Opinion ID: 2509294
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Improper Impeachment of Victoria Eckstone

Text: Defendant's witness Victoria Eckstone testified that she believed defendant was the father of her child and she wanted her child to continue to have a relationship with defendant even if he was incarcerated. In rebuttal, a Burbank police detective, Kevin Krafft, testified that Eckstone had told him the father of her child was William Boorstin, whom she described as her common law husband of 10 years. Detective Krafft also testified he had obtained a birth certificate for the child listing Boorstin as the father. Additionally, Deputy Sheriff Brent Rollins testified that Eckstone told him defendant was the father of her child but that the name of the father's child was not on the birth certificate, and that the child would never see her father again. Defendant argues the testimony of Detective Krafft and Deputy Sheriff Rollins should have been excluded under Evidence Code section 352 because it was more prejudicial than probative and could have confused the jury and resulted in an undue consumption of time. Defendant also argues that, even if Detective Krafft's testimony was proper impeachment because it was inconsistent with Eckstone's testimony, Deputy Sheriff Rollins's testimony was not. Finally, he argued that the trial court erred in denying his request to order a blood test to determine the child's paternity. The underlying issue presented to the trial court was Eckstone's credibility, not the actual paternity of her child. Thus, the fact that she told Detective Krafft another man was the father of her child and put his name on the birth certificate was not only inconsistent with her testimony that she believed defendant was the child's father, but even more deeply inconsistent with her assertion that a parental bond existed between defendant and her child that she wished to maintain and perpetuate. Similarly, her statement to Deputy Sheriff Rollins that defendant would never see the child also undercut this testimony. Thus, their testimony was proper impeachment testimony. ( People v. Price (1991) 1 Cal.4th 324, 474, 3 Cal.Rptr.2d 106, 821 P.2d 610; Evid.Code, § 780, subds. (g), (h).) Nor did the trial court abuse its discretion in concluding the evidence was more probative than prejudicial. In light of the relatively brief testimony of Detective Krafft and Deputy Sheriff Rollins, defendant's concern that the evidence would have led to a minitrial on the issue of Eckstone's credibility, causing an undue consumption of time or confusion of the issues, obviously did not materialize. Finally, because the actual paternity of the child was not at issue, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's request for a paternity test. [39]