Opinion ID: 2234708
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: C.G.'s Testimony

Text: Vick urges us to affirm the court of appeals' holding that the trial court committed plain error when it admitted, without adherence to the Spreigl procedural requirements, [9] C.G.'s testimony that A.B. told her Vick had touched A.B. down her panties at his Lake County shop. Vick's challenge is not to the Lake County shop incident in its entirety, but to the mother's description of this (or some otherthe record is unclear) episode as having been down the panties. No objection was made at trial to this testimony or, for that matter, to the over-the-clothes testimony, and so it is not clear whether the trial court admitted it as other-crimes ( Spreigl ) evidence or as relationship evidence. The district court in its postconviction order referred to it as Spreigl evidence, and we will treat it that way as well. Vick did not object to C.G.'s testimony at trial. Failure to object to the admission of evidence generally constitutes waiver of the right to appeal on that basis. State v. Bauer, 598 N.W.2d 352, 363 (Minn.1999). However, an appellate court may consider a waived issue if there is (1) error, (2) that is plain, and (3) the error affects the defendant's substantial rights. State v. Griller, 583 N.W.2d 736, 740 (Minn.1998). To satisfy the third prong, a defendant bears a heavy burden of persuasion to show that the error was prejudicial and affected the outcome of the case. Id. at 741. If these three prongs are met, the court must then decide whether it should address the issue in order to ensure fairness and the integrity of the judicial proceedings. Id. at 740. Only after all these factors are satisfied may an appellate court exercise its discretion to correct an unobjected-to error. Id.; see Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 466-67, 117 S.Ct. 1544, 137 L.Ed.2d 718 (1997) (describing the plain error test, which the Minnesota Supreme Court adopted in Griller ). For the following reasons, we reverse the court of appeals' decision and hold that the trial court did not commit plain error. While Vick complains on appeal that C.G.'s testimony was admitted, the record does not demonstrate that the trial court was given any advance opportunity to consider the admissibility of C.G.'s testimony; the record reveals no pretrial motion or objection about the testimony and contains no transcript of an omnibus hearing. Accordingly, the question before us is not whether the trial court erred in admitting the testimony, because the court was not given the opportunity to make that decision. Instead, the precise question before us is whether the trial court's failure to sua sponte strike the testimony or to provide a cautionary instruction constituted plain error. The Spreigl notice was never made part of the record before the trial court, nor do the rules of criminal procedure require the notice to be made part of the record. Minn. R.Crim. P. 7.02. In the absence of an objection, then, we are hard pressed to see how the trial court could be attuned to whether C.G.'s testimony exceeded the scope of the Spreigl notice. Thus, there was no reason for the trial court to intercede sua sponte and, as a result, the trial court did not err in not striking C.G.'s testimony. Furthermore, while trial courts are advised, even absent a request, to give a cautionary instruction upon the receipt of other-crimes evidence, failure to do so is not ordinarily reversible error. State v. Frisinger, 484 N.W.2d 27, 31 (Minn.1992) (While the trial court clearly should have given the instructions sua sponte and while it is conceivable that a case may arise where the facts are such that a failure to give these instructions sua sponte may constitute plain error of a prejudicial nature requiring    a new trial, we find that a new trial is not required in this case.); see State v. Williams, 593 N.W.2d 227, 237 (Minn.1999) ([A]lthough the failure to give limiting instructions [in connection with the admission of relationship evidence] in certain circumstances may constitute plain error, we hold that it does not do so in this case.). In these circumstances, where C.G.'s testimony was an ambiguous description of what may or may not have been a separate Spreigl incident and where no objection was made to that testimony, any error resulting from the trial court's decision not to intercede was not plain. For this reason, we are not compelled to depart from the rule that a trial court's failure to sua sponte strike unnoticed Spreigl evidence or provide a cautionary instruction is not ordinarily plain error. Even if there was an error, though, Vick cannot satisfy his heavy burden under the third prong of the plain error test because he cannot show that the error was so prejudicial as to have affected the outcome of the case. As in State v. Williams , there are several factors here that reduce the likelihood that the testimony unfairly infected the trial. 593 N.W.2d at 237. The Lake County over-the-clothes testimony was properly introduced, without objection. In connection with that testimony, the court twice provided an appropriate cautionary Spreigl instruction: once before playing the First Witness tape and again during the jury charge. Additionally, the court provided a broader instruction: It is important that you understand that Mr. Vi[c]k is not being tried for and may not be convicted of an offense other than the offense that he's charged with here, which is an incident that is alleged to have occurred in December of 1997 in    Cook County. In fact, the trial court instructed the jury that Vick could not be convicted based on any occurrence in    Lake County on or about December of '97. Assuming, as we do, that the jury followed the court's instructions, the effect of this instruction was to prohibit the jury from convicting Vick based on any description of any alleged touching occurring in Lake County. See State v. Shoen, 578 N.W.2d 708, 718 (Minn.1998). Next, although C.G.'s testimony described the Lake County incident as occurring under the clothes, or at least down her panties, Vick did have notice of the state's intention to use other-crimes evidence against him. Because he could anticipate the state's impending other-crimes evidence, albeit in the form of over-the-clothes testimony, the potential for prejudice was minimized; the broader theme of the other-crimes evidence came as no surprise to Vick. See State v. Volstad, 287 N.W.2d 660, 662 (Minn.1980) (holding that the admission of unnoticed Spreigl evidence was not error, even though one of the prior crimes brought out at trial was not mentioned in the Spreigl notice, because: (1) the defendant did not specifically raise the issue at trial; (2) the incident was specifically mentioned in the complaint; and (3) the incident was part of a broader incident for which Spreigl evidence was provided); see also State v. Bolte, 530 N.W.2d at 198-99 (noting that wrongly-admitted Spreigl testimony did not affect the verdict and thus did not require a new trial when, among other things, other other-crime evidence was properly admitted). Moreover, Vick was on trial for under-the-clothes genital touching and the additional incident was not more inflammatory than the charged incident. In fact, Minn.Stat. § 609.343, subd. 1(a), can be violated by over or under the clothes touchingthe statute makes no distinction in degree between over- and under-the-clothes touching. Minn.Stat. § 609.341, subds. 5, 11(a), 11(a)(i), 11(a)(iv). In addition, both incidents were subject to identical impeachment because they involved the same child. The potential for prejudice was also reduced because the state did not rely on C.G.'s alleged Spreigl testimony during closing arguments. See Bolte, 530 N.W.2d at 198. Furthermore, when Vick's attorney cross-examined Chief Deputy Falk, Falk clarified that the child herself consistently described the incident at Vick's shop only as an over-the-clothes touching. This clarification minimized the potential prejudice that may have resulted from C.G.'s testimony. Finally, the alleged Spreigl testimony did not prejudice Vick's case given his theory of defense. See State v. Bauer, 598 N.W.2d 352, 364 (Minn.1999). In State v. Bauer , we held that the admission of an expert's testimony stating that he believed the defendant intended to kill the victim was not plain error, in part because the defendant's theory of defense was not affected by the admission. Id. at 363-64. Specifically, the defendant in Bauer never argued that the killing was unintentional, but rather argued that he was not the person who committed the murder. Id. Similarly, Vick never argued that he only touched A.B. over the clothes, nor would it matter given the statute under which he was convicted; [10] he argued that he never touched A.B. in a sexual manner. The dissent concludes that the trial court committed plain error because, among other things: there was no clear and convincing evidence that the event as C.G. described it ever occurred; C.G.'s alleged Spreigl testimony was not relevant or material to the case; and as the question here is a close one, the benefit of the doubt must be given to Vick. Had the trial court been given an advance opportunity to consider C.G.'s testimony and then had a chance to decide whether to admit or suppress it, the concerns raised by the dissent would have played a part in our analysis as well. However, neither the dissent nor the court of appeals identifies a basis in the record for the tacit conclusion that the trial court had reason to know that C.G.'s testimony went beyond the notice given to the defense. The defense had pretrial access to the tape of the conversation between Vick and C.G.at least we assume so because the discovery rules require it and there is no allegation of discovery failure. The tape contained the same statement C.G. made at the trial: down her panties. But discovery, like a Spreigl notice, goes to the parties, not to the court. And so we reiterate that the real question before us is not whether the trial court erred in admitting the evidence, but instead is whether the trial court's failure to sua sponte strike the testimony or provide a cautionary instruction was plain error. Approaching that question, we must keep in mind the general rule that, ordinarily, a trial court's failure to sua sponte strike or instruct is not reversible error. See, e.g., Williams, 593 N.W.2d at 237 (While a trial court should generally still provide [a limiting instruction] sua sponte to ensure that the [other-crimes] evidence is not used for an improper purpose, the failure to provide limiting instructions absent a request is not reversible error.). We must also bear in mind that, having failed to challenge this testimony at trial, Vick must show plain error and must satisfy the heavy burden of proving that the outcome of his case was affected by the trial court's failure to strike or provide an instruction. Griller, 583 N.W.2d at 741-42. We cannot agree that this one statement, whether it was a misstatement, unnoticed and unproven Spreigl evidence, or an accurate description of A.B.'s words to her mother, which was never again referred to by the state, affected the jury's decision to convict. See Johnson v. United States, 318 U.S. 189, 202, 63 S.Ct. 549, 87 L.Ed. 704 (1943) (Frankfurter, J., concurring) (In reviewing criminal cases, it is particularly important for appellate courts to re-live the whole trial imaginatively and not to extract from episodes in isolation abstract questions of evidence and procedure.). Because we hold that the trial court did not commit error, plain or otherwise, in failing to strike C.G.'s alleged Spreigl testimony or provide a separate cautionary instruction in connection with it, the court of appeals' decision is reversed.