Opinion ID: 1788754
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Even Worse

Text: Even more egregious was the following testimony elicited from Brown: Q. Did you have an opportunity to discuss with Linda Jackson how the accident occurred? After objection had been overruled: Q. What did she tell you? A. That her rear left tire came off. The axle broke, in other words. (Emphasis added.) Vol. XVIII, 662. The self-serving declaration of Jackson as to how the accident occurred was incompetent. Swaggart v. Haney . No attempt was made to qualify it as an excited utterance under Rule 803(2) M.R.E. Evans v. State, 547 So.2d 38, 41 (Miss. 1989). Brown's tacked-on gratuitous opinion as to what she meant by her statement was gross error. Even if Brown's hearsay statement as to what Jackson told him had been competent evidence, there was absolutely no evidentiary authority for him to add one single word to the actual words he recalled her saying. Yet he proceeded to gratuitously embellish her statement on the very crux of this lawsuit by giving the jury his interpretation of what she meant. Can anyone believe this actually happened in a court, all with complete impunity? One would think this would have been enough for plaintiffs' counsel, but they were not through. In closing argument, after accurately quoting from the record as to other parts of Brown's testimony, here is what counsel told the jury Brown had testified: He said, In other words, she said the axle broke.... She said, The axle broke. She didn't say, I ran off the road and lost control. I don't know what happened. I can't believe I have done this. I can't believe I have done this to myself and my baby. She said, The axle broke. Vol. XXIV, 1993. Jackson said no such thing. Here we have a highway patrolman adding to a simple hearsay statement something not said at all by the declarant which went to the very heart of the case. Even that was not enough for plaintiffs' counsel. In closing argument counsel brazenly misquoted and misrepresented Brown's testimony by telling the jury Jackson had actually told him there at the scene that the axle broke! In courts of this State are witnesses to be permitted to gratuitously add to clear and simple hearsay statements what they think the declarant might have meant? Meanings that go to the very heart of a case? And are counsel to be permitted to brazenly misquote testimony? [5]