Opinion ID: 669733
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The government's impeachment of its own witnesses

Text: 11 The prosecutor called Kyle Taylor and James Patterson as witnesses and impeached both of them with prior inconsistent statements. Federal Rule of Evidence 607 allows any party to attack the credibility of a witness, even its own witness. Nevertheless, the prosecution may not 12 call a witness that it [knows will] not give it useful evidence, just so it [can] introduce hearsay evidence against the defendant in the hope that the jury would miss the subtle distinction between impeachment and substantive evidence.... 13 United States v. Webster, 734 F.2d 1191, 1192 (7th Cir.1984). Defendant now contends that the government had such a bad faith purpose when it called Taylor and Patterson as witnesses. Specifically he claims that the government knew that neither witness would provide useful testimony and nonetheless called them, solely for the purposes of introducing their otherwise inadmissible prior inconsistent statements. The record does not support such a conclusion.
14 The government's decision to call James Patterson does not even hint at a bad faith purpose. By all accounts, prior to trial, James Patterson had stated unequivocally that the defendant possessed a gun during the incident in Comer Cox Park. At trial however, he changed his story and testified that the defendant did not have a gun. Consequently, the government introduced his prior inconsistent statements to impeach him. The government had ample reason to believe that Patterson would provide useful evidence. The defendant notes that just prior to trial Patterson purportedly told prosecutors that he was reluctant to testify against a family member (e.g. his cousin). From this the defendant asks us to conclude that the prosecutors knew Patterson would provide false testimony, or at least testimony that would differ from his previous statements. The government is not bound by such speculation when making the decision to call a witness. In fact, quite the opposite is true; an attorney is entitled to assume that a witness will testify truthfully. United States v. Carter, 973 F.2d 1509, 1513 (10th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1289, 122 L.Ed.2d 681 (1993). The prosecutor was entitled to assume Patterson would not change his story to protect family members when he was under oath in open court. Therefore the decision to call Patterson as a witness was well within the parameters of Rule 607 and lacked even a suggestion of bad faith.
15 Similarly, the decision to call Kyle Taylor as a witness did not reflect a bad faith purpose. Taylor was an eyewitness to the events at Comer Cox Park. In statements after the incident he had corroborated every element of Anita Witherspoon's testimony. Shortly prior to the trial, however, Taylor indicated to the prosecution that he had changed his story and would now testify that the defendant did not have a gun. Otherwise his testimony would be consistent with his previous statements. Knowing this the prosecutor nevertheless called Taylor to testify. He testified that: the defendant and James Patterson were present in the park; James Patterson approached Witherspoon's car and removed $80.00; Witherspoon grabbed a machete and went to recover her money; and James Patterson pointed a gun at her. All of this testimony was consistent with and helpful to the government's case. Therefore we cannot conclude that the prosecutor called Taylor knowing he would not provide useful evidence; she called him knowing that he would corroborate vast portions of Witherspoon's testimony. 16 Taylor did testify, as he indicated he would, that the defendant did not have a gun. This was admittedly not useful to the government's case. It does not, however, negate the usefulness of the other testimony Taylor provided. The most that we can say about Taylor as a witness is that he provided testimony that was both helpful and harmful at the same time. In such a case the prosecutor is allowed to call the witness and discredit the harmful testimony with prior inconsistent statements if possible. See United States v. Kane, 944 F.2d 1406, 1412 (7th Cir.1991) (When a government witness provides evidence both helpful and harmful to the prosecution, the government should not be forced to choose between the Scylla of foregoing impeachment and the Charybdis of not calling the witness at all.). 7 17
18 In addition to changing his story regarding whether the defendant had a gun, Taylor also changed his story regarding a bogus drug transaction. Shortly after the incident, Taylor and Patterson each gave statements in which they indicated that the incident was precipitated by a bogus drug transaction. According to the statements, Taylor had attempted to buy drugs from Patterson. Patterson delivered soap instead of drugs but collected $88.00 anyway. At trial Taylor testified that there was no attempted purchase of drugs. The prosecutor impeached him with his prior inconsistent statements. 19 Before trial the defendant filed a motion in limine to exclude any testimony about this drug transaction. The court denied that motion. He renews his objection now and contends that it was error to allow the impeachment evidence. He argues that this was a collateral matter and the court should not have allowed the government to introduce extrinsic evidence for impeachment purposes. 20 The existence of a bogus drug transaction clearly was not collateral to the main issues in the trial. An issue is collateral if it could not be introduced for any reason other than contradiction. United States v. Jarrett, 705 F.2d 198, 207 (7th Cir.1983). The defendant was indicted for possessing a firearm in connection with certain events arising on June 7, 1992. It is impossible to present adequate evidence concerning the possession of the firearm without describing the events immediately leading up to that possession. James Patterson testified that Kyle Taylor asked him if he had anything with which to get high, meaning a drug of some sort. He then delivered soap to Taylor and received roughly $80.00. Shortly after he delivered the soap and took the money, Anita Witherspoon approached the defendant's car brandishing a machete. At that time, both the defendant and his cousin threatened Witherspoon with guns. The evidence of the drug transaction is relevant to, and inextricably intertwined with, the threat with the machete and the counter threat with the guns. The drug transaction and the possession of the firearm thus are not separate unrelated events but integral parts of one single incident. Therefore it was not error to allow impeachment evidence on this point as that evidence could have been, and in fact was, admitted for a purpose other than contradiction. 8 21