Opinion ID: 2411770
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: connie wilson's testimony

Text: Appellant states that his case hinged on Wilson's testimony that she was the driver. In his opening statement, appellant told the jury about Wilson's anticipated testimony. Appellant claims that the police and the Commonwealth, knowing the importance of Wilson's testimony to the defense, confronted Wilson and told her she could be prosecuted for perjury, and also murder because her own blood alcohol content was.10 at the time of the accident. The trial court then appointed counsel to confer with Wilson about whether she dared to testify, and Wilson then stated to the court her intention to invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify. Nevertheless, the trial court then permitted the Commonwealth to call Wilson to the stand. She refused on thirteen occasions to testify about any of the facts regarding the incident, but she did say she could not remember making any statements to the police the night of the collision. The Commonwealth then called two police officers on the pretext it was contradictory evidence as permitted under the Jett doctrine, Jett v. Commonwealth, Ky., 436 S.W.2d 788 (1969). They testified to alleged statements Wilson made to them that she was not the driver of the car. But the trial court did not allow the appellant to refute this evidence with Wilson's affidavit stating she was the driver. The Commonwealth argues that appellant was not prejudiced by Wilson being called to testify because the appellant was allowed to cross-examine her and try (unsuccessfully) to illicit information about the collision, and because her medical record wherein she stated that she drove the car had been introduced without objection. The Commonwealth also contends that the prior statements were properly admitted on the basis that she could not remember her statements to the officers on the night of the accident. See Wise v. Commonwealth, Ky. App., 600 S.W.2d 470 (1978). Commonwealth v. Brown, Ky., 619 S.W.2d 699 (1981) held that the Commonwealth should not be allowed to call a witness to the stand when it is aware the witness will assert the privilege against self-incrimination, because of the adverse inference implied from this refusal to testify. The Brown case also held that a witness who refuses to testify makes no statement which can be considered a foundation to then use a prior inconsistent statement under the Jett doctrine. Brown makes it clear that to admit the witness' prior statement in these circumstances violates the accused's Fifth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him. [A] person who justifiably claims a privilege against self-incrimination and thereby cannot be forced to testify is unavailable as a witness for the purpose of invoking Jett .  Brown, supra, 619 S.W.2d at 704. Accordingly, the Commonwealth in this case should not have been permitted to call Wilson to the stand and force her to take the Fifth in front of the jury. This error caused prejudice to appellant because he had previously informed the jury in his opening statement that Wilson would testify in his behalf, admitting she was the driver. The jury may well have inferred from her refusal to testify that she had recanted, and that to protect the appellant she was now refusing to testify. In fact, that is precisely what the Commonwealth suggested to the jury in its closing argument, stating that Wilson took the Fifth in order to assist appellant's case. Furthermore, neither of her two statements to the police were admissible under the Wise case. The witnesses in Wise responded to questions about the operative facts of the case with I don't remember. The court permitted the Commonwealth to introduce the witnesses' prior signed statements made from interviews with the police. The fact scenario in this case is significantly different. Here, Wilson made no claim she could not remember what happened, only that she could not remember talking to the police about it. She invoked her right not to testify about the facts of the case as in the Brown case. This was not the situation in Wise . The error in admitting these two statements was compounded when the trial court excluded Wilson's affidavit from the evidence. If Wilson had testified about the facts of the case and if she had pointed the finger at appellant as the offending driver, her affidavit would then be admissible to contradict her testimony. The affidavit was equally probative to contradict what the police officers said she said, once this had been erroneously admitted. Instead of directly accusing appellant, Wilson's accusation against appellant came in indirectly through the testimony of others about statements attributed to her. The trial court compounded the error in admitting hearsay accusations against appellant, by denying him use of the affidavit to refute it. We, therefore, conclude that reversible error occurred when Wilson was called to testify after she stated her intention to take the Fifth, when Wilson's two statements to the police were admitted into evidence even though she refused to testify, and when, after such evidence was admitted, Wilson's affidavit to the contrary was excluded.