Opinion ID: 1483621
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Trial Court Properly Limited the Impeachment of Moore to His Prior Conviction and Properly Declined to Consider Appellant's Prior Bad Acts

Text: Appellant alleges two errors regarding the admission of prior bad acts: (1) that the trial court improperly allowed testimony regarding her prior bad acts, and (2) that the trial court should have allowed cross-examination on the details of Moore's prior conviction. With respect to appellant's first argument, appellant ignores the fact that the court sua sponte prevented testimony regarding appellant's prior bad acts and explicitly declined to consider any other crimes evidence. Accordingly, we find no error. We also hold that the trial court did not err in preventing the elicitation of testimony regarding the details of Moore's prior CPWL conviction. While a witness's credibility may be attacked with a criminal conviction involving dishonesty or false statement, [5] impeachment is essentially limited to the fact of the conviction. [6] The trial judge has the discretion to limit the scope of cross-examination, and he did not abuse that discretion in the limitations he imposed here. Crutchfield v. United States, 779 A.2d 307, 316 (D.C.2001) (citing Flores v. United States, 698 A.2d 474, 479 (D.C.1997)).