Opinion ID: 2584374
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: issue 5: mistrial for disruption from public gallery

Text: Next, Foster argues the district court erred when it denied his motion for mistrial after Foster's father, who was seated in the public gallery while R.R. was testifying, started sobbing hysterically and was escorted from the courtroom. Foster argues the view of Mr. Foster's own father being so moved by R.R.'s statements about the events that night [ sic ] that he burst into tears in the middle of her testimony had a severely prejudicial effect on Mr. Foster's cases. Foster contends the episode lent credibility to the victim's accounts over Foster's denials. Parenthetically, we note the record does not reflect the jury knew the man's identity or his relationship to Foster, which distracts from Foster's argument but is not determinative.