Opinion ID: 1295082
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Tapes of Communications Center and Refreshing Dispatcher's Recollection

Text: The jury listened to the emergency communications center's tape recordings of radio messages which were dispatched to the rescue squad vehicles. This was an attempt by the defendants to establish notice to the rescue squad members of the danger of toxic gas. The defendants unsuccessfully sought to introduce into evidence a typed transcript of what was contained in that tape recording for the jurors to read as they listened to the tape. The defendants then attempted to have the persons who had dispatched the messages testify as to what they had said, referring to the tapes, if necessary, to refresh their recollection. In refusing to admit the typed transcript or testimony merely repeating what had been broadcast, the trial court correctly observed that the issue was what the rescue squad workers had heard in their vehicles, and not what was on a typed transcript of the broadcast, or what the dispatcher recalled had been transmitted. No evidence was introduced as to what could, or should, have been heard by each of the alleged recipients of the messages. In Arnold v. Commonwealth, 4 Va.App. 275, 277-81, 356 S.E.2d 847, 849-50 (1987), the Court of Appeals sustained a trial court in permitting a jury to review a typed transcript of a tape recording of a drug buy as the tape was being played to the jury. Permitting the use of a transcript to help jurors understand what was being said on the tapes was held to be a matter of discretion for the trial court. In that case, however, the issue was not what was heard, as in this case, but what was said. In two earlier cases, we said the refusal to admit repetitious testimony, Mawyer v. Thomas, 199 Va. 897, 902, 103 S.E.2d 217, 221 (1958), and corroborative evidence, Stimeling v. Goodman, 202 Va. 111, 115-16, 115 S.E.2d 923, 926-27 (1960), was within the discretion of the trial court. We find no abuse of that discretion in the trial court's refusal to admit either the transcripts of the tapes or oral evidence of what was recorded on the tapes.