Opinion ID: 1399120
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Pam Lester's Conversation With Ted

Text: (37) Defendant claims error in trial court rulings that sustained hearsay and relevancy objections to questions aimed at eliciting the out-of-court statements of a man who claimed to have seen Dowdy after the latter's disappearance. Asked Did you ever hear from anyone that they had seen Mr. Dowdy?, Pam Lester responded in the affirmative. She testified that about two weeks after Dowdy was last seen, a man calling himself Ted visited her. She described Ted, whom she had never before seen, in some detail, and stated she gave this information to a detective. When defense counsel asked Lester what exactly Ted told her, the trial court sustained the prosecutor's hearsay objection. Defendant does not deny that defense counsel's question called for hearsay, but contends he is entitled to a relaxation of the rules of evidence. We disagree. The proffered testimony lacks indicia of reliability sufficient to compel its admission under the authority of Green v. Georgia (1979) 442 U.S. 95 [60 L.Ed.2d 738, 99 S.Ct. 2150], especially in the absence of any showing as to Ted's identity or relationship to Dowdy. Consequently, we find no error, constitutional or otherwise, in the trial court's ruling. In any event, on cross-examination Lester stated she had met a man who claimed to have seen Dowdy after his disappearance and that she had so informed a detective. Defense counsel thus succeeded in suggesting to the jury that, contrary to the prosecution's theory, Dowdy was still alive.