Opinion ID: 2313439
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reconstruction of the Record

Text: During the Rule 10 hearing, the trial judge stated that he had taken detailed notes on Elena's testimony from beginning to end, and that he had a fairly good memory of the case. The judge then read into the record his own notes of Elena's testimony, which essentially mirrored the description of events that was included in Ms. Kelaghan's testimony. The trial prosecutor was called as a witness. During her direct examination, she testified that defense counsel had made two specific objections, one about the amendment of the date on the charging information, and the other a Battle [5] objection to Elena's testimony, which were both overruled. She recalled that she herself had made a few evidentiary objections to the cross-examination of Elena, but that those objections were overruled as well. Appellant's trial counsel then cross-examined the prosecutor, and they agreed that there had been three areas of cross-examination of Elena to which she (the prosecutor) had objected, but that the court had overruled her objections. Those areas dealt with Elena's relationship with her mother, her relationship with a married man, and some issue about permanent residency. The court made a finding that it had allowed broad cross-examination of Elena, especially on the issue of bias, and that the verdicts it had rendered at the end of the trial reflected its detailed findings about the evidence. The court then denied appellant's motion to vacate (see note 3, supra ) and continued the hearing for several weeks to resolve any outstanding issues about the transcript. [6] When the hearing resumed after the continuance, only counsel for the government appeared. Appellant's trial counsel had moved to withdraw from the case, and new counsel had only recently been appointed. The court said that unless it heard otherwise from appellant's new counsel, it would re-certify the case back to this court in light of its findings at the prior hearing. At no point did any party mention that the direct testimony of Claudia Romero was missing from the record or attempt to re-create it in any way.