent statement and could not serve as a proper vehicle for impeachment. Cf. Hillsman, 281 N.W.2d at 116-17 (Mistake made by assistant county attorney in preparing the pretrial minute of testimony of a private-citizen witness shed no light on witness' credibility and pretrial minute could not be used for impeachment.). Trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to admit the pretrial minute for impeachment purposes.