Opinion ID: 307845
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Exclusion of a Statement Claimed to Have Been Made by

Text: 41 Tompkins. 42 As part of the defense, Paul Malinowsky, a Johnstown City Councilman, testified. Part of his testimony would have been that the mayor had said several weeks earlier, I'll tell you one thing, if I am going to go down, everybody is going to go down with me. Judge Motley excluded that statement as an attempt to impeach a witness through collateral matters. 43 Kahn, citing cases that hold that bias is never a collateral matter, e. g., United States v. Haggett, 438 F.2d 396 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 946, 91 S.Ct. 1638, 29 L.Ed.2d 115 (1971), claims that the statement exposed Tompkins as vindictive, and showed his clear motive to lie on the stand. But, at least on its face, the excluded statement is not convincing evidence of bias. The more likely reading of the words, as the government suggests, is simply that Tompkins, once exposed, was going to make a full disclosure and make sure that his coconspirators did not escape their just deserts. Given the ambiguous nature of the proffered statement, its exclusion was not error. 44 Moreover, we note that Tompkins was never confronted with the statement on cross-examination. Professor Wigmore has suggested that the same reasons of fairness that require that a witness be given an opportunity to explain away a prior inconsistent statement also apply when the utterance is claimed to show bias, Wigmore, Evidence Sec. 953 (Chadbourne rev. 1970), and a number of courts have agreed. Smith v. United States, 283 F.2d 16, 20-21 (6th Cir. 1960), cert. denied, 365 U.S. 847, 81 S.Ct. 808, 5 L.Ed.2d 811; United States v. White, 225 F.Supp. 514, 519-521 (D.D.C.1963), rev'd on other grounds, 121 U.S.App.D.C. 287, 349 F.2d 965 (1965). We noted our approval of this rule in United States v. Hayutin, 398 F.2d 944, 953 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 961, 89 S.Ct. 400, 21 L.Ed.2d 374 (1968), and we reiterate that approval today. While we hold that exclusion of the statement under any event was not reversible error, the proper course should have been to confront Tompkins with it on cross-examination, to allow him to explain or deny it. Such a procedure is especially desirable in a case like this, where the utterance is ambiguous on its face, and where confrontation may aid in interpretation. 45 E. Judge Motley's Refusal to Give an Advisory Ruling On the 46 Scope of the Government's Cross-examination of 47 Kahn. 48 Prior to the beginning of the trial, the government indicated that it hoped to offer evidence with respect to a payment of $50,000 in 1968 by Teleprompter to city officials in Trenton, New Jersey. Judge Motley ruled that the prejudicial effect of such evidence would outweigh its probative value, and she excluded it. She refused, however, to give an advance ruling about whether this evidence could be used in cross-examination if Kahn took the stand, saying that in some cases it might be proper. 49 Kahn never took the stand. He now claims that Judge Motley's refusal to rule out cross-examination on the point was error, and that it was this ruling that prevented him from testifying in his own defense. 50 While we have made it clear that a trial judge has the power to give an advance ruling on the permissible scope of cross-examination, United States v. Palumbo, 401 F.2d 270 (2d Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 947, 89 S.Ct. 1281, 22 L.Ed.2d 480 (1969), it is also clear that such highly discretionary adjudications will not be reversed unless the wisdom of so doing is very clear. Id. at 274; Brooke v. United States, 128 U.S.App.D.C. 19, 385 F.2d 279, 286 (1967). We have explicitly refused to turn the Palumbo rule of discretion into one of compulsion, and have indeed emphasized that the trial court's power to limit cross-examination is often best exercised after hearing the direct testimony of the witnesses. United States v. Evanchik, 413 F.2d 950, 953 (2d Cir. 1969); United States v. Crisona, 416 F.2d 107, 117 (2d Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 961, 90 S.Ct. 991, 25 L.Ed.2d 253 (1970); United States v. Cacchillo, 416 F.2d 231, 234 (2d Cir. 1969). Judge Motley's actions here clearly fall far short of constituting an abuse of discretion.