Opinion ID: 2575997
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hearsay objection to Doreen Westbrook's testimony

Text: Defendant contends the trial court should not have overruled his hearsay objection to certain testimony by prosecution witness Doreen Westbrook. On direct examination, Westbrook testified without objection by the defense that she had lied to the police when she was first questioned in Colusa County a couple of days after her apprehension. In that interview, she said that a person named Billy Jinks had committed the murder. She explained she had lied because defendant had called her from the Colusa County jail and told her to say that Billy Jinks had taken her car and to lie to the police. On cross-examination, the defense sought to impeach Westbrook by, among other things, suggesting that her statements implicating defendant were the result of threats of prosecution, that she could not remember what she said when she made statements the night she was arrested because she was intoxicated on drugs at the time, and that her trial testimony was influenced by the immunity order. On redirect examination, the prosecution asked Westbrook to tell what she said to her friend Debbie Matthews and to Matthews's husband. When Westbrook started to say that she told them defendant had called her on the telephone, the defense objected on the ground of hearsay and the prosecution responded that the testimony was admissible as a prior consistent statement. The trial court overruled the objection. Westbrook then said she told Matthews and her husband that defendant had telephoned her and told her that she was to put it off on Billy Jinks, it would be better off for [her] health if [she] did. A prior consistent statement is admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule if it is offered after admission into evidence of an inconsistent statement used to attack the witness's credibility, and the consistent statement was made before the inconsistent statement; or when there is an express or implied charge that the witness's testimony was recently fabricated or influenced by bias or improper motive, and the statement was made before the fabrication, bias, or improper motive. (Evid.Code, งง 791, 1236.) Defendant contends the trial court erred in allowing Westbrook's testimony on redirect examination because the defense did not imply in cross-examining Westbrook that her testimony about the telephone call was fabricated. We disagree. As the Attorney General points out, Evidence Code section 791 permits the admission of a prior consistent statement when there is a charge that the testimony given is fabricated or biased, not just when a particular statement at trial is challenged. (E.g., People v. Andrews (1989) 49 Cal.3d 200, 210-211, 260 Cal.Rptr. 583, 776 P.2d 285; People v. Bunyard (1988) 45 Cal.3d 1189, 1208-1209, 249 Cal.Rptr. 71, 756 P.2d 795.) On cross-examination, defendant attacked Westbrook's credibility by suggesting that her testimony on direct examination implicating defendant was biased or fabricated because of threats of prosecution made by the police and the district attorney, because she was intoxicated, and because she was granted immunity. Accordingly, Westbrook's prior consistent statements were admissible to rehabilitate her and to support her credibility.