Opinion ID: 2637163
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Any Error in Admitting Dr. Brandner's Domestic Violence Records into Evidence Was Harmless Error.

Text: During the trial, Hudson testified that when the police interviewed her on the day of the incident, they told her to check Dr. Brandner's record for domestic violence. She also testified that a nurse at the hospital advised her to check Dr. Brandner's courthouse records. The trial judge allowed Hudson's testimony that she reviewed and copied records from which she concluded that Dr. Brandner had been abusive to his wife. I know that he jerked the phone out of the wall. I know that he stalked her. I know his kids had stepped in between him and his wife. And what I read, he is violent. And because of reading that, I wasn't real sure what he was capable of doing to me. I'm not even related to him. The trial judge overruled Dr. Brandner's objection that the testimony was hearsay, admitting it as evidence of Hudson's state of mind. In addition to allowing the testimony, the judge also admitted the records over Dr. Brandner's objection. Dr. Brandner argues that the domestic violence records were irrelevant because they occurred four years prior to the incident with Hudson and because the petitions were dismissed. He also contends that the records were highly prejudicial. [7] To be admissible, evidence must be relevant to a material issue. [8] The trial court determined that Hudson's testimony regarding her reaction to the records was relevant to her state of mind after the assault. Dr. Brandner suggests that because Hudson did not thoroughly read the records, any distress she experienced as a result of the records was unreasonable. But it was for the trier of fact to determine whether Hudson's distress was reasonable, and the testimony was relevant to the distress Hudson experienced. As a result, the trial court's ruling that the evidence was relevant to Hudson's state of mind was not an abuse of discretion. But Alaska Evidence Rule 403 provides that otherwise admissible evidence may be excluded if its probative value is outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. Dr. Brandner suggests that the domestic violence records were unfairly prejudicial because they could lead a trier of fact to assume that he was guilty of the battery against Hudson. Trial courts have broad discretion in applying the Rule 403 balancing test. [9] In reviewing the trial court's decision, we balance the danger of unfair prejudice against the probative value of the evidence to determine whether the potential danger predominated so greatly as to leave us firmly convinced that admitting the challenged evidence amounted to a clear abuse of discretion under Evidence Rule 403. [10] But even where the trial court errs in admitting evidence, we will reverse only if that error was not harmless. [11] A trial court's error in admitting evidence is harmless when there is no reasonable likelihood that the admitted evidence had an appreciable effect on [the trier of fact]. [12] Dr. Brandner bears the burden of showing that prejudice resulted from the trial court's admission of the testimony and records. [13] While this would have been a much closer and more troubling question in a jury trial, we hold that any error in admitting the records was harmless. In this case, the likelihood of unfair prejudice was greatly reduced by the fact that this was a bench trial. [14] Moreover, Judge Suddock indicated that he had not read the records, stating that the records didn't really make very much difference and concluding that he was totally uninterested in [Dr. Brandner's] DV records . . . [because] the incident speaks for itself and should be judged by itself. In other words, Judge Suddock's findings explicitly state that he gave very little weight to the domestic violence records, even on the issue of Hudson's state of mind. Under these circumstances, we hold that any error in admitting the records was harmless.