Opinion ID: 1993991
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Exclusion of Richard Miles's Testimony

Text: When she was cross-examined after being offered as a witness by the state, Janet testified that she spent the afternoon preceding her attack ingesting cocaine with her boyfriend, Richard Miles, just before Miles was to report to the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI) to begin serving a sentence. The defense then proffered that Miles would testify that he already was incarcerated on the morning of March 1, 2003, and that it therefore was not possible that Janet had shared cocaine with Miles later that day. In response, the state moved in limine, before defendant called his first witness, to exclude Richard Miles's testimony, arguing that Rule 608(b) of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence precluded the admissibility of Miles's testimony because the proposed testimony was collateral to the central issues in the case and was offered solely to impeach Janet's testimony through extrinsic evidence. Rule 608(b) states in relevant part [s]pecific instances of the conduct of a witness, for the purpose of attacking or supporting the witness' credibility    may not be proved by extrinsic evidence. [9] The state maintained that the identity of the person with whom Janet used cocaine at 3 p.m. on March 1, 2003, was not material evidence as to who assaulted her in the early morning of the next day. The defendant argued at trial that Richard Miles's testimony was material and not collateral because it would suggest who the perpetrator was. The defendant implied that Janet lied about the person with whom she used cocaine in an effort to protect her attacker. The defendant also maintained that because evidence indicating who her attacker may have been was material to defendant's guilt or innocence, Rule 608(b) should not apply. After hearing argument, the trial justice granted the motion in limine because he concluded that the testimony was collateral, and that extrinsic evidence may not be used to impeach a complaining witness. The trial justice ruled that the identity of Janet's cocaine partner ten hours prior to the sexual assault was irrelevant to determining who perpetrated the assaults on her. Significantly, the trial justice emphasized that the complainant admitted to using cocaine and to being with other male customers after the cocaine use, but before she was assaulted. The trial justice reasoned that the break in time and the complainant's interaction with multiple people after her cocaine use rendered the identity of her companion at 3 p.m. the preceding afternoon collateral to the issue of who attacked her in the early hours of the following morning. On appeal, defendant renews his argument that the trial justice erred in granting the state's motion in limine because Richard Miles's testimony was material, not collateral, and therefore Rule 608(b) was not a basis for excluding this testimony. [10]